In 1998, Blockbuster was all the rage. They were dominating the DVD rental industry, and really had no competition whatsoever. Enter: Netflix.
Netflix was founded by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings, who intended Netflix to compete with Blockbuster in the video rental business. Their hook to put them ahead of Blockbuster was that rather than having franchised store locations, they were all online and offered delivery via mail to their subscribers. Their competitive advantage over Blockbuster only grew over time, as in 2007 they began offering online streaming.
This led to Blockbuster completely ceasing operations in September of 2010. This left Netflix as the sole supplier of DVD rentals. Not long after this, in 2011 to be exact, Netflix
halted their DVD delivery program and moved to streaming only. This proved to be a smart move, as since then, Netflix’s streaming service has exploded and is now the largest in the world. Not only does Netflix provide a way to instantly stream shows and movies that you could’ve seen on the big screen, but in 2013 they began producing their own television shows. This began with House of Cards, and now Netflix has hundreds of original shows. In 2015, Netflix released their first original movie, Beasts of No Nation, and since then their movie production has increased at an exponential rate. As of 2021, Netflix has over 203 million subscribers, and that number won’t drop any time soon. Their competition is also on the rise, however. Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO Max are all hot on Netflix's tail and vying to be the top streaming source in the world.
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