Netflix: The Era of Cable-Cutters
The word “Netflix” has been ingrained in populations all of the world to the point where it has become a common placeholder for groups of people, and couples, to spend their weekends inside, watching a movie or T.V. series from the comfort of their own homes. However, streaming movies from home was not always the case, or ease of use for that matter. Netflix began in 1997 in California by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings. Randolph co-founded MicroWarehouse which was a computer mail order company, while Hastings was a former match teacher, who founded Pure Software which at the time, has recently sold for $700 million. Hastings initially invested $2.5 million for the startup of Netflix. The tale about the start …show more content…
They were sold at just 2 cents each, with $2 shipping, selling 10,000 copies. The offer was widely covered in the media, though a mistake was made at the manufacturing plant, which ended up shipping pornographic DVDs in place of a few copies of the disc. Fortunately in Netflix’s case, only very few of those copies were sent out, as opposed to half the amount, which could have severely hurt Netflix’s reputation. In December of that year, Netflix announced it would stop selling DVDs, directing consumers to Amazon.com. By this time, Netflix’s catalogue had grown to 2,300 titles as home DVD players were taking off, although only 1 percent of U.S. households owned DVD …show more content…
Hastings commented on the new service saying this service was possible due to the economic scale of the company, with 10,000 orders processed each day. Unfortunately, even with the growing popularity, for the fiscal 1999, the company reported a loss of $29.8 million, with revenues of only $5 million. Even though Netflix is reporting a huge loss just a year after opening up, the growing popularity allowed them to continue with high hopes of future endeavors. In February 2000, Netflix was distributing more than 100,000 DVDs per
The word “Netflix” has been ingrained in populations all of the world to the point where it has become a common placeholder for groups of people, and couples, to spend their weekends inside, watching a movie or T.V. series from the comfort of their own homes. However, streaming movies from home was not always the case, or ease of use for that matter. Netflix began in 1997 in California by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings. Randolph co-founded MicroWarehouse which was a computer mail order company, while Hastings was a former match teacher, who founded Pure Software which at the time, has recently sold for $700 million. Hastings initially invested $2.5 million for the startup of Netflix. The tale about the start …show more content…
They were sold at just 2 cents each, with $2 shipping, selling 10,000 copies. The offer was widely covered in the media, though a mistake was made at the manufacturing plant, which ended up shipping pornographic DVDs in place of a few copies of the disc. Fortunately in Netflix’s case, only very few of those copies were sent out, as opposed to half the amount, which could have severely hurt Netflix’s reputation. In December of that year, Netflix announced it would stop selling DVDs, directing consumers to Amazon.com. By this time, Netflix’s catalogue had grown to 2,300 titles as home DVD players were taking off, although only 1 percent of U.S. households owned DVD …show more content…
Hastings commented on the new service saying this service was possible due to the economic scale of the company, with 10,000 orders processed each day. Unfortunately, even with the growing popularity, for the fiscal 1999, the company reported a loss of $29.8 million, with revenues of only $5 million. Even though Netflix is reporting a huge loss just a year after opening up, the growing popularity allowed them to continue with high hopes of future endeavors. In February 2000, Netflix was distributing more than 100,000 DVDs per