Netflix is a subscription-based streaming service that allows people to watch T.V. shows and movies on an internet-connected device, and its service providing across 190 countries. People worldwide realize that paying so much money for cable only has to still sit through ads, and this has given way more streaming services like Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime, etc. However, for now, Netflix is at the top of the list. So far, this much we know about Netflix. Here are the Top 10 Fascinating Facts you didn’t know about Netflix. This list will help you to find out more about Netflix. So, buckle up, and let’s start the counting.
Top 10 Fascinating Facts you didn’t know about Netflix.
10. Netflix’s Position in the Market.
Netflix is still the champion by a wide margain of the U.S. market. It passed 200 million subscribers worldwide recently. Netflix is the 33rd most valuable brand in this world (fortune.com). The film and the T.V. giant that is Netflix boasts an annual revenue of approximately 25 billion U.S. dollars. Netflix claims a spot in the top 500 of America’s Best employers was about 9,400 employees. All of this is thanks to Netflix’s approximate 200 million worldwide users.
9. Why is it Call Netflix?
The name Netflix is a clever and witty fusion of the word “Net.” meaning The Internet, and “Flix” is a shortened version of Flicks which means Movies, and there you go, now you know why Netflix is called Netflix. But there is another fact that Netflix wasn’t always going to call Netflix. The US-Based video business used to call Kibble, then It was changed into NetFlix.com and later, Netflix. Well, the number of possible names are considered before settling on the superior Netflix, including DirectPix, Replay, NowShowing, eFlix, Cinema Center. I guess they choose the right word because I can’t imagine saying Cinema-Center and Chilling.
8. How Old is Netflix?
Netflix is 23 years old. The company was founded on August 29th of 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California. By the year 1997, Marc Randolph served as CEO of Netflix until 1999, when he handed the control over Reed Hastings. Before 1999 Netflix was a DVD rental store. In 1999 Netflix began to offer an online subscription service through the Internet only in the USA. By the year 2016, its streaming service was available in more than 190 countries. Now in 2021, the company’s popularity is expanding around the world. Based on research, more than 50% of US-based adults had a Netflix subscription.
7. Worst Days of Netflix.
This story may not be a secret that once Netflix offered to sell itself to Blockbuster in 2000 for $50 million. Hastings come down to an agreement where Netflix would act as the online complement to Blockbuster’s traditional brick-and-mortar model. But Blockbuster turned down the offer. Guess what? It was Blockbuster’s colossal loss. We all know what happened after that.
Four years later, at the end of 2004, Netflix had about 2.6 million subscribers, while Blockbuster had only 9,100 retail location, and in the year 2010, Blockbuster filed bankruptcy. In 2017 Blockbuster used to have only nine stores and Netflix was worth more than 40 Billion USD. And now, in the year 2021, Blockbuster only have one store . But Netflix is still growing. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Netflix earned total revenue of over 6.64 billion U.S. dollars. Its ever-growing global subscriber base has heavily impacted Netflix’s gain.
6. Netflix Investment in their Content.
According to research past three years, Netflix spends more than $43 Billion U.S. Dollars on video content. Netflix almost spent $12 billion on streaming content in 2018, $14 billion in 2019, $14.3 billion in 2020 and also they suggested that the company budget could exceed $19 billion in 2021 (statista). Netflix is being watched more than any other cable service in the United States. Also, Netflix has more subscriber than the top 8 U.S. cable companies combined. So, It’s easy to guess that the leading Netflix market is the United States.
5. How Many Hours People Spends on Netflix?
In 2019, Netflix’s vice president for original content, Cindy Holland, said that the Netflix subscribers watch an average of two hours a day. Also, that’s over 2 billion hours of content streamed per week on Netflix. Cindy Holland said that most subscribers worldwide mainly watch Netflix on T.V. rather than Mobile devices.
4. Netflix’s Original “Content”.
Netflix subscribers are not likely unfamiliar with a large amount of original content that the company provide, including series such as “Stranger Things”, “Ozark”, “The Crown”, “GLOW”, “The Witcher”, and many more. In July 2013, 14 of Netflix’s original content received Emmy nomination. Including “House of Cards,” the political drama series, which received nine nominations, including best drama and best actor and actress. Netflix holds 612 nominations for Emmy, and it won 112 Emmy Awards from the year 2013 to 2020 .
However, the company tested out video formats and capabilities long before any of those programs hit the streaming service. They uploaded an 11 minutes long video Titled “Example Show”, which was used for testing its ability to stream high definition content.
3. Netflix V/S Pirates.
Do you know? It’s estimated that internet pirates cost the U.S. film and T.V. industries approximately $71 billion annually. But Netflix analyzes the trends and videos with high piracy rates and uses that information to adjust the films and television shows available to Netflix subscribers. Also, to prevent such illegal content leakage, Netflix and other streaming services protect their content using a technology called “DRM” and “Watermarking.” Netflix uses Google’s “Widevine” DRM service, which is also used by many streaming companies such as “Amazon Prime”, “Disney Plus,” etc.
2. Netflix and Its Internet Traffic.
It’s no wonder that Netflix consumes so much of the globe’s streaming traffic. Some of you may have wondered that Youtube takes this place, but most of Youtube’s contents are shorter than Netflix’s content, meaning it drives less streaming traffic than Netflix, even if Youtube has more users overall. But watching high definition content requires a good internet connection. A high speed-internet was one of the significant problems Netflix had to overcome in its early years. At that time, many people didn’t have Broadband Internet, but as high-speed Internet became more and more popular, more and more people could stream. Now, a good amount of the world’s Internet bandwidth goes to watching content on Netflix (LINK 17).
1. Why did Netflix succeed?
Despite all this revenue and growth, Netflix was operating at a loss recently in 2019. It’s because Netflix was still growing. You might say Netflix spends more money than it takes in. The world is switching to Internet-based entertainment, and Netflix is investing more and more in their original content. It is likely put together that there will be no cable but multiple streaming account in the future.
Apart from that, a Netflix subscription saves you from thousands of hours of ads. Over the years, television became more exorbitant, and there have been more and more ads. It’s just a waste of time watching, “Sponsered by,” Brought to you by”. Netflix keeps you away from these annoying ads and saves your time, and lets you enjoy more of their excellent contents.
There’s no doubt that Netflix is great at creating their original content. I think Original content plays a significant role in Netflix’s success story. To help you understand the idea of original content playing a vital role in the success story, consider “Bird Box”, a film created by Netflix. On December 29th, 2018, Netflix announced that more than 45 million accounts watched Netflix’s horror movie “BirdBox”.
When Netflix first announced that Netflix would produce its own content, people were unsure of its content quality. However, Netflix surprised them all, and all the money invested in original content has paid off in both revenue and recognition.
I don’t know that this fact affects Netflix success so much, but Netflix employees are treated very well. According to employees reviews on Glassdoor, employees get the bonus of a free account as a perk of working for Netflix and an impressive starting salary. It’s no wonder Netflix ranks in United State’s top 500 employers.
See also; Most Watched TV Channels of the world.
Conclusion
Next time when you sit down and watch Netflix, remember that you’re using a service that has completely changed the way we watch T.V. It’s a great source of entertainment. Now, we can expect that Netflix will be relevant in their upcoming years.