August 29, 2023 – Netflix

It was 26 years ago today that Netflix was founded! The company was created by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings, who had worked together at a tech company called Pure Software. They admired Amazon, and wanted to find a large category of portable items that they could sell online in a similar model. At first, they considered VHS tapes. But they rejected that idea because they were too expensive to stock and too fragile to ship. They heard that DVD’s were being tested in several U.S. markets, and wanted to experiment with selling this new technology online. They tried out the concept by mailing a CD in an envelope to one of their houses. When it got there in one piece, they decided the enter the home-video sales and rental industry.
When it launched, it was the first DVD rental and sales website. The company employed 30 people and had 925 titles available – pretty much all the DVDs that had been published at the time. They started a monthly subscription model in 1999. But then, during the dot-com bubble, sales began to fall and company suffered losses. Things got so bad that they offered to sell the company to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbuster’s CEO thought it was a joke and hastily passed on the offer. We all know how that ended for them!
By 2005, there were 35,000 different titles available and Netflix was shipping out 1 million DVDs every day. Earlier this year, the company announced it was ending this service at the end of September. They launched their streaming service in 2007, introducing video on demand via the internet. It started developing original content in 2011, with House of Cards becoming their first original show. In 2013, it became the first show from a streaming service to be nominated for an Emmy. Currently, Netflix originals make up 55% of all the content streaming on the platform. So far, Netflix original movies have picked up 22 Oscar wins, and original shows have won 265 Emmy Awards. Shows with the most wins are The Crown, Stranger Things, and Orange is the New Black. 
With more than 238 million paid memberships in over 190 countries, Netflix is the most-subscribed video on demand streaming service. Today, it’s estimated that the average American adult spends 30 minutes a day watching Netflix. Learn more here.