Today in History: Netflix is launched as a DVD mail service, 1997

To briefly recap the company's early history, Netflix was founded in 1997 by software engineers Reed Hastings and Marc Rudolph. The business provided DVDs by mail through an online rental and sales site, a major change to the then-popular brick-and-mortar movie rental shops such as Blockbuster and Family Video. DVDs were also a new format at the time.
Over the next several years, Netflix pioneered concepts such as a subscription service offering unlimited monthly rentals for one fee, no late charges and a personalized recommendation system to predict movie choices for members. By 2005, Netflix had 4.2 million members.
Things seemed great when the company unveiled streaming in 2007, which let you watch TV shows and movies on your personal computers. By 2008 — the starting point of TechStuff's third and final podcast on the topic — Netflix expanded streaming to the Xbox 360, Blu-ray disc players and TV set-top boxes. But it now faced a major competitor: Hulu, a joint operation between NBC Universal and News Corporation, unveiled that same year.
So the old story that the founder was inspired to start Netflix after being charged a Blockbuster late fee over a video of Apollo 13 has been debunked.
Remember when you couldn't get away from the Netflix popups?  Good times.  


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