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The mention of Blockbuster/Netflix reminds me of a series of articles that was posted on HN about a decade ago, but I can't find now. The thesis was that the d
by aidenn0 2y ago
The mention of Blockbuster/Netflix reminds me of a series of articles that was posted on HN about a decade ago, but I can't find now. The thesis was that the demise of Blockbuster was overdetermined, and it was floundering long before Netflix got any degree of popularity.
- fellowniusmonk 2y agoAlso, if you know the inside ball on Netflix/Blockbuster then you've heard that blockbuster did massively fund a break into digital and streaming at a time that conceptually wasn't "too late" but Netflix was way ahead of them on classification systems and predicting lifetime customer ROI. Netflix had cutting edge marketing automation teams that sabotaged every single dollar and every sales initiative by dumping low and _negative_ value consumers (dorm IP addresses, etc.) onto every single loss leader marketing initiative Blockbuster launched. They had "independent" free signup marketing flows for "free stuff" etc, and if they identified good clients they would be sent to Netflix, predicted "bad customers" they would actively send to blockbuster. Netflix's "counter marketing" team was extremely successful. Indeed is a good example of a company that has had similar expertise in their org as well. Oddly enough the short hand lesson people learn about blockbuster is both true and a slight of hand.