Netflix takes more of my money... with help from Jackie Chan!

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I'm a big fan of Netflix: both the product and the company. So I wasn't too surprised that they managed to make me give them more money in two ways.

Way 1: 2 subscriptions! Because they invested in a great recommendation engine.

My wife got her own Netflix subscription earlier this year. This isn't particularly surprising since she's in school in Boston and I'm working in NYC, but the reason she got one wasn't just because of the DVD mailings. It was because she wants recommendations based on what she's watched and my movie/TV tastes (I like almost everything) and compulsive rating of things, were making it impossible for her to get good recommendations.

Fast forward to a few months from now when she's done with school and we're living together again: I have a feeling that we'll still need 2 subscriptions; though there's a chance that I might just cancel mine since even though I love rating and discovering content, Netflix's discovery mechanism actually ends up only slightly influencing what I finally watch.

Way 2: I opted into the DVD plan for myself.

There's an art to pricing (in addition to the science that we were taught in school.)
I really like the way they re-priced their 1-DVD plan, and introduced the online-only plan. Here the actual cost and price is less relevant, since most consumers will compare it with the existing plans.
There's a 2 dollar difference, between the online and 1-DVD plan, but I found myself thinking "Oh, its just a dollar more to keep the plan I'm already on...I should just keep it."

Logically, given that the last DVD that I got (an arty Hindi flick) has been in my bag for 3 months, I shouldn't. After all, Netflix lets me
upgrade to the DVD plan anytime I want a DVD (also awesome!)
However, Jackie Chan closed the extra $2 for them, when he said that he thought Drunken Master 2 was better than the first Drunken Master.
Given that Drunken Master is the movie I've (almost!) watched the most number of times, and isn't available online, I just had to bump it to the top of my queue. :)

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