male_salmon

I might agree with you if Netflix ran their DVD business in a few other countries. That is not the case however. The DVD business is still profitable. Reed said it's unlikely he'll sell it for a long time.

With billing, most of us already maintain different accounts with different e-commerce sites. One more is not that bad. Ratings on either Qwikster or Netflix will benefit you because of the improved recommendations. Yes, it's a shame they won't be integrated, but overall the split will benefit the company and its customers.

As Reed says, the streaming business is global, but the DVD business is US-only. Maintaining code that services functions that apply in some locales but not others will slow down Netflix's ability to innovate.

Just out of curiosity, why would maintaining two accounts be so painful? If that were so, wouldn't it be equally painful to maintain different social network accounts (assuming you have two or more).