Born as a DVD rental company, the most popular streaming platform in the world has entered the lives of all of us: here is its story
Twenty-five years ago one of the largest addictions in the history of humanity was launched . No, we are not talking about drugs, but about Netflix which has kept us glued to the TV for more than eight years now in Italy , completely destroying our social life. Netflix was created on August 29, 1997 , but the company did not launch NetFlix.com online until April 14 of the following year . Initially born as a DVD rental service via the web , the brand quickly became an unmistakable brand, thanks to the intuitions of those two Californians: Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings . The first ever was the film Beetlejuice with Winona Ryder, today mainly remembered for taking part in Stranger Things . But how do you measure 25 years? Perhaps in the number of DVDs shipped in red envelopes (there were 5 billion in 2019) or in the hours spent streaming global hits such as Stranger Things and Orange Is the New Black and other award-winning series?
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Nine years after its launch in 2007, the streaming revolution as we know it today arrived: in 2012 the first Netflix original product arrived: Lilyhammer. The rest is history. Since then, in fact, you have sung “Bella Ciao” with the Casa di Carta band , you opened your eyes wide in front of Dungeons & Dragons and you cheered for number 456 of Squid Game .
The birth of Netflix
Marc Randolph, former marketing director of Pure Atria , decided with Hastings to focus on the internet market for film rental: the two were inspired by the Amazon model . They realized that the new DVD media was much more convenient than the now antiquated VHS cassettes , which weighed much more. Hence also the name of the platform that combines the “Net” of internet commerce and the “Flick” which in American slang refers to cinema . When the first site launched, the company had only 30 employees and 925 titles available (almost the entire DVD catalog at the time). Users had the option of signing up for a monthly subscription , and requesting the rental of an unlimited number of films. An ambitious project that struck Jeff Bezos , head of Amazon, who presented himself to the two founders of Netflix with an offer of 15 million dollars to take over the company. Despite Randolph’s hesitations, Hastings – who held 70% of the property – returned the offer to the sender. Years later Bezos literally copied the idea by launching Amazon Unboxing , the ancestor of today’s Amazon Prime Video .
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Netflix’s first commercial to advertise DVD movie rentals
Success to this day
Netflix’s growth is exponential: in February 2007, Netflix delivers its billionth DVD (a copy of Babel ) to a customer in Texas. The technological progress of those years with the strengthening of internet connections allowed the company to make the definitive leap towards cinema and TV series which from that moment would become totally accessible in streaming, eliminating even the last remaining physical support: the DVD. In 2015 the platform also arrived here and with the passage of time it managed to insinuate itself into the homes of many, so much so that the famous saying “Netflix and chill” was created , precisely to indicate an evening spent relaxing in front of on TV waiting for the famous ” Tudum “ , the short jingle that precedes the viewing of each content. The Netflix revolution has also influenced our TV: with Italian giants such as the state TV Rai and the private Mediaset creating platforms similar in terms of use (PC, smart TV, tablet and smartphone ) and style to that of the well-known streaming. Today, Netflix is available practically everywhere in the world , except for China , North Korea , Crimea and Syria . There was one in Russia , but it was turned off due to the sanctions imposed on the country for the attack on Ukraine .MOST READ ARTICLES
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Netflix, all the curiosities about the streaming platform
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its birth, the Netflix website has revealed some curiosities about the history of the company, here are the most interesting:
- The most used profile icon globally is the Boss Baby icon , appearing on 11 million profiles.
- Netflix’s first DVD envelope was white, not red .
- A Netflix fan created an outfit out of 1,500 DVD bags.
- On January 6, 2016, Netflix went live in 130 countries simultaneously.
- The show with the most “MyList Adds” is Money Heist .
- Subscriber no. 500,000 was invited to a company meeting and received a lifetime membership.
- At one time, Netflix had over 70,000 “ secret codes . ” Today only 30,000.
- Netflix’s original name was supposed to be Kibble .
- After the launch of The Chess Queen, there was a 125% increase in chess set sales.
- Netflix Live Events hosted a whopping 42 marriage proposals around the world (and beyond).
- Netflix is available in over 37 languages and 190 countries worldwide and has offices in 28 cities around the world.
- The first recorded use of the phrase ” Netflix and chill ” was in a tweet by “NoFaceNina” (La Shanda Rene Foster) on January 21, 2009.
- Before the well-known ” Tudum “, the initial jingle featured the sound of a goat .
- There was a campaign called “ Netflix socks ,” which detected when you fell asleep and paused the show you were watching.
- The most popular title on the platform is Squid Game .
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