User talk:Ribfeast

Thanks for your comments (here) on NZ DVD rentals. By implication it would appear you are the "James MacAvoy" quoted in the NZ Herald article? It would probably easier to move the conversation over to the Talk:Movieshack area, and I'll continue there, but if you are associated with Movieshack, please read WP:COI - a mention of the fact on your user page would probably help avoid misunderstandings. - Thanks, David Oberst 21:41, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Yep that's me.

I don't use wiki that much but you can imagine after reading the article and seeing my comments from a quick phone call becoming industry fact then wikipedia information I wasn't too happy.

I'll update my info in the next day or so to reflect who I am and what I do. I'll also be sure to keep updating the online DVD stuff as I hear things about it - feel free to pass anything you hear or have a question about by me (I'm unbiased and have a pretty good idea when rental news here is real or just a lame PR stunt).

The market share facts come from another competitor in the industry who wish to make themselves more prominent through misinformation.

Cheers, James


 * Does Movieshack provide any information as to size, revenues, customers, etc., that could be used in the Movieshack entry? The Berman estimates in the Herald story are such that no matter the exact numbers, they would have be wildly inaccurate for Movieshack not to be the "third largest" of the companies, which was the only piece of specific Movieshack-specific information I could draw from the article.  You can see that simply dismissing the published information at hand, without being willing to provide information you do have, may be good business, but a somewhat awkward position for an encyclopdia contributor :) - David Oberst 00:52, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Hi David. While we can't actually reveal revenues and customers (common Netflix information on customer patterns in regards to most popular plans, etc, are extremely accurate to the model anywhere it seems), I can give estimates on membership spreads from knowing postal patterns, marketing and acquisition channels and percentage conversions from each of the 3 companies. This is again where simple conversation can become fact so I'll be both as accurate and vague as possible in the interest of the commercial sensitivity of the information ;)

With total confidence I can state that size goes DVD Unlimited, Movieshack then Fatso. The reasoning here is that we know what everyone is doing for members, we know conversion numbers and we know we have been expanding at a massive rate in the last few weeks - 100% per week would be accurate. Going from this data I'd say the market percentage spread would be around 12,000 to 15,000.

From everything we know about the market (it is amazing what you hear) the sizes are:


 * DVD Unlimited 45 to 50%
 * Movieshack 32 to 37%
 * Fatso 20 to 25%

This range has a variance as knowing for certain isn't possible, and it accounts for membership level fluctuation. We expect to grow to over half the market in the next few months, this is linked to the same reasons we've grown so quickly lately.

If you have any other questions be my guest, I'd be happy to share what I can! :) Rib Feast 09:20, 20 February 2007 (UTC)