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YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Netflix Ditches Qwikster Following Negative Customer Feedback

    By Jake Emen | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Mon, Oct 10, 2011
    This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.
    Do you have a story to tell? Become a Yahoo! contributor

    COMMENTARY | Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has quickly backtracked the company's plans, and has announced the instant streaming and DVD rental services will remain under one account, and both will be accessed from Netflix.com. This undoes the previous decree that the two services would be separated, with DVD rental moving to a new destination, Qwikster, which would be located on its own website, Qwikster.com.

    As I previously discussed, the Qwikster service seemed doom from its inception. Not only did the name feel like a forced attempt at other trendy Web 2.0 companies -- Twitter, Flickr, Friendster, etc -- but the separation of the services didn't quite seem to make sense.

    In addition, Netflix was taking its core product, DVD renting by mail, and basically ousting it from the company and rehashing it as a secondary product behind its online streaming. Customers who wanted to use both, and many do, would need to use them separately, adding an extra layer of unnecessary complexity.

    When Hastings announced Qwikster, he also was apologizing for previous price changes that caught consumers by surprise. The Qwikster announcement though left a bad taste in many people's mouths, and ultimately led to another hasty apology from Hastings.

    "There is a difference between moving quickly -- which Netflix has done very well for years -- and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case," Hastings said in his official statement.

    On the one hand, Hastings and Netflix should be applauded for responding to feedback from their customers and taking action. Clearly, they had big plans for Qwikster, but the customers spoke, and so they canned the concept. That's a good thing.

    On the other hand, one has to wonder where the idea came from and how the company's brass failed to conceptualize a negative response to it. The whole sage must also leave customers and investors somewhat wary about the future of Netflix -- what's the company going to do next, what's the big change they will be planning, how will they continue to evolve, and will they be forced to continue sending out CEO-sponsored public apologies?

    Goodbye Qwikster, you were not long for this world.

    Jake Emen is a freelance writer based in Bethesda, Md., with experience writing for a number of online publications. He is also the owner of the boxing news website ProBoxing-Fans.com.

    What do you think?

    Are you happy with Netflix?

    No, too many changes Yes, a great service
    72%

    25,787 people have answered this question.

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