Author

Topic: How come Netflix and other similar services is not accepting bitcoins? (Read 1252 times)

legendary
Activity: 1092
Merit: 1000
If they decided to get on board, I'd imagine any reluctance is mainly related to complications regarding setting up recurring payments.

That's their bread and butter. Lots of services depend on people forgetting, or being too lazy, to cancel.

I know for a fact that they have looked into accepting Bitcoin and that these are some of the issues:

1. Bitcoin is small.
2. Bitcoin has a reputation problem(drugs and money laundering, for example).
3. Recurring payments are not easy to implement.


usd has a really bad reputation for being used in shady drug deals, money laundering, etc.
legendary
Activity: 1092
Merit: 1000
If they decided to get on board, I'd imagine any reluctance is mainly related to complications regarding setting up recurring payments.

That's their bread and butter. Lots of services depend on people forgetting, or being too lazy, to cancel.


yup. i cancel my debit card and get a new one every three or four months just for this purpose.
i am too lazy to go manually cancel the accounts.
is easier to renew the ones i want to keep when i need them.
and it is good security too.
netflix is always one i have to go back and fix.
it might take me a couple months though before i want to watch tv.
legendary
Activity: 1008
Merit: 1001
Let the chips fall where they may.
Free/Libre software and Proprietary/Restrictive software do not mix. Sony demonstrated this with the PS3: they included "Other OS" that kept other OSs in a sand-box. They then disabled the functionality in the 3.21 Firmware update.

In this case, Bitcoin is the Freedom-granting software, while Netflix is the restrictive software. If you have proprietary software running on your machine, you can not be assured that it is doing what you ask. Conversely, if your machine is running free software, proprietary software can not be assured that your machine is doing what they expect.
legendary
Activity: 4466
Merit: 3391
If they decided to get on board, I'd imagine any reluctance is mainly related to complications regarding setting up recurring payments.

That's their bread and butter. Lots of services depend on people forgetting, or being too lazy, to cancel.

I know for a fact that they have looked into accepting Bitcoin and that these are some of the issues:

1. Bitcoin is small.
2. Bitcoin has a reputation problem(drugs and money laundering, for example).
3. Recurring payments are not easy to implement.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1147
The revolution will be monetized!
For sure! So Netflix has some interest, mind explaining more how that talk went?
I haven't checked out Amazon mostly because I do not use it myself, I leave that to fans of that website like yourself
I'm hesitant to explain much before they decide. You may have noticed how many crazy people there are here. Some of those people have made it hard to convince business people that bitcoin is a serious project. Because of this I generally announce only my successful attempts.  Let me offer a recent one as an example.

A local gunshop noticed that I was not buying from them anymore and just used their FFL licences for shipping. When I explained that I now buy with bitcoin they were interested. First I showed them a similar gun store in Texas that uses BTC and how they implemented it. Next I set them up with BitPay so that they would not be exposed to the price volatility. Unfortunately, BitPay chose not to work with them because they were unsure about gun sales. After more searching I found that coinbase was considering allowing legal gun sales. They are in meetings about it now, but thew store is ready to go when coinbase decides.

Many stores would take BTC if they had someone to explain it all.
member
Activity: 65
Merit: 10
Simple answer: because they're not, and probably for the same reasons every other merchant hasn't got on board yet. Give them time and hopefully this will change.

Haha that answer though..

yep, but surely won't hurt mailing them about it! maybe they've thought about the possibility, and come to a different conclusion than me, if so I'd love to hear it

Keep mailing them. As for us we can always just do our best to promote btc everywhere. Tell your friends and family and everyone else you meet and it'll keep growing organically. Eventually merchants should take notice.

I usually never talk about BTC in real life, I'm bad like this, but do mail whatever service or store where I see it would have an edge over using a CC.
I've tried explaining BTC in the past, but figure people don't really want to know, but they want to see stuff you can do with it, or how it can be easily used.
I think the new generations will adopt and understand bitcoin better than the older ones, so time is what it takes!

Something like bitcoin is going to take time to catch on, but I think it could see growth like the internet did. If it does then people will be wishing they got involved earlier that's for sure.
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
Simple answer: because they're not, and probably for the same reasons every other merchant hasn't got on board yet. Give them time and hopefully this will change.

Haha that answer though..

yep, but surely won't hurt mailing them about it! maybe they've thought about the possibility, and come to a different conclusion than me, if so I'd love to hear it

Keep mailing them. As for us we can always just do our best to promote btc everywhere. Tell your friends and family and everyone else you meet and it'll keep growing organically. Eventually merchants should take notice.

I usually never talk about BTC in real life, I'm bad like this, but do mail whatever service or store where I see it would have an edge over using a CC.
I've tried explaining BTC in the past, but figure people don't really want to know, but they want to see stuff you can do with it, or how it can be easily used.
I think the new generations will adopt and understand bitcoin better than the older ones, so time is what it takes!
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
Please do email them. I'm currently working on netflix, but I think Amazon's streaming service is a good target also. Amazon is mostly a pay-per-view system that may lend itself better to bitcoin.  


Really? That's cool, have you asked about the possibility?

I will, I sometimes do stuff like this in my free time, when I get an idea I have a hard time letting it go, I want answers from Netflix!
I have not gotten anywhere with Amazon yet. I'm still trying to develop a solid contact. Netflix is aware of bitcoin and does have some interest. Fingers crossed.
Thanks for your efforts! The reason other stores have begun taking BTC is because of people like you asking for it.

For sure! So Netflix has some interest, mind explaining more how that talk went?
I haven't checked out Amazon mostly because I do not use it myself, I leave that to fans of that website like yourself
full member
Activity: 167
Merit: 100
Simple answer: because they're not, and probably for the same reasons every other merchant hasn't got on board yet. Give them time and hopefully this will change.

Haha that answer though..

yep, but surely won't hurt mailing them about it! maybe they've thought about the possibility, and come to a different conclusion than me, if so I'd love to hear it

Keep mailing them. As for us we can always just do our best to promote btc everywhere. Tell your friends and family and everyone else you meet and it'll keep growing organically. Eventually merchants should take notice.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1147
The revolution will be monetized!
Please do email them. I'm currently working on netflix, but I think Amazon's streaming service is a good target also. Amazon is mostly a pay-per-view system that may lend itself better to bitcoin.  


Really? That's cool, have you asked about the possibility?

I will, I sometimes do stuff like this in my free time, when I get an idea I have a hard time letting it go, I want answers from Netflix!
I have not gotten anywhere with Amazon yet. I'm still trying to develop a solid contact. Netflix is aware of bitcoin and does have some interest. Fingers crossed.
Thanks for your efforts! The reason other stores have begun taking BTC is because of people like you asking for it.
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
Simple answer: because they're not, and probably for the same reasons every other merchant hasn't got on board yet. Give them time and hopefully this will change.

Haha that answer though..

yep, but surely won't hurt mailing them about it! maybe they've thought about the possibility, and come to a different conclusion than me, if so I'd love to hear it
hero member
Activity: 525
Merit: 500
Exactly. It's still early days for bitcoin and it's still only slowly starting to gain traction. If you want Netflix or any other company to start accepting bitcoins just keep telling people about them and requesting the actual companies themselves. If they keep hearing about it and getting requests to accept btc they will be more inclined to implement it.
member
Activity: 64
Merit: 10
Simple answer: because they're not, and probably for the same reasons every other merchant hasn't got on board yet. Give them time and hopefully this will change.
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
Please do email them. I'm currently working on netflix, but I think Amazon's streaming service is a good target also. Amazon is mostly a pay-per-view system that may lend itself better to bitcoin.  


Really? That's cool, have you asked about the possibility?

I will, I sometimes do stuff like this in my free time, when I get an idea I have a hard time letting it go, I want answers from Netflix!
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1147
The revolution will be monetized!
Please do email them. I'm currently working on netflix, but I think Amazon's streaming service is a good target also. Amazon is mostly a pay-per-view system that may lend itself better to bitcoin. 
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
I'd imagine it's mainly related to complications regarding setting up recurring payments. That's their bread and butter.

Well, they would invite more people who are not already subscribers by doing this, most of the ones paying micropayments would end up buying a subscription, because that system would obviously be better if you'd watch more movies.

Just to pick something off my head, take the average subscriber, figure out how many movies/series they watch per month then get a figure of what each movie would be worth.
legendary
Activity: 2590
Merit: 3015
Welt Am Draht
If they decided to get on board, I'd imagine any reluctance is mainly related to complications regarding setting up recurring payments.

That's their bread and butter. Lots of services depend on people forgetting, or being too lazy, to cancel.
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
I wonder this, I will email them about it too, it makes perfect sense and they can also broaden their userbase by allowing micropayments, for people who'd only want to watch a movie or two, without paying a full months subscription. There are a lot of services like this who could benefit from allowing bitcoin payments.

What do you think?
Jump to: