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Considered the largest and most popular platform for streaming currently, the Netflix bears the mark of existence in 190 countries and ad-free playback in more than 30 languages, giving the user the possibility to watch what they want, when they want. let's meet the Netflix history, from its creation to the present day, moments of growth, main phases and outstanding curiosities of this giant of streaming movies and series.
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How did Netflix come about?
A Netflix came into being on August 29, 1997, created by entrepreneurs Mark Randolph e Reed Hastings and had its first headquarters in the city of Scotts valley, California (later moving to The cats, in Santa Clara County). In the beginning, the company carried out the DVD rental through orders with delivery and return via post office — with orders placed on Netflix and its website Netflix.com —, an innovation at the time and which became the seed of all the brand's future potential.
About the creators of Netflix, Mark Randolph had an academic background in geology and a lot of experience in marketing while Reed Hastings He had a degree in mathematics and a specialization in artificial intelligence. Both were already working in their areas and had a common interest in companies and business models operating in the online world, such as Amazon and the Google.
The idea of rent movies via post office it was a great opportunity for those who didn't have a rental store close to home. In order to guarantee an intact and quality delivery to its customers' homes when the rental service is carried out, the founders Marc e Reed tested the traditional courier service by sending optical media to themselves — since VHS tapes were very fragile and DVDs were just entering the market.
As it was not known if anyone had done this before, it was important to test the logistics and security of this new modality of dvd rental with delivery and return via post office and she did really well. The company was then registered in the city of Scotts Valley and had an initial investment of $1,9 million, donated by Reed Hastings, which soon became the first Netflix owner, with 70% of the company, alongside Mark Randolph, who kept the remainder, becoming a minority owner.
At the beginning, still in beta phase, the Netflix project was called kibble, in reference to an old advertisement that said “it doesn’t matter how good dog food marketing is if the dog doesn’t eat”. With everything ready and the online part tested, the services finally started and, in April 14, 1998 at 9:00 am, the website was launched www.netflix.com, the first portal for the online DVD rental and sales. At that time, the company had few employees and less than 1000 titles at its disposal.
The first brand logos displayed on your website — with the words Net e Flix written separately —, show their main meaning: “Net” as an abbreviation for internet and “Flix” coming from a variation of flick, a word used informally in the American language to refer to movies (movies e movies) in abbreviated form. Other names that entered the list of official possibilities for the brand were CinemaCenter, e-flix, Now Showing, sceneOne e videopix.
Growth and subscription service
In the late 90s, more precisely in 1999, Netflix evolved its system and created a subscription service of the portal, which offered its customers the possibility of renting DVDs in unlimited amounts e no return date. Goodbye monthly caps and late fees, some of the main goals the platform intended to combat. O subscription service also offered a free trial, the “free trial“, which was granted when inviting a friend, through a code, to the platform.
Subscription had its perks, which included:
- area for list creation of favorite movies;
- Arrival of DVDs via mail between 2 and 4 days by the service of first-class mail;
- Possibility of staying with up to 3 DVDs leased once for an unlimited period of time for the duration of the subscription;
- Return by of DVDs via mail free, and you can already receive another one from your favorites list.
Em 2000, Netflix implemented the title recommendation system based on user profiles, one of the platform's greatest triumphs. The title recommendation algorithm, called cinematch at the time, it is made from a database that the system archives, based on productions already watched and evaluated by its users. Even in 2000, Reed Hastings tried to partner with the rental giant Blockbuster, who refused it and, as we know, would miss a great future opportunity to continue to exist.
But it was in 2002when Netflix (NFLX) decided to go public and start its public offering of shares (IPO) in Nasdaq at the cost of $1 per share, which she began to grow in strides. She then reached the unprecedented mark of 1 million signatures in the year of 2003 — winning in the same year a patent of the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) — and to surpass the 5 million of subscribers in 2006.
It was also around this time, more precisely in 2005, that Netflix implemented - from the number of users growing more and more - the system of Profiles, so that each family member could access their favorite movies and series using a single account. through the Profiles, individual favorite title lists can be saved for each family member, similar to how we use the customizable desktop on the PC.
As a curiosity, the DVD and Blu-Ray rental service via Netflix mail exists to this day - through the site www.dvd.com (available in the US only) with no. Instagram e Twitter — and has millions of users, even with all the evolution that the platform Netflix would win, as we will see below. Much of the service's popularity is the greater variety of movies, user preference and the compression quality of physical media compared to streaming.
Another interesting fact was that the Netflix created in 2001 a social network call Friends. The idea was that users of the platform could connect, revealing the movies they watched, preferences, among other frills common to social networks for interaction. However, the idea did not work very well and this new form of connection never reached more than 5% of subscribed users. This fact caused it to be discontinued in 2010, part of a Netflix policy called Scraping Barnacles (something like “gravel scraping”, in free translation), whose main agenda is the removal of content that does not add value to the company.
Legacy as a streaming platform
It didn't take long for a big change to take place in the Netflix and with that, 2007 marked the year in which the service of streaming (viewing movies completely remotely) was introduced on Netflix, with the description “Watch Now”. Now, subscribers to streaming platform could watch their favorite movies and series without having to wait for the post office or having a DVD player, with access to them 24 hours a day.
However, at this time, the novelty of online reproduction only worked on computers equipped with Internet Explorer and had a limit of hours of free streaming based on each member's subscription plans. Even so, the service DVD shipments via post office remained, as not all were able to adhere to the streaming. he would come to separate from streaming in the future — but before going through a failed attempt to separation of the signatures in 2010 (at prices of US$7,99 or US$15,98 for one or two subscriptions respectively), which generated a loss of about 600 thousand subscribers, and the idea of creating the company qwikster (2011), which also failed.
It didn't take long for the Netflix streaming service to become available to more devices, increasing the means for available movies and series to be watched. Through partnerships, soon the Netflix was present in several electronics brands, such as videogamesdevices Blu-ray e TV decoders (2008), as well as Smart TVs (2009) and smartphones (2010), reaching and exceeding its subscription base by 10 million in XNUMX. 2009.
At this time, there was a competition that was looking for an algorithm that would further increase the level of accuracy of Netflix's recommendations for its users. With the victory, the BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos showed that it was possible to increase the level of accuracy of recommendations by 10% and won the prize of 1 million dollars for the contest.
Netflix put on display then, at this time, its mission and its values, which it called Netflix Culture (Netflix Culture: Freedom and Responsibility). It was a 129 slide show which brought many of the company's characteristics to its employees, in addition to revealing its questions about topics such as freedom, innovation, respect, responsibility, interaction, performance and many other subjects.
Expansion and original creations
Soon then, all this success would also reach other places outside the US, and so it did, with Netflix expanding its horizons to the Canada em 2010 — year in which a section was created within the platform dedicated to children's titles — , Latin America and the Caribbean em 2011, ireland, united kingdom e Nordic countries in the year of 2012 — reaching the mark of 25 million subscriptions -, and Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg e Switzerland in 2014, surpassing the 50 Millions Subscribers. This was just the beginning of “Netflix world domination”, in which TVs could already access the platform from a single existing button (in 2011) on the most modern remote controls!
It was then that, given the growing success and the expectation to reach greater and greater heights than the Netflix began to invest in the production of titles originally made in-house, having as its first production the Stand-up "Bill Burr: You People Are All the Same“, opened in 2012. This was also the year of first original series of the debut platform, lilyhammer, on February 6, although it was not considered a completely original series on the platform (see further down in the section Netflix Original Titles).
Em 2013, it was the turn of the first big original series of the house to be launched competitively, among which “House of Cards” — winner of 3 awards Emmy Awards, inaugurating the entry of streaming series into the awards —, “Hemlock Grove","Arrested Development"and "O“. Is at 2015, the first original film came out of the oven: "Beasts of No Nation“. That same year, the first original series in a foreign language (other than English) was also launched, with the Mexican drama comedy crows club (Club de Cuervos, in the original), in addition to the reality show Terrace House, the first Asian original.
The expansion to other countries went hand in hand with the improvements made to the system. After relaunching in a more modern way the resources Profiles e My list (2013), the streaming platform started to follow the wave of state-of-the-art TVs and broadcast some of its titles by streaming in quality 4K Ultra HD (2014). The feature known as audio descriptions — aimed at serving people with hearing difficulties — debuted with the Marvel series "demolisher” (2015) in the same year that countries like Australia, Cuba, Italy, Japan, Spain e New Zealand also gained access to the platform.
Another big step was taken in 2016, when Netflix expanded its content, making it available to more than 130 countries and then adding the mark of 190 countries who could access it, along with a total of 21 languages available. With this, and knowing the internet limitation in many of the places where Netflix was being launched, the company made the download feature, allowing access to various titles in a offline, to watch anytime and anywhere after downloaded, regardless of connection speed.
Quality improvement and rewards
With the growing popularity and more investments in the platform, the Netflix it had an advance in the number and quality of its productions, which ended up causing more and more notoriety around the world. In 2017, Netflix has surpassed the mark of 100 million of subscribers and won your first OscarBy Best Documentary Short Film, with "The White Helmets“. That same year, she introduced the interactive feature in their productions, in addition to also giving the user the possibility to skip the openings.
The wave of awards followed and, in 2018, Netflix won 23 statuettes in Emmy for series like "Black Mirror","GLOW","Godless","Queer Eye"and "seven seconds“, in a total of 112 nominations, making it the studio with the most award nominations that year. In August 2018, the platform was already responsible for consuming 15% of the internet worldwide.
More nominations occurred in 2019, year in which the movie streaming platform and the world's most famous series would win four Oscar statuettes with the productionsRoma"and "Absorbing the Taboo“. Also this year, Netflix won its first Interactive Title Emmy with the episode in movie/event format titled “BlackMirror: Bandersnatch" is at 2020, she became the streaming platform with more Emmy and Oscar nominations. It was also in 2019 that it proceeded with the opening of new production centers in London, Madrid, New York e Toronto.
Of course, all these awards could not fail to be accompanied by some changes and other very welcome news within the Netflix. Some of them occurred with the implementation of a PIN code as new parental control protection feature (2018), launch of its first original animation with Klaus (2019), opening of the TOP 10 list, which gave subscribers the possibility to follow those productions that were most in demand (2020) and, more recently, the games launch for mobile devices (2021). As a result, in 2021, Netflix announced the milestone of surpassing 200 million subscriptions worldwide.
All this growth that Netflix has achieved has also been accompanied by important achievements, where the company has always been demonstrating its commitment to society. As an example, in 2020, Netflix created the emergency fund "Hardship Fund“, to help creative workers who have been impacted by covid-19 — with 2% of the balance going to institutions that support black communities. In 2021, Netflix showed its study on diversity in films and series, a collaborative work with the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which is linked to University of Southern California. Also in 2021, she announced that she plans to reset its net emissions of greenhouse gases by the end of 2022.
Currently, the Netflix owner é Reed Hastings, since its co-founder, Mark Randolph, left the company in 2003, shortly after passing the position of Netflix CEO to Reed. Joins Reed today, serving alongside Co-Executive Director and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos and the director of operations and product Greg Peters.
The history of Netflix through time
Let's look at an ordered summary of the main moments of the history of Netflix over the years:
pre-streaming
- 1997: Creation of the company;
- 1998: Launch of the website www.netflix.com;
- 1999: Implementation of the monthly subscription plan;
- 2000: Personalized recommendation service;
- 2001: Creation of the social network “Friends”;
- 2002: Entry of Netflix (NFLX) on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange;
- 2003: Reach 1 million signatures;
- 2004: Reach 2 million signatures;
- 2005: Launch of the Profiles resource;
- 2006: Reach 5 million subscribers;
post-streaming
- 2007: Start of the movie and series streaming service;
- 2008: Partnership with many electronic devices;
- 2009: Reach 10 million subscriptions and partnership with Smart TVs;
- 2010: Expansion to Canada and partnership with Smartphones;
- 2011: Expansion to Latin America (including the arrival of Netflix in Brazil) and the Caribbean;
- 2012: Reach 25 million subscriptions and expand to Ireland, Nordic countries and the UK;
- 2013: Large investment in the launch of Netflix original series;
- 2014: Reach 50 million subscriptions and expand to Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Introduction of 4K Ultra HD streaming;
- 2015: Opening of the first original film and the first foreign-language original series. Expansion to Australia, Cuba, Spain, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. Feature debut audio descriptions;
- 2016: Expansion to 130 more countries and implementation of the download feature;
- 2017: Reach 100 million signatures and win the first Oscar;
- 2018: Winning 23 Emmy Awards for Original Series;
- 2019: Premiere of the first original animation and opening of new production centers in London, Madrid, New York and Toronto;
- 2020: Inclusion of the TOP 10 list and consecration as the studio with the most Emmy and Oscar nominations;
- 2021: Reach 200 million subscriptions and game launches;
- 2022: Inauguration of the Netflix is a Joke: The Festival event.
Netflix Original Titles
We've seen a slew of original Netflix titles taking over the streaming scene. At Netflix original productions today occupy a much higher percentage than that seen in the past, reaching, at the end of 2021, more than 2400 titles — delivering most of the launches that arrive daily on the platform.
The term Original Titles is given both to productions made and created in the Netflix studios, considered the truly original, as well as for other cases. Let's see what a series really needs to earn the seal"N"Of OriginalNetflix:
- Netflix's own production;
- Acquisition of exclusive international rights by Netflix in a given production;
- Co-production with another company;
- Continuation of an already canceled series.
Among the Original Titles most important of Netflix; the most iconic, consecrated and most successful among the public; let us now see a brief summary of its main qualities, plot and history of reception.
Lillyhammer (2012 – 2014)
Starting the wave of series sponsored by the house, lillyhammer tells the story of Frank Tagliano (Steven VanZandt), a former New York mobster who gains refuge and a new identity — as a form of protection after denouncing a mafia boss —, deciding to settle in the small town of Lillehammer, Norway, to live in peace and build a new history. Now, in the new city and with a new name, “Giovanni Henriksen” (as it is now served) will have to fight his behavior to get out of bigger trouble.
the norwegian series lillyhammer can be considered the first Netflix original series, initially broadcast by the Norwegian free-to-air TV channel NRK, and, shortly after its acquisition by Netflix, on the streaming platform, which became its co-producer from the second season. The third and final season of the series features Brazilian actors — such as Antônio Pitanga, Caetano O'Maihlan, Emílio Dantas and Ildi Silva, Joana Chiapetta —, in addition to filming locations in neighborhoods city of Rio de Janeiro because of character involvement roar lien (Steinar Sagen), a member of Frank's gang, with a local woman he had met via website.
House of Cards (2013 – 2018)
Netflix's first big bet on its original productions, the series House of Cards tells the story of Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and his ambition to rule the United States, pushing him beyond the limits in search of leadership. To achieve his goal, he has the help of his wife, another politician and an ambitious journalist.
The series, which is an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Michael Dobbs, was a great success on the platform — winning several awards over the years — and had six seasons em 73 episodes. It was also the first production to be reproduced in high resolution. 4K Ultra HD on Netflix.
Birdbox (2018)
The film Bird box shows an incident with the planet Earth, when a woman (Sandra Bullock) must take two children a long way blindfolded—the only way to avoid the loose specters that, when spotted, cause extreme feelings, leading to compulsive suicide. one of the great End of the world themed titles, Bird box was successful for introducing a famous actress in an interesting and mysterious plot.
Based on the book of the same name that was written by josh malerman, Bird box had his recordings in places of Los Angeles e Monrovia, with scenes of forest at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park quality river on the Smith River, both located in California. Many awards were given to the film, such as Scariest Performance by Bullock, in MTV Movie+TV Award (2009) Best music (Golden Trailer Awards, 2019), Best Streaming Movie (Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, 2019), among others.
Stranger Things (2016 – Current)
One of the pillars and also one of the most famous productions of the brand today, Stranger Things gathered everything a good series needs: a group of friends on adventures, mysterious cases to discover and a super 80s vibe! The discovery of a inverted world a small town and charismatic characters, including a protagonist with superpowers, only came to further increase the public's acceptance and the success he would receive.
walking to the second da fourth and penultimate season, Stranger Things became a success when it was launched and has already secured several awards in the Emmy Awards, in addition to festivals such as Good luck, Grammy, MTV Movie & TV Awards and many others. The series also boasts high ratings on ranking sites such as Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb and is now one of Netflix's top franchises, earning a day specially dedicated to him at the event Netflix Geek Week.
Round 6 (2021 - Current)
A worldwide phenomenon since its launch, Round 6 (read our review), also known as Squid Games in the rest of the world, tells the story of people in situations of financial difficulty who accept the offer to join a game with the chance to win a great fortune at the end of the contest. However, they would not have the content, shall we say, bloodthirsty and deadly of the competition which uses many children's play themes as the theme of its games.
The series — which was supposed to be a movie and, at first, was rejected by a Korean studio — gained the support of Netflix and became the phenomenon it is today, in addition to already guaranteeing the prediction of a second season, with recordings already started. In the face of such popularity, it was recently announced that the franchise will gain a competition in a reality show format based on the series and organized by Netflix. Squid Game: The Challenge, a 10-episode series with real-life contestants, intends to offer a $4,56 million prize to the winner who defeats another 455 contestants in contests with softer eliminations (we hope).
Netflix in Brazil
On September 5, 2011, Netflix was launched in Brazil and the company would sign a license agreement with several production companies, including Paramount, Sony Pictures, BBC Worldwide, MGM e Disney, to name a few. THE Netflix in Brazil in 2015 it already had a higher value than that generated by open TV.
Many national productions entered the streaming platform's catalog, in addition to original titles produced on Brazilian soil, such as debutante 3%. Even with a smaller supply of bonds in relation to the US, the Brazil can be considered one of countries with a greater amount of available productions, surpassing many European countries.
One of the attractions for the Brazilian public includes the social networks brand here, always very tuned in to the Brazilian public. Another great event was the holding of the event TUDUM Netflix, initially held in person on January 25, 2020 in the city of São Paulo for Brazilian fans, which featured the second edition in november the same year and had its worldwide expansion the following year with the event entitled TUDUM Netflix: A Global Event.
Conceived in 2020, due to the second edition of the event, the Almanac TUDUM — a kind of encyclopedia containing many colorful and richly diagrammed pages, with questionnaires and panels that publicize the main productions of Netflix, in addition to revealing many good curiosities about the platform. The almanac won, in 2021, One special edition in 10 years celebration of national presence of the biggest streaming platform today.
Main events
Netflix is a Joke: The Festival
The first edition of the event "Netflix Is a Joke: The Festival” lasted 11 days and took place between the April 28 and May 8 2022 in person in the city of Los Angeles, California, with 295 presentations. The event featured live comedy performances and was held in 30 city locations, being considered by Netflix the biggest comedy festival on the planet ever made!
Bringing an immense list of comedians and idols from stand up — including a large list of Brazilians —, the festival presented interviews, comedy shows, script readings, podcast recordings, and other attractions. It is worth noting that many of the concerts performed are being broadcast by the streaming platform.
Geeked Week (Geeked Week)
Five days of event brought the best of news in geeked week from Netflix. With each day dedicated to a specific subject, among which series, movies, animations, Stranger Things and games, the event, which took place between June 6th and 10th, brought many topics from the nerd world that added up to 60 new productions to be released in the coming months.
TUDUM Netflix: A Global Event
The event that started in Brazil gained greater proportions in its third edition, now has a worldwide broadcast in an online event that always brings lots of news about the main titles that will appear on the platform over the next few months. Depending on the success of EVERYTHING (the same opening sound as the productions in the Netflix catalogue), he should return soon, later this year, in a new and electrifying global event.
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enjoyed meeting the Netflix history and its current features? Comment below. And take the opportunity to also read on our website a article telling the Nintendo history, from the time of playing cards to the present day.
Sources: Netflix, Fortune, slide share, R7, What's on Netflix 1 | 2, Interesting Engineering, British, Good Times, muo, Veja, filmow, UOL, Gibson Biddle's “Ask Gib” Product Newsletter
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