Netflix is the world’s leading online streaming and subscription video service provider. It offers a library of films and television series in the form of subscription-based video on demand.

Well ,Netflix has revolutionized the entertainment industry and is available in around 200 countries. Currently, the company is at revenue of $25 billion.

So here is all you need to know about how Netflix took over the entertainment industry?

Interesting Story Behind Netflix

During the 1990s, people used to watch movies by visiting a movie theatre or renting cassettes. One of the co-founders of Today’s Netflix Reed Hasting belongs to one of those people.

In 1997, He rented a cassette from the video store and misplace which lead to failure to return in time. After six weeks, he returned the cassette and paid $40 more as a late fee.

One day, Reed Hasting was working out in the gym and he realized that the payment model of the gym is fair when it was compared to cassette rentals. In the gym, you can exercise as much as you want after paying a monthly membership fee.

This is when he comes up with a idea in his mind and wanted to apply a similar payment method to cassette rentals. he shared the idea with his friend Marc Randolph and was convinced with the idea of renting cassettes online.

Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. and Marc Bernays Randolph are the founder of Netflix. They founded netflix 29th August of 1997 in Scotts Valley, California. Initially , it began with a DVD shop .

Futhermore , In 1999, Netflix introduced the monthly subscription payment method. Using this model, you could borrow several DVDs at a time and become free from the headaches of the due date, shipping charges, and late fees. Netflix gained over 300,000 subscribers by the year 2000.

Later in 2002, Netflix offered its initial public offering (IPO). Its each share was sold for $15 which is now increased to $585 as of today.

Netflix as Video Streaming Services

As the internet around the world was getting bigger and bigger, Netflix decided to provide online streaming services. In 2007, they introduced subscription-based online video streaming and video-on-demand services.

In the initial days, the content in netflix had restriction of 6 to 18 hours per month based on the subscription plan. Within a year they managed to gain over 7.5 million subscribers which made a profit of 1.2 billion.

By the year 2021, Netflix has 209 million users. It is one of the largest companies in the world. that focus on users . Its market cap has crossed 100 billion dollars.

Content and Algorithms

Before ,Netflix used to stream third-party content. In 2011, they decided to produce its original content, and House of Cards is one of their first production. As of today, there are a number of Netflix’s original films and TV series.

Netflix releases all the episodes of a show at a time which provides freedom to view all the episodes of a show at a time.

Netflix has a smart algorithm to recommend videos to the subscriber based on their interest. Their algorithm design is in such way that the content feautures the right people and this algorithm also makes it easier to explore.