Salon on The Netflix vs. Blockbuster Battle

Farhad Manjoo from Salon spent some time evaluating Netflix and Blockbuster, and writes about his observations in Why Blockbuster is Gaining on Netflix.

Netflix spokesperson Steve Swasey, on exporting reviews and ratings from Netflix:

The data that people put into Netflix is "proprietary" information, he says; though each customer controls his individual ratings, every rating is used to fuel Netflix's recommendations engine, and that engine is a competitive advantage for Netflix. Trying to pull out your ratings after you've enjoyed the recommendations "is like asking for your money back from Disneyland after you've enjoyed the rides," Swasey told me. (Blockbuster also does not offer a way to export your queue and ratings to other services.)

I'm misquoted in the story, but it could be because I talk fast during interviews. The story says I waited 3 months for Lost in Translation from Blockbuster, but in 2004 I waited 3 months for the movie to arrive from Netflix.

Dave Winer (also quoted in the story) has written a followup to the story, where he says that he does all of his interviews by e-mail so he isn't misquoted. Arrgghh. It looks like I misquoted Dave Winer (the story quoted a blog post from Dave Winer, not an e-mail interview). I'm still considering doing interviews by e-mail, so I'm not misquoted and have a record of the exchange.

Comments

[camas22]

this article has no new facts and its composed almost entirely of cliches.

[corey3rd]

my article about why I quit Blockbuster is going up next week since right now I'm battling them over the fact that they killed my account 9 days before it was supposed to expire.

[Edward R Murrow]

So if either BBO or NFLX had an interface to the IMDB MyMovies page for movie ratings, then problem solved.

[Steve]

Corey,

If it makes you feel any better, my account "expires" Sept 5th. Last Friday, I rolled over to the new "PARTIAL" Access plan (same 3 disc price with reduced 5 instore DVDs/month). So I turned in my 3 mailers Saturday. This evening (Wednesday), BB graciously (cough cough) sends ONE movie out of my queue of 200 movies - which I will receive Friday.

So it looks like I'll have the one mailer movie that I can exchange for 1 instore for the entire Labor Day weekend. How nice.

If this continues through next week, I will stop service and give NetFlix - I haven't set foot in Family Video but I hear they have a nice selection at my neighborhood store.

[paving]

So as usual Salon is behind the times. Did they not catch the whole "Blockbuster Total Access was a pump and dump" thing?

[corey3rd]

I'm feeling good that I've broken with Blockbuster at this point. Even if I chose a plan, sounds like they would have shafted me this month. Back to NF for a while.

[Old Timer Too]

Pump and Dump? Its more than that, in my opinion. I was told the reason they are dropping 4 at-a-time is because there wasn't enough interest.

Articles like this one are decidedly late with the real news and yeah, pump and dump is only part of it. Managers with attitudes, yelling at customers, swearing at them, ignoring reasonable requests for plans, turning their back on previously loyal customers...

Before about the middle of the month, Blockbuster was in the process of making mince-meat of Netflix's customer base. In one very stupid and fell swoop, they've cut their own throat.

I haven't selected any replacement plan (like I want a 25% cut in service) and probably won't unless they throw up some 4 at-a-time plans before they stop shipping discs. I haven't told them 'I quit' but I've sure written enough letters and e-mails. The last batch I requested go directly to their marketing folks. That was last weekend and I haven't heard one peep from them.

I think I'm going to be joining corey3rd and a few others shortly, in the previous Blockbuster customer group.

I have yet to see any real reason to move back to Netflix, so I'll just go into a lurk mode for a while. Magic dates for that to happen are the 10th and 14th of September. Even though my accounts have gone into a "re-subscribe" mode, they are still shipping discs.

[leonardodicrapio]

I have had Rome Season Two: Disc 1 since I used a free exchange on the release date (August 7th). Sure it is going to cost me a total of $1.25 after I return it next week, but how much money is Blockbuster losing on potential rentals? I'm not even a Blockbuster Online customer anymore (cancelled last Friday, August 17th). I just got around to watching Episode 1 last night.

[paving]

The only reason they were able to make "mince meat" of Netflix's customer growth was because they were running a very expensive and unsustainable operation. As soon as the stock price went up and they were able to announce their huge growth the major players at Blockbuster dumped their stock and changed the scheme.

It's rather transparent and surprisingly brazen.

[Pollardito]

what an awful analogy for keeping your own ratings. how about "it's like Disney wiping out your memory of how much you enjoyed the rides as you walked out the gates to go home", that's closer to what's really going on. my ratings of a movie aren't derived from their recommendation system, they're the fuel for their recommendation system and they're created by me.

[Edward R Murrow]

"I have had Rome Season Two: Disc 1 since I used a free exchange on the release date (August 7th)."

I bet your neighbors stopped loaning you stuff a long time ago.

[FrankLev]

Seems to me Blockbuster did to Netflix what Netflix had done to blockbuster,
So if you are going toe say Blockbuster ran a "ump and Dump", then so has Netflix and so does every competitive business!

I used to spend about $35 a month at blockbuster. I was an early adopter to Netflix. When Netflix got enough customers they cut back benefits: a) I started getting no now releases, b) later and later claimed receipt of my returns and c) later and later mailing of disks.

We all know now netflix made a calculation, defined a group of less profitable customers, and started surepticiously denying service. People noticed it and they denied., Slashdot documented it and they said no such thing, then a year later it turned out hey were lying.

In my mind that is much worse than blockbuster, which informed the less and no profit customers of their new policy.

[leonardodicrapio]

"I bet your neighbors stopped loaning you stuff a long time ago."

You gotta be kidding me, Ed. I essentially have a contract with Blockbuster. I "own" the movie now and if I get it back to the store within 30 days, I get the approximately $20 charge back except for a $1.25 restocking fee. I got hit with enough $5 late fees in the day that I will take a buck-and-a-quarter fee for as long as I damn well please. I haven't watched Episode 2 yet -- when I do this week I will return the DVD.

[Im Not A Turnip]

Show me a reporter and I'll show you someone who would screw up your order even after THEY asked, "Would you like fries with that?"

I know people who are interviewed on a regular basis. I'd bet - at best - less than 1% would say the following article was accurate.

Typically reporters don't even have the ability to eat dirt or process oxygen with any semblance of accuracy.