My wife mentioned that she received an email from Netflix this morning announcing some sort of name change. I did a bit of research, and I saw that the company is spinning off its DVD shipping service into a separate company called Qwikster.
According to the Netflix blog, “Qwikster” is sort of a play on words. “We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery,” said Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix. Luckily for Netflix, Qwikster.com was available for the company to acquire, and they did so via Sedo (according to Whois records indicating Sedo’s transfer service had possession of it in June).
I am surprised by the name Netflix chose because it’s confusing. In fact, when I first heard the news, I did a Whois search for Quickster.com to see when Netflix bought it, and that domain name is parked. Not only is the beginning of the name different (Qw vs. Qu), but the middle is as well (ik vs. ick).
Both Quickster.com and Qwickster.com are owned by different entities – one is registered by a company called Brand Certified and the other is registered by DNStination, so perhaps these domain names are owned by entities on behalf of Netflix.
I would hope so anyway, because it seems that even Google is confused.
Did Netflix already rename Qwikster to Trickster?
http://nowpossible.com/2011/09/19/netflix-kwikster-trickster-apology/
Thats the low profit side of their business. Maybe they’re setting the stage for a spinoff.
No excuse for a crappy name though.
They just want to discourage people from ordering DVDs.
We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery,” said Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix.
——————
Really Mr. Hastings? I don’t dion’t about the rest of you, but Qwikster (a word I just heard for the first time today) does not make me automatically think of deliveries, let alone quick ones.
This is a pretty bad name with an equally pretty bad justification
The choice of name doesn’t surprise me at all. Marketing departments at large orps often refuse to look outward for advice and feedback. Doing thorough analysis before choosing a name puts them outside their comfort zone.
In this case, why should they. They are public, have other people’s money to make poor decisions until the day of reckoning comes.
Raising their rental prices was obviously not a good idea and the stock has been body slammed for it.
Bad choice of a name as well. I just remembered that Amway was known as Quixtar before. Try searching for Quixtar scam on google.
Even funnier, Qwikster on twitter is a foul-mouthed pot smoking punk:
https://twitter.com/#!/qwikster
Stupid name because it’s impossible to spell. Read any thread about it, and it’s spelled Quickster, Quikster, Qwickster, etc. Are they planning to buy all the misspelled domains too?
It immediately makes me think of Quikmart, or Quik-E-Mart, or any of those grotty convenience stores in the low rent parts of town.
The whois on Qwikster.com and Quickster.com show both are owned by netflix.
This is an awful brand IMO. It has nothing to do with movies and fails the radio test.
I think a company with this type of budget could do much better.
Brad
Don’t know why they are trying to destroy the DVD division. Let say it is the absolute right thing to do for them to survive, isn’t there a better way to retire your service than to piss off long time loyal customer like me who do stream but also enjoy piping a DVD into the DVD player.
As a colleague said, the best name might’ve been Quitster
From Urban Dictionary:
quickster
Being able to get girls in the sack quick.
Did you see that quickster in action? It only took him 5 minutes to get that girl to his bedroom.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=quickster
Great job, Netflix marketing!