Netflix Incorporation is a media-service-providing company. It is a publicly held production company. The headquarters are in Los Gatos, California. The founding fathers are Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. It comes under the MPA.
Earlier it was involved in the sales of DVD and rental business by mail, but later, it switched to the rental, and then in 2010, it started off with the streaming business and then to production in 2013 with the series: House of Cards.
The company has been taking debts to increase its production and popularity as much as possible. It has billions of dollars in debt, but the company is doing great when it comes to the produced series and movies.
The company is held mainly by investors like The Vanguard Group, Capital Group Companies, and BlackRock. There are other investors too.
Netflix history
The initial days
The company was established in 1997 on the 29th of August by the two founding fathers. Reed Hastings had invested the money for the startup, and the amount was around $ 2.5 million.
Then in 1999, Netflix brought up the idea of monthly subscriptions, and then in 2000, they came up with a model of single renting.
The rise of Netflix
Later in 2000, as the company was going through loss, it was ready to be sold to Blockbuster company just for $50 million. But the contract was declined.
Later the spurt of internet growth led to the success of the company, but due to the 9/11 attacks, the company again suffered losses and laid off some of its employees.
But again, in 2002, the conditions became favorable for the growth of the company.
The profit and growth began in the year 2003, and it has been growing till now.
By 2007, they had the streaming business, and DVD sales came down drastically.
Red Envelope Entertainment had also started but later was closed to avoid any internal competition with its partners.
The present-day
Then in 2014, it had approached 41 countries and had around subscribers around the world to be around 50 million.
Further, in 2016, Netflix started to ban VPNs. Netflix, in 2018, became one of the largest digital media companies.
The year 2019, Netflix had become a member of the MPAA, being the first of its kind in the association.
Netflix Brand value
The number of paid subscriptions speaks for the value of the brand. It had around 183 million subscribers, with 69 million residing in the U.S.A alone. The type of site is an over-the-top platform that provides media via the internet directly to the user.
According to the data in 2019, the revenue generated 2019 was around $20 billion. It has about 6700 employees working for the success of the company.
It has made its place in the Fortune 500 list too. It has earned many more awards also.
Netflix Brand strategies
One of its kind
Earlier, when it started, it was one of its kind, and the main business strategy is to provide streaming services of a galore of videos, movies, in-house productions, podcasts, etc., which are subscription-based.
It has a special segment in the galore of movies and videos called Netflix Originals from 2012.
It had managed to broadcast 126 series, which came under Netflix Originals, and this was more than any other media service provider.
Netflix was the first rental store to rent out DVDs online.
Availability and services
It is available in almost all countries except a few, like Syria, Crimea, China, and North Korea. The number of paid subscribers speaks about the availability, too, as there are 182 million subscribers, out of which 69 million are from the U.S.A alone. It has offices in countries like India, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and the Netherlands.
Since 2016 it has been available in more than 190 countries.
The services are available on a lot of tech devices like computers, mobile phones, tablets, TVs, and gaming consoles too.
Walking with the trend
Netflix initially had ideas of bringing up a box and providing services with the help of the box, and they had successfully pulled off this new plan by 2005. Later, with the success of YouTube, the streaming industry benefited, and thus Netflix also gave inputs for the online streaming instead of the “Netflix box.” By 2007, Netflix had an online streaming business.
The video recommendation came in handy, and this is how the company impressed its users.
In 2016, they added a new feature that allowed the user to download the content and watch it during the unavailability of the internet.
Great deeds never go down the drain.
In the year 2015, Netflix decided to create content accessible for blind people too. This was announced by Tracy Wright, who was the director of content operations. The announcement mentioned that the company would be adding an audio description for the visually challenged and blind people to understand.
They also added screen readers, facilitated content browsing, and audio description added to other series as well.
Some deals for development
In 2017, Netflix entered China, too, through another streaming service known as iQiyi, owned by Baidu. In 2017, Netflix took over Millarworld, the comic book publishing company. The writer of the comic book was Mark Millar.
Further, it had a deal with the famous American television producer Shonda Rhimes. In the year 2018, Netflix collaborated with Sky channels. It had another deal with the famous individual Kenya Barris with its own company Khalabo Ink Society for producing content on Netflix. There were several other deals that year there as a deal with the famous writer Harlen Coben, then with another famous creator, Alex Hirsch.
It didn’t stop there; Netflix went on to acquire ABQ Studios, and there was a deal with Paramount Picture too.
In the year 2019, it acquired StoryBots. There was a deal with DHE.
They even had a deal with D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, who are popular because of the Game of Thrones series.
They have been expanding in the kid’s category with the help of Nickelodeon.
They later went for anime too, which is a popular genre of content that people have been watching, and thus have been in agreement with six different creators from Japan.
Netflix Future strategies
The company has been working and looking more into the making of content more friendly for differently-abled people. They have been working on the streaming issues also because of the global pandemic issue; thus, the broadband companies have requested to look into the matter of pressure on the network providers.
It has decided to focus on the censorship issues too and look for deep depressing matters to spread awareness but not let it lead to another problem in society. Netflix, with its tie-ups, has been engaged in the creation of content that is unique, new, and authentic. They have been focusing on the content strategy too.
Conclusion
Netflix is a role model company for so many others who are into the media service providing business. It has made its content and timing as flexible as possible for the viewers to watch at any time, anywhere.
The pandemic has raised concern for the mental health of the population, but with the services of Netflix, people have been able to surf through a sea of genres and watch its content to keep themselves busy and engage their minds. It has been a great, reliable source of entertainment during this pandemic.
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