arithmetic

Johnson leaving is also a lesson that cut-and-paste strategy (applying what worked at Apple as-is to JC Penny without considering the differences between the two target customer bases - like the 'no sale' strategy) almost never works.

If you had to pick between DVD and streaming service, and make one of them phenomenally better than what it is now, which one would you pick? DVD, because everyone knows and loves it? Or streaming, because it's growing rapidly? You get to pick one.

With the split, Netflix gets to focus entirely on streaming - make it better for the customer. Which means, more (and better) content, faster and better streaming service, Netflix on more devices, providing Netflix outside US and Canada etc.

And Qwikster gets to focus entirely on DVD service - which means expanding the DVD catalog, getting video game rentals for Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360.

As a customer, you get a much better Netflix and/or Qwikster experience. As a Netflix employee, I get to focus entirely on making streaming better, faster, available on more devices, and in more regions than we have today, without having to worry about compatibility with the DVD service.

Netflix employee here.

I've been reading all the comments here and at Reed's blog to understand what everyone has to say about the split. Internally, we've known about the split for some time now.

Why do you think this is a terrible move? Your comment has a lot of unflattering comparisons, but doesn't explain why the move is stupid.

Also, you're probably right that DVD as a service will not last forever, and Reed understands that too (he mentions this in the post as well - http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-reflect...). DVD service may not last very long, but right now, it is a growing business.

Disclaimer: Netflix employee here

The main reason for the split is the realization that streaming service and DVD service are two completely different businesses that need to grow in completely different ways. For example, in case of streaming service, we've just expanded to Latin America and the Caribbean (to 43 new countries). In case of the DVD service, we're adding a new video games catalog.

DVD service is still growing - it probably won't grow at the same rate for very long, but right now, it's growing. Streaming, on the other hand, is growing at a phenomenal rate. Therefore it makes sense to not hold up the growth of one service for the other to catch up.

In the time (about 6 months) I've been at Netflix, the one thing I'll have to call out is the absolute, undeterred focus that the company has. Simply put, Netflix fundamentally believes that it's best to do one thing really, really, really well, than to do many things reasonably well.

Splitting the streaming and DVD service isn't so much due to lack of ability to design the website to suit both options, but really as an indication that they are turning out to be different businesses altogether.

Comments have been pouring in for the last couple of hours on the Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/jonathanscard

Actually the other comment from b0b0b0b is pretty accurate - Netflix tries to gracefully degrade functionality when 'stuff goes down', so that people can still get the basic streaming service. Netflix also uses Chaos Monkey (http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/12/chaos-monkey-how-n...)

P.S. I work there.

Thanks! let us know if you have any feedback ([email protected])

You made my day when you said you liked the filters :) We put in a lot of effort to make sure the filters made the photos look pretty.

And I'm "the wife" ;-) Follow the app on twitter @bubblegumapp

As a side note, if you're learning Clojure and you're interested in statistical computing, you might want to look at Incanter as well (http://incanter.org/ and https://github.com/liebke/incanter).

When I read the article, I was a bit suprised by how he almost seemed proud of his tactics to rip people off and later bully them. Particularly, the part where he said "I’ve exploited this opportunity because it works. No matter where they post their negative comments, it helps my return on investment. So I decided, why not use that negativity to my advantage?"

This guy should be the dumbest criminal in modern times. He understood how powerful the internet was, and then decided to ignore it.

I still don't get it. Why can't I drink a full can of Red Bull? The article doesn't say anything about drinking a full can versus a part of the contents.