Address:
100 Winchester Circle
Los Gatos, California 95032

Phone:
(408) 540-3700

Year Founded:
1997

Total Annual Sales:
$4,374,562,000

Senior Executives:
Reed Hastings- Founder and CEO

Netflix was founded as a new age, video rental retailer by Reed Hastings in 1997.  The company relied on the platform of a still fairly young Internet to make its product offerings and maintain individual order lists from its rapidly growing cadre of subscribers.  Mr. Hastings continues as the company’s visionary leader and rapid-fire trouble shooter.

Hastings essentially inaugurated the concept of nationwide consumer video rentals through the mail.  The new concept bore fruit quickly as Netflix soon became the fastest-growing customer of the USPS.

Hastings never ceased in his fascination with evolving technologies and new ways to incorporate them into the business.  Netflix was one of the earliest companies to seek to applications of what is now commonly called video streaming.  The evolution of this process was a slow one as was the development of a procession of machines capable of receiving movies at the homes of consumers.  Now the application is of course universal and along with it the popularity of Netflix has grown by leaps and bounds.

More recently Netflix has become a content producer.  The company’s first TV series have gained popularity with the viewing public as well as numerous industry awards.  Entire seasons of Netflix shows are released simultaneously.  As Netflix management had anticipated, consumers immediately bought into this concept.  This has created the phenomenon now known as ‘binge viewing’, that is viewing an entire season of a show in one weekend, often the first weekend the show is released.