Netflix

Netflix, Inc. is an American provider of on-demand Internet streaming media available to viewers in North and South America, the Caribbean, and parts of Europe. As of 2017, the company has its headquarters in Los Gatos, California.

History
Netflix was founded on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California, by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings. Randolph worked as marketing director for Hastings' company, Pure Atria Corporation. Randolph was a co-founder of MicroWarehouse, a computer mail-order company, and was later employed by Borland International as vice president of marketing. Hastings, a computer scientist, and mathematician sold Pure Atria to Rational Software Corporation in 1997 for $700 million. He and Randolph came up with the idea for Netflix while commuting between their homes in Santa Cruz and Pure Atria's headquarters in Sunnyvale while waiting for government regulators to approve the merger.

Netflix was launched on April 14, 1998, with only 30 employees and 925 DVDs available through the pay-per-rent model with rates and due dates that were similar to its bricks-and-mortar rival, Blockbuster.

Netflix's initial business model included DVD sales and rental, although Hastings jettisoned DVD sales about a year after Netflix's founding to focus on the DVD rental by mail business. In 2007, Netflix expanded its business with the streaming media, while retaining the DVD and Blu-ray rental service. The company expanded internationally, with streaming made available to Canada in 2010 and continued growing its streaming service from there; by January 2016, Netflix services operated in over 190 countries.

Netflix entered the content-production industry in 2013, debuting its first series, House of Cards. It has greatly expanded the production of both film and television series since then, offering "Netflix Original" content through its online library of films and television. Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or films in 2016, more than any other network or cable channel.

In January 2017, Netflix reported having over 93 million subscribers worldwide, including more than 49 million in the United States.

Season 1
On December 11, 2020, Netflix released the first season of The Mess You Leave Behind, which consisted of eight episodes.

See more

 * Netflix Wiki