Voices » Netflix

Netflixes of Fashion Take Off

Marisa Taylor — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:30:59 +0000

By Marisa Taylor, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

A new fashion-rental service has been getting buzz this week, but it follows other designer sites that have adopted the Netflix (NFLX) model to their ventures.

Rent the Runway, which started Monday, marks another entry into the growing market of online luxury rental services. Shoppers can browse its selection of dresses and rent them at roughly 10 percent of their retail price, then return it in a prepaid envelope.

Before that, Madeline Passarelli, a former fashion editor at Lucky, introduced Wear Today, Gone Tomorrow in March. The daughter of a fashion designer and manufacturer, she spent years as a stylist and editor and had noticed that women in her field attended many events but didn’t want to wear the same outfit twice.

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A Netflix Model for Haute Couture

Jenna Wortham — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:04:46 +0000

By Jenna Wortham, Technology Reporter, New York Times

For many women, a $1,000 dress is something they admire in the pages of a glossy magazine or see draped on the frame of a celebrity–not an item hanging in their closet.

But a nascent Web site called Rent the Runway is hoping to make high-end fashions much more accessible and almost as easy as renting a movie from Netflix (NFLX).

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Almost Famous: Brizzly's Chris Wetherell

Drake Martinet — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:05:01 +0000

By Drake Martinet, Intern, All Things Digital

A new feature wherein All Things Digital looks at up-and-coming and innovative start-ups you should know about.

This week: A video visit with, some questions for and a few pertinent stats about Chris Wetherell and his creation, Brizzly, a Web-based social media reader, one of many in the hot status update arena.

Who: Chris Wetherell

What: VP of Technology, Thing Labs, creator of Brizzly.

Why: Brizzly is a Web-based social media software client, for microblogging sites like Twitter or Facebook, expands attachments automatically and allows users to describe and define the trending topics for all its users to see. It’s in invite-only beta.

Where: @cw (Twitter); massless.org (Wetherell’s personal blog); San Francisco (HQ for Thing Labs and Brizzly)

Who else: TweetDeck, Seesmic, TwitIQ

Five Stats You Won’t Find in his Facebook Profile

Worst Job: Assembly line at Fujitsu, making rack servers

Has a Geek Crush on: Mihai Parparita, Google developer in Boston

Gadget of the Moment: Roku’s digital video box. “It’s got Netflix, You Tube and TV. Damn.”

Wishes There Was an App for: The legal arena. “They need to, like, use a computer.”

Fails at: Anything related to email

Bio in 140 Characters

From Beaverton, Ore. Dropped out of Berkeley. Got hungry as an indie rock drummer. @Google Reader. Left Google, invented Brizzly.

The Five Questions

Why should I care about Brizzly?

It depends on what you’re looking for. If one of the things that interests you is how a large community is experiencing life–I mean really interested in the community and not just the idea of your friends–then Brizzly does that a little more easily than other things. [Brizzly's assets are] no small difference for those who are interested in it.

Why are all Twitter-related logos, including yours, so darn cute?

Yeah, we’re a little cheeky, right? I think it’s probably just because of a pendulum swing. I mean, the last thing [Thing Labs' CEO Jason Shellen] and I worked on was the exact opposite. Google Reader is not cuddly. It’s friendly, but cuddly it isn’t. The other thing is, we were hoping to try what strong branding is like–in terms of anthropomorphic animals. The bear design [was drawn by] both Jason and [Twitter Co-founder] Biz Stone.

What can we expect from Thing Labs and Brizzly three months out?

We will have at least three richer sets of experiences, some of which include entirely different products all connected through our letsbetrends.com API.

Every geek has a memory where they saw something new and had to say to themselves, “Dang, I love living in the future.” What’s yours?

One big one for me was at Google–it was my first day and someone says, “Hey, have they taken you to see the robots yet?” I was like, “Hahaha… No.” They took me to this building where there was a room filled with these Rube Goldbergesque mechanical devices. Large cages with metal bars and wires, culminating in this ball in the center. This girl climbed into the thing. She put her feet in these stirrups and sat in this weird chair, and then this book slides out. The girl started tapping her feet on this base drum pedal and doing this thing with her hands, and then the book slides away [they were scanning the books]. I was like, “What is this?” and they said, “Well, this is Ocean [the internal name for Google Books].” What struck me was the scale. It was clear to me that they were going to scan ridiculous amounts of information very, very quickly, and I realized: Whoa, THIS is very different.”

Are you really competitive with rivals?

I just don’t have that kind of fight in me. I mean, I want to kick my own ass. I know there are lots of guys out there who can totally drop the names of someone they want to just crush. I just don’t have it. I get more frustrated with me, more than anyone else. I’m like Jim Carrey in “Liar Liar”: “I’m kicking my ass.”

The In Living Color Interview

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Blu-ray Player Makers Embrace Online Movie Delivery

Miguel Bustillo and Bobby White — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:00:37 +0000

By Miguel Bustillo and Bobby White, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal

Some of the biggest companies backing the Blu-ray format for high-definition movies are hedging their bets by introducing players that can also show Internet video, which is making surprising inroads in the home-entertainment market.

Electronics retailers and manufacturers including Best Buy Co. (BBY), Samsung Electronics America Inc. and LG Electronics USA Inc. are selling Blu-ray disc players that tap into movies from online rental companies. The devices provide an alternative to pay-per-view cable services.

The hybrid movie players tap a growing library of online movies and television shows from Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), which screens movies for as little as 99 cents, and from Netflix Inc. (NFLX), which allows unlimited movie streaming for $8.99 a month.

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Netflix CEO Hastings: DVD Rentals Face the Same Problems Mags Do–Down the Road

David Kaplan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:05:24 +0000

By David Kaplan, Contributor, paidContent.org

In an interview with John Byrne, BusinessWeek.com’s executive editor/editor-in-chief, Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings conceded that his business faces similar troubles to what magazines are up against, as the use of broadband video is set to rise. For now, though, the DVD rental business is still growing and he’s content to pursue the streaming business down the road. Since this was during the luncheon session at the Magazine Publishers of America’s Innovation Summit, Byrne asked if Hastings reads any magazines.

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Netflix's Impending (But Still Avoidable) Multi-Million Dollar Privacy Blunder

Paul Ohm — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:01:23 +0000

By Paul Ohm, Associate Professor of Law and Telecommunications,
University of Colorado Law School

In my last post, I had promised to say more about my article on the limits of anonymization and the power of reidentification. Although I haven’t said anything for a few weeks, others have, and I especially appreciate posts by Susannah Fox, Seth Schoen, and Nate Anderson. Not only have these people summarized my article well, they have also added a lot of insightful commentary, and I commend these three posts to you.

Today brings news relating to one of the central examples in my paper: Netflix has announced plans to commit a privacy blunder that could cost it millions of dollars in fines and civil damages

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Netflix Everywhere: Sorry Cable, You're History

Daniel Roth — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:01:38 +0000

By Daniel Roth, Senior Writer, Wired Magazine

It had taken the better part of a decade, but Reed Hastings was finally ready to unveil the device he thought would upend the entertainment industry. The gadget looked as unassuming as the original iPod–a sleek black box, about the size of a paperback novel, with a few jacks in back—and Hastings, CEO of Netflix (NFLX), believed its impact would be just as massive.

Called the Netflix Player, it would allow most of his company’s regular DVD-by-mail subscribers to stream unlimited movies and TV shows from Netflix’s library directly to their television–at no extra charge.

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Video Rental Wars Taking a Toll on BBI, NFLX, CSTR

Eric Savitz — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:45:35 +0000

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

The battle for control of the DVD rental market is heating up, and taking a toll on all of the key players–retail store leader Blockbuster (BBI), DVD-by-mail player Netflix (NFLX) and $1-a-day kiosk operator Redbox, a unit of Coinstar (CSTR).

Last night, Blockbuster reported worse-than-expected results for the second quarter, and trimmed its full year guidance. The Street’s view is that the company is being hurt by a combination of its heavy debt load, slowing customer traffic and heightened competition from Redbox and other kiosk operators.

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How Netflix Gets Your Movies to Your Mailbox So Fast

Christopher Borrelli — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:00:58 +0000

By Christopher Borrelli, Reporter, Chicago Tribune

The Netflix (NFLX) warehouse in Carol Stream does not appear on any map. Your odds of finding it are slightly better than your odds of stumbling upon a rare insect in a field of weeds. One could drive to Carol Stream, stop in a random office park, climb from one’s car and scream, “Reveal thyself, Netflix!” This is not advisable. But the temptation remains.

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The Music Streams That Soothe an Industry

Brad Stone — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:03:58 +0000

By Brad Stone, Staff Writer, New York Times

Like many teenagers, Josh Wilson, the 13-year-old son of the New York venture capitalist Fred Wilson, has on occasion visited the Internet’s peer-to-peer file-sharing services to download music and television shows.

But recently, as Mr. Wilson recounted last week on his popular blog, A VC, Josh has started streaming television shows from Netflix (NFLX) under the family’s $24-a-month subscription plan and listening to licensed, ad-supported music videos from YouTube on his iPhone.

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Netflix: More Takeover Chatter; Amazon? Microsoft?

Eric Savitz — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:26:06 +0000

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

The takeover-rumor driven rally in Netflix (NFLX) shares has continued today, as investors debate the potential for an acquisition of the company by Amazon (AMZN)–or Microsoft (MSFT).

The focus of yesterday’s rumors was on a potential bid from Amazon, but a number of commentators have shot down that idea.

Cowen analyst Jim Friedland wrote in a research note late yesterday that an acquisition of Netflix by Amazon is unlikely.

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Netflix Lifted By Takeover Rumors

Eric Savitz — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:38:56 +0000

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

Netflix (NFLX) shares are getting a boost today from vague takeover rumors.

TheFlyOnTheWall.com notes that the move in the stock today appears due to “renewed takeover speculation.”

About two years ago, there were a round of rumors that the company was going to be acquired by Amazon.com (AMZN), and there is some bulletin board chatter this morning spouting the same theory.

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Dashboards and Distributed Friending

Marc Canter — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:01:04 +0000

By Marc Canter, CEO and Founder, Broadband Mechanics

I’m imagining a world where each of us, and all groups, networks, enterprises, institutions, agencies and NGOs, have dashboards which are associated with our online presence. Some of these dashboards exist today in the guise of “NetVibes” start-up pages or as iGoogle and MyYahoo pages.

Facebook, MySpace and all social-networking software are another kind of dashboard. And all social media services–from Twitter, Friendfeed, and Flickr to dopplr, Blurb or NetFlix (NFLX)–they’re all dashboards, each with its own nuance, subtlety and approach.

Anytime you see “About” or “Your Account,” that’s your dashboard. So each account you have, everywhere, is another dashboard.

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Netflix: Stifel Downgrades to Sell After Stock Doubles

Eric Savitz — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:15:08 +0000

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

Netflix (NFLX) is suddenly one of the Valley’s hottest companies, as the DVD-by-mail company gradually morphs into everyone’s favorite streaming movie service. The service is showing up everyplace: on TiVo boxes, on the Web, on Xbox Live, in Blu-Ray disk players. The company reported blowout Q4 earnings earlier this week and provided a strong Q1 outlook. Netflix has become a hot counter-cyclical, nesting-in-the-living room recession play; the stock has doubled since late November.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt thinks the rally has gotten a bit out of hand; he downgraded the shares this morning to Sell from Hold, asserting that fair value is about $28, or well below the current level.

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How Netflix Got Started

Reed Hastings — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:00:53 +0000

By Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix

The genesis of Netflix (NFLX) came in 1997 when I got this late fee, about $40, for “Apollo 13.” I remember the fee because I was embarrassed about it. That was back in the VHS days, and it got me thinking that there’s a big market out there. So I started to investigate the idea of how to create a movie-rental business by mail. I didn’t know about DVDs, and then a friend of mine told me they were coming. I ran out to Tower Records in Santa Cruz, Calif., and mailed CDs to myself, just a disc in an envelope. It was a long 24 hours until the mail arrived back at my house, and I ripped them open and they were all in great shape. That was the big excitement point.

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