Netflix announced this Tuesday, April 18, the closure of its service for the sale of movies and series in DVD format at home after 25 years of operation and 5,200 million records sold.
“After 25 years of incredible trajectory, we have decided to close DVD.com at the end of this year. (…) We want to say goodbye in style and we will ship our last discs on September 29, 2023,” the company detailed in a statement. signed by his co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
Netflix’s revenue from the DVD business fell progressively in the last decade to the point that last year it barely billed US$146 million, 20% less than in 2021, which represented only 0.5% of their total income.
2010 was the year in which the service of DVD It had the largest number of subscribers: 20 million, but it was losing strength.
“Our goal has always been to offer the best service to our members, but as business has shrunk, it has become more and more difficult. (…) To everyone who has ever added a DVD to their shopping cart or waited by the mailbox for a red envelope (we) thank you,” Sarandos continued.
Before streaming became a lucrative industry that would be approached by entrepreneurs from various sectors, Netflix was a company whose profits revolved around sending DVD by post in easily recognizable red and white envelopes.
In fact, it was these products that led to the first foray of the now platform into the world of video on demand back in 2007 and, a year before, in original programming with titles from the production company Red Envelope Entertainment —in honor of those envelopes. reds—like “Sherrybaby” and “Zach Galifianakis: live at the purple onion.”
How did Netflix come about?
When Americans Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded a movie rental company 25 years ago in DVD called Netflix, no one could have imagined that this company would accumulate a capital of US$36,000 million for the distribution of audiovisual content.
Hastings often tells a story that stems from his anger after paying a $30 fine for late returning the “Apollo 13” tape to his trusted video store.
The rise of DVD, an initial catalog of about a thousand titles and the flexibility to return the films up to a week later gave shape to a business idea that It skyrocketed to make the company a giant with derivative products and more than 11,500 employees.
“We feel very privileged to have been able to share movie nights with our DVD partners for so long (…) and very excited to continue pleasing entertainment fans for many decades to come,” the statement from the first streaming service completed. at the global level.
Source: Larepublica
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