Netflix Abandons Qwikster, Will Continue Sending DVDs by Mail
by Andrew Cunningham on October 10, 2011 8:30 AM ESTIn a terse blog post this morning, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that Netflix no longer planned to split its streaming and DVD-by-mail businesses into two companies with two distinct web sites, citing that such a move would make things "more difficult" for consumers.
This ends the drama that began last month, when a much longer and occasionally apologetic blog post announced that Netflix would be splitting into two companies: the first, still dubbed Netflix, would handle the on-demand streaming, while a new company, Qwikster, would now handle the mailing of DVDs. Consumers, already smarting from recent price hikes, objected to the idea of having two entirely separate accounts, sites, and queues to manage where there had previously been one, and condemnation of the move was near-universal.
As such, the company is staying as it is for now, and the Qwikster URL now redirects to the Netflix homepage. Hastings also claims that Netflix is now "done with price changes," though he made no mention of the Gamefly-style video games-by-mail service that was to launch with Qwikster.
Source: Netflix
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
15 Comments
View All Comments
Wiremaster - Monday, October 10, 2011 - link
Since when does Netflix have DVDs? I'm so confused...Seriously, though. I didn't care when they split; I don't care that they're un-splitting.
mikemcc - Monday, October 10, 2011 - link
I don't care about the company splitting or not splitting. What I do know is that I was perfectly happy with Netflix as it used to be. Then they announced their price changes and, while that didn't particularly pi** me off, it made me comparison shop. I mean, why pay more for something than I have to? I already have access to Blockbuster's on demand video on my Samsung TV and I don't even have to pay a monthly fee. I hardly ever rented physical DVDs anyway, so I signed up for the free 30 day BB trial. I like what I have experienced so it's time to cut Netflix loose. And the silly thing, for Netflix, is that I never would have even looked at BB had they not raised their prices. And judging from what I've seen in some of the forums I visit, I'm *far* from an isolated case. Well, who knows, maybe they wanted to clear out their subscriber base and they'll end up earning the same amount with higher prices to far fewer customers.stephenbrooks - Wednesday, October 12, 2011 - link
I thought the strongest customer objection to Qwikster was that the name was too dumb for words.jessefranklin - Thursday, May 26, 2022 - link
I love Netflix so muchjessefranklin - Thursday, May 26, 2022 - link
Netflix is the application that I regularly use to watch movies. I downloaded Netflix at: https://modcombo.com/id/netflix.html , there are a lot of good movies at Netflix.