6 ms·

Don't confuse it with Quickster, QuickStar, Quik-Star, Kwik Star, or Kwikster.

55 points by technologizer 15y ago

hollerith 15y ago
I am tempted to think that maybe the DVD business should have been called Mailflix or Flix by Mail or Next-day Flix.
- robert_nsu 15y ago
  I agree. I said the same thing to a friend last night.
  - typicalrunt 15y ago
    Or even Quickflix. Succinct and to the point.
- phoboslab 15y ago
  I have the feeling that they're trying to separate both companies completely in the long run. The DVD by mail business is ultimately doomed. Why use DVD by mail services when you can directly stream movies? Granted, Qwikster will still stay around for a while, but I have no doubt that it will slowly die, just like Blockbuster right now.
  - aculver 15y ago
    The answer to your last question is the same one Jeff sent to all of us customers in his email yesterday. At the moment, there are a lot of titles only available on DVD. However, we still opted to drop DVD in exchange for streaming since our local 7-Eleven fills in the 'new release' gap for $1-per-movie with Redbox.
  - Jun8 15y ago
    Maybe not as soon as you think. Studios keep a tight control over which movies can get digitized, some will not release some of their old movies to streaming. Blockbuster dies rather quickly mostly because of Netflix. So, in order to predict DVD by mail business dying you have to show the alternative. Streaming currently is by no means a match. One could see Redbox putting more advanced kiosks with more selections (there was talk about kiosks with thousands of titles that would burn the DVD while you shopped) which might be threat.
    - hollerith 15y ago
      To start burning DVDs while the customer waits probably puts Redbox in the same difficult negotiating position with the content owners that streaming movies does.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
- nhangen 15y ago
  It's the first one mentioned.
perezda 15y ago
took me 3 tries to find their website. also funny that they chose that name... given that streaming is a hell of a lot qwicker than mail.
ryan42 15y ago
Don't forget Quixtar!
- artmageddon 15y ago
  Must we remember them? :) Any time I've heard about them(outside of friends who were suckered into their schemes try loop me in as well) it's all been through sites that have complained about how bad they suck. I'm surprised they're still around.
Roboprog 15y ago
Trickster?!?
0x12 15y ago
snailflix.com is still free...
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
uptown 15y ago
So they don't own @Quikster .... and they don't own quickster.com (the likely typo that their users are going to make). Even if you accept their premise that it's the right move from a business standpoint, they're dropping the ball on ensuring their customers don't get lost in the transition.
- kristofferR 15y ago
  It has already happened. Big sites like SFGate.com and SeattlePi.com made the mistake of calling it Quickster in their story about the split: http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2011/09/19/netflix-ceo-i-messed-up-introduces-dvd-spinoff-called-quickster/?gta=commentlistpos http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2011/09/19/netflix-ceo-i-me...
- shakes 15y ago
  Even worse to me, they don't own @Qwikster and looking at the timeline of the person who has it now is just... scary. This seems like an all around PR nightmare. Regardless of whether or not the name is terrible, why wouldn't they shore up their name on major social media players before making the announcement? Were they worried if they did this word may leak?
  - uptown 15y ago
    This is a perfect example of how much this will confuse customers. I'd meant to type @Qwikster in my post, but got their new name wrong.
cjdavis 15y ago
Netflix is well known for its amazing delivery system, and this new name emphasizes that - not what product is being delivered at all. I think Qwikster will be expanding into shipment of all sorts of non DVD movie type things. They are already going to be doing video games. That said, yes Qwikster sounds stupid. But the same could be said for such words as Google, iPad, etc.
socratic 15y ago
Is this what extremely good organic SEO looks like? Most of the other names are not really used on the Internet at all. Now, when anyone fails to spell qwikster, they're going to find this article. It seems like they rank for every misspelled query now. (Google may start spell correcting to qwikster, though for the moment they seem to spell correct to quickstar when they do.) Are there other variants of this technique?

55 points by technologizer 15y ago

hollerith 15y ago

I am tempted to think that maybe the DVD business should have been called Mailflix or Flix by Mail or Next-day Flix.

robert_nsu 15y ago
I agree. I said the same thing to a friend last night.
- typicalrunt 15y ago
  Or even Quickflix. Succinct and to the point.
phoboslab 15y ago
I have the feeling that they're trying to separate both companies completely in the long run. The DVD by mail business is ultimately doomed. Why use DVD by mail services when you can directly stream movies? Granted, Qwikster will still stay around for a while, but I have no doubt that it will slowly die, just like Blockbuster right now.
- aculver 15y ago
  The answer to your last question is the same one Jeff sent to all of us customers in his email yesterday. At the moment, there are a lot of titles only available on DVD. However, we still opted to drop DVD in exchange for streaming since our local 7-Eleven fills in the 'new release' gap for $1-per-movie with Redbox.
- Jun8 15y ago
  Maybe not as soon as you think. Studios keep a tight control over which movies can get digitized, some will not release some of their old movies to streaming. Blockbuster dies rather quickly mostly because of Netflix. So, in order to predict DVD by mail business dying you have to show the alternative. Streaming currently is by no means a match. One could see Redbox putting more advanced kiosks with more selections (there was talk about kiosks with thousands of titles that would burn the DVD while you shopped) which might be threat.
  - hollerith 15y ago
    To start burning DVDs while the customer waits probably puts Redbox in the same difficult negotiating position with the content owners that streaming movies does.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

nhangen 15y ago
It's the first one mentioned.

perezda 15y ago

took me 3 tries to find their website. also funny that they chose that name... given that streaming is a hell of a lot qwicker than mail.

ryan42 15y ago

Don't forget Quixtar!

artmageddon 15y ago
Must we remember them? :) Any time I've heard about them(outside of friends who were suckered into their schemes try loop me in as well) it's all been through sites that have complained about how bad they suck. I'm surprised they're still around.

Roboprog 15y ago

Trickster?!?

0x12 15y ago

snailflix.com is still free...

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

uptown 15y ago

So they don't own @Quikster .... and they don't own quickster.com (the likely typo that their users are going to make). Even if you accept their premise that it's the right move from a business standpoint, they're dropping the ball on ensuring their customers don't get lost in the transition.

kristofferR 15y ago
It has already happened. Big sites like SFGate.com and SeattlePi.com made the mistake of calling it Quickster in their story about the split: http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2011/09/19/netflix-ceo-i-messed-up-introduces-dvd-spinoff-called-quickster/?gta=commentlistpos http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2011/09/19/netflix-ceo-i-me...
shakes 15y ago
Even worse to me, they don't own @Qwikster and looking at the timeline of the person who has it now is just... scary. This seems like an all around PR nightmare. Regardless of whether or not the name is terrible, why wouldn't they shore up their name on major social media players before making the announcement? Were they worried if they did this word may leak?
- uptown 15y ago
  This is a perfect example of how much this will confuse customers. I'd meant to type @Qwikster in my post, but got their new name wrong.

cjdavis 15y ago

Netflix is well known for its amazing delivery system, and this new name emphasizes that - not what product is being delivered at all. I think Qwikster will be expanding into shipment of all sorts of non DVD movie type things. They are already going to be doing video games. That said, yes Qwikster sounds stupid. But the same could be said for such words as Google, iPad, etc.

socratic 15y ago

Is this what extremely good organic SEO looks like? Most of the other names are not really used on the Internet at all. Now, when anyone fails to spell qwikster, they're going to find this article. It seems like they rank for every misspelled query now. (Google may start spell correcting to qwikster, though for the moment they seem to spell correct to quickstar when they do.) Are there other variants of this technique?