[Sigia-l] Throttling UX

[Skot Nelson]

On Feb-19-2006, at 1:53 PM, Eric Scheid wrote:

> Consider a restaurant that provides an all you can eat buffet --  
> should they
> provide plates a big as hub caps, chairs with extra wide cushioned  
> seats,
> and more?

Fido - a Canadian cellular phone provider - offered an unlimited plan  
for $40/month for a while. When a few...very few...customers started  
getting emails about exceeding 5,000/minutes per month they were  
surprised.

As it turns out, the legal contract stipulated this even if the  
marketing communications didn't. A public relations problem, but  
within the rights of the contract each customer accepted.

Netflix needs to be careful that the same applies.

The principle is valid: as with Eric's buffet example, a few bad  
seeds can ruin the experience for everybody and potentially run the  
company into trouble. The definition of "a few" depends on the  
business, but Netflix does have to manage its customers.

And I note that there is not a guarantee with Netflix that you will  
always get those films at the top of your queue.
--
Scott Nelson
skot (at) penguinstorm (dot) com
http://www.penguinstorm.com/

skype. skot.nelson