Dear Reed, Honestly, we were a little surprised to read your blog entry Monday. We know how you've felt about us for a while now. You keep talking about your hot young streaming business. But we didn't think you'd shun us quite so publicly. We had no idea you'd lock us up in a separate company with a tacky name. I mean really, Reed: Qwikster? Is that what we deserve, after all we've been through together?
[More from Mashable: Qwikster From Netflix: The Worst Product Launch Since New Coke? [OPINION]]
We're no fools, Reed: We know you put us there so you could either sell us or let us wither away in a hermetically sealed spin-off that couldn't tarnish your main business. And nor are we sentimental (okay, quite a few million of us are pretty sentimental movies). We can't lie. We have eyes. Streaming looks good. At its best, it's better-looking and more convenient than we are.
But here's the thing we think you've missed. Streaming is young, a slip of a thing. It has grown fast, yes, but it has nowhere near our breadth. (In fact, without the Starz deal, which expires in February and also leaves you without streaming rights to Disney and Pixar films, streaming may look thinner than ever.) We're a mature and experienced content system. We have everything, every scrap of human knowledge, and entertainment that streaming hasn't even begun to think of yet.
[More from Mashable: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Qwikster & What Went Wrong [VIDEO]]
Why does that matter? Oh Reed, how soon you've forgotten to think like a customer. Why did people come to Netflix? It wasn't simply for the streaming; they could have gone to Hulu for that. It was the same reason they walk into libraries and giant book stores: because it's comprehensive. Whatever they could think of watching, it would be there. Anything. Sometimes you could watch it immediately, which was great. Other times -- most often, in fact, when people had gone searching for something particular -- you'd have to wait a day or two for the red envelope to arrive. No matter. People can be patient when they know they're going to get what they wished for. (And if movies have taught us anything, it's to really go after whatever we wish for.)
So for all the hotness of streaming, dear Reed, you're going to see its shortcomings soon enough. You have already admitted your streaming library "can't provide unlimited content." You're going to understand why 12 million people opted for both streaming and us -- when clearly, if they wanted to just choose streaming, they already had the technology to do it. You're going to see how useful we've been as part of an all-in-one service -- the backbone of Netflix. You're going to learn what it is they were looking for -- everything in one place -- and what they'll do when they suddenly don't have that any more.
In short, you're about to get whipped by the Long Tail. Good luck with that.
Love,
Your DVDs
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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