Personal recommendations have always been a part of ecommerce, but there has been little innovation since Amazon introduced retail and product personalization 10 years ago. But with the increasing mountains of data at digital retailers’ fingertips, ecommerce is about to get even more personal.
The fact is that right now there is little iteration from personalized ecommerce beyond what is taking place on Amazon. So you’ll see suggestions of what other shoppers who bought a certain item also purchased, or recommendations to similar items to what you have purchased, but there is a whole world of social data, and even more-in-depth purchase data that can be mined by retailers to help increase sales. → Read More
After some fairly sizable blunders last summer, Netflix suffered for the remainder of 2011, as its stock price took a serious dive and subscribers left in droves. That’s why it was at least a bit of a surprise when Netflix bounced back today in its fourth quarter earnings — beating Wall Street’s projections — in spite of expected losses throughout 2012 thanks to the costs of rolling out its service internationally (among other things). → Read More
Saying 2011 was a rocky road for Netflix would be an understatement, as it split its DVD and streaming offerings into two businesses, then reneged. They also hiked their prices, only to experience a veritable customer revolt, and CEO Reed Hastings was forced to publicly say that they’d made a huge mistake.
Today, Netflix has released its fourth quarter earnings from 2011, and it looks like there’s at least a sliver of good news, as the company beat Wall Street’s forecasts of $0.54 a share and $857 million in revenues, rising instead to $0.73 per share and $876 million in revenues. → Read More
Netflix has made its debut in the UK and Ireland in early 2012, just like they promised, having worked out video content licensing deals with the likes of BBC Worldwide and MGM.
Users in the UK and Ireland can now subscribe to Netflix to watch available content on their connected TVs, computers, tablets, game consoles and mobile devices. In the UK, Netflix will be bumping heads with Amazon-owned LOVEFiLM, the well-established movie and TV series streaming service. Read more at TechCrunch Europe. → Read More
The nominations have been tabulated and the votes are in. Over 300,000 nominations were calculated across 20 categories. Along with our partners GigaOm and VentureBeat, we are very proud to announce the finalists for 2011′s best in technology. Voting begins now.
For 2011, we’ve added some new categories. Best Location App, Best Cloud Services and Biggest Social Impact join the Crunchies ranks this year. You’ll also find Best Social App (Google+ is up against Facebook Timeline, the New New Twitter, Instagram, and Path 2.0), the NYC-dominated category of Best Shopping App, Best New Startup and the year’s best VC’s and Angel Investors. Newcomers like Task Rabbit’s Leah Busque and Keith Rabois for his angel investments (Airbnb, LinkedIn, Yammer, Path, YouTube) made the list of finalists, as well as industry favorites such as Marc Andreessen, Jack Dorsey, Mark Pincus and Ron Conway.
In addition to today’s announcement of the Finalists, we are happy to release our next batch of tickets through Eventbrite. The release begins now, so act fast and get them while you can. → Read More
Netflix is launching a new original series next month called Lilyhammer, which will kick off the company’s foray into original programming for 2012. The series will star The Sopranos actor and E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt in a “fish out of water” story that takes place in Norway.
The story follows New York mobster Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano as he enters the federal witness protection program. He moves to Lillehammer, the Norwegian town that hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics. He calls it “Lilyhammer,” however, which is how the show gets its name. → Read More
After a disastrous Q3 2011, Netflix stands to replace some of the 800,000 subscribers it lost. It’s savior? The Facebook news feed. Earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed a revised bill to change the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 to allow people to opt in to having their movie rental activity shared. This Act had delayed the Netflix Facebook app‘s launch in the US. Now the Facebook news feed is beginning to show “Josh Constine watched The Walking Dead on Netflix” stories that point back to the Netflix site. After being enticed by something a friend has watched, Facebook users might sign up and pay on Netflix.com so they can watch too. → Read More
Starting in early 2012, when Netflix is set to make its debut in the UK and Ireland, registered members will be able to instantly stream available content on their television sets, tablets, game consoles, computers and mobile phones.
In the beginning of November, the video streaming giant signed up MGM as its first content provider for the regions, and this morning Netflix announced a new digital licensing agreement that will add a host of BBC series. → Read More
Android tablet owners have been rocking the new Netflix app design for nearly a month now, and with today’s update, iPad users can finally join in on the fun.
The 2.0 update squeezes more movies onto a single page by trimming out most of the excess white space that made the original version feel a tad ill-suited for such a large screen. → Read More
Surprise! The big Xbox 360 update started hitting consoles late last night and brought along with it a new Netflix app. This overhauled user experience incorporates the new Kinect voice and gesture controls with a swanky new UI. It nearly turns the Xbox 360′s Netflix app into a movie selection device worthy of a starring roll alongside Tom Cruise in a modern sci-fi adventure that rhymes with Sinority Beport. → Read More
Cable TV and internet giant Verizon is planning a streaming media service similar to Netflix, according to a Reuters report. The service is in the planning stages and people close to the matter, but apparently not that close, described it to Reuters variously as limited in scope, focused on movies, and focused on children’s programming. While it can’t be all three, it probably will feature on-demand movies and premium show streams, presumably delivered with that signature Verizon style. → Read More
It’s possible new media will steal a page from the VCs and the economics of the Cloud, putting these streaming deals together on multiple networks (Facebook, YouTube, Ustream, iCloud) with talent owning the rights in return for low startup costs. Spotify could fight off the independents by offering contracts directly to the artists, and team with the streaming studios to live cast sessions and concerts over the federated network. Soundtrack compilations for stream network-owned series like House of Cards may be where music and gaming crossover first occurs.
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Remember when Netflix piled blunder upon blunder and lost something like a million subscribers? And the bottom dropped out? And the CEO was forced to admit he’d made a huge mistake?
Yeah, none of that matters now. Because they’re bringing back Arrested Development. → Read More
Netflix took to the wires this morning to announce a new look for its Android tablet app. Gone is the old beige and red scheme (finally). In its place is an immersive user interface that takes full advantage of cover art. It’s swanky and a tad reminiscent of the latest set-top box version. → Read More
Maybe the Kindle Fire isn’t as “media-deficient” a tablet as BN CEO William Lynch would have us believe. Amazon has just announced that they too will have support for Netflix and Pandora, as well as “several thousand more apps” when the Kindle Fire ships next week.
Usual suspects like Facebook and Twitter will run fine on Amazon’s tablet, as will games from big players like Zynga and EA. Amazon’s smaller Android Appstore runs parallel to Google’s, but Amazon claims that the apps they “carry” are tested for Kindle Fire compatibility. → Read More
Netflix and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) this morning announced a multi-year licensing agreement that will make Netflix the exclusive subscription streaming service in the UK and Ireland for most first-run feature films from the movie studio.
Starting in early 2012, when Netflix is set to make its debut in the UK and Ireland, registered members will be able to watch available content instantly on their television sets, tablets, game consoles, computers and mobile phones. → Read More
The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — returned to the Social Wars with renewed vigor courtesy of two weeks of material. These issues included the Klout algorithm crisis, more fun with iOS 5 push notifications, the incredible shrinking Google+ numbers, and @scobleizer’s fabulous Verb Wall aka Spotify Motel where data goes into Facebook and never comes out.
Personally, I’m not too worried about Facebook leaving money on the table, or how Netflix suddenly validated a ton of value with their supposed social mistake. Instead I see an ever-expanding set of social services creating new opportunities for sharing realtime hints about what we will find interesting and valuable just in time. Oh, and Twitter just keeps on rocking. Now back to my movie, @Mention Matinee with nobody you have heard of yet. → Read More
Mark one up for Amazon…and mark one up for Netflix.
The two companies just announced separate streaming deals with the Walt Disney Co. that will provide subscribers with even more content from Mickey & Co. Under these agreements, both streaming services will see even more Disney/ABC content, expanding their respective libraries with current and past TV programming. → Read More
Netflix third quarter earnings are out, and along with it the quarterly shareholder letter from CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells. In the letter (embedded below), Netflix talks about the impact of recent pricing changes and its now-retracted strategy to divide the streaming and DVD services into two businesses. The price changes in particular “hurt our hard‐earned reputation, and stalled our domestic growth.”
Netflix expects the impact to lower both revenues and profits in the fourth quarter. And in the first quarter of next year, the company expects to lose money as it invests heavily to launch in the UK and Ireland. It expects to continue to be in the red “for a few quarters.” Below is an excerpt of the the beginning of the letter, followed by the entire embedded document. → Read More
Streaming movie and TV show platform Netflix reported third quarter earnings today. Revenue came in at 822 million up 49 percent from 2010. Earnings per share for the quarter was $1.16, which is up 66 percent from the same quarter 2010. Analysts expected earnings of $0.96 cents per share.
Net Income was $62 million for the quarter, up 63 percent from 2010. Netflix now has 23.8 million subscribers. Of those subscribers, 21.5 million are using the streaming service and 13.9 million are using the DVD service. Netflix actually lost around 800,000 subscribers from last quarter. → Read More
