What is better with
pizza than a movie? Netflix was founded in 1997 in Scotts Valley,
California by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings, who previously had
worked together. Randolph was a co-founder of a computer mail order
company and later was employed by Borland International as
vice-president of marketing. Hastings, once a math teacher, had
founded Pure Software, which he had recently sold for $700 million.
Hastings invested $2.5 million in start up cash for Netflix.
The idea of Netflix came to Hastings when he was forced to pay $40
in overdue fines after returning a rented movie well past its due
date.
The Netflix website was launched on August 29, 1997 with only 30
employees and 925 works available for rent and brought a more
traditional, online pay-per-rental model (late fees applied). The
company offers unlimited vacation time for salaried workers and
allows employees to take any amount of their paychecks in stock
options.
Netflix introduced the monthly subscription concept in September
1999, and then dropped the single-rental model in 2000. Since that
time the company has built its reputation on the business model of
flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping
and handling fees, or per title rental fees.
Netflix was offered to Blockbuster for $50 million in 2000, but
Blockbuster declined.
In 2005, Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs every day.
In February 2007, the company delivered its billionth DVD and began
to move away from its original core business model of mailing DVDs
by introducing video-on-demand via the Internet.
By 2010, Netflix's streaming business had grown to 14 million
subscribers and shifted from the fastest-growing customer of the
United States Postal Service's first-class mail service to the
largest source of Internet traffic in North America. In November of
that year it began offering a standalone streaming service separate
from DVD rentals. It launched internationally in 2011.
On January 26, 2012, the company announced it had 24.4 million US
subscribers.
Disney and Marvel TV said they will provide Netflix with live action
series, beginning in 2015, featuring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron
Fist, and Luke Cage, leading up to a miniseries about the Defenders.
Netflix signed an agreement in 2014 with a US Cable company to offer
it as a channel on the TV lineup. Users can click on the channel,
like any other channel, and have all the Netflix options.