Timeline of Netflix

Netflix is an American technology & media-services provider and production company headquartered in Los Gatos, California, founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California. This is an abridged history of the formation and growth of Netflix, which grown to become the largest entertainment company in the United States in terms of market capitalization as of 2020.

Full timeline
YearMonth and dateEvent typeDetails
1997August 29CompanyNetflix founded in Scotts Valley, California by Marc Randolph[1][2] and Reed Hastings, who previously had worked together at Pure Software.
1998April 14ProductNetflix launches its website[3] with 925 titles available for rent through a traditional pay-per-rental model (50¢US per rental U.S. postage; late fees applied).[4]
1999JulyFundingNetflix raises up $30 million in venture capital.[5]
SeptemberProductNetflix launches its monthly subscription concept.[6]
2000CompanyNetflix offers itself for acquisition to Blockbuster for $50 million; however, Blockbuster declines the offer.[7]
2002CompetitionRedbox is founded. It offers DVD rentals via automated retail kiosks. A year later, it poaches Mitch Lowe, who was a founding executive at Netflix.
May 29CompanyNetflix initiates initial public offering (IPO), selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at the price of US$15.00 per share. It brings in $82.5 million.[8]
2003AprilGrowthNetflix announces that it reaches 1 million subscribers.[9]
2004August 11CompetitionBlockbuster launches Blockbuster online to compete with Netflix, offering unlimited DVD rentals at the flat fee of $19.99/month.[10]
2006September 7CompetitionAmazon introduces video on demand service Amazon Video.
October 1CompanyNetflix offers a $1,000,000 prize to the first developer of a video-recommendation algorithm that could beat its existing algorithm, Cinematch, at predicting customer ratings by more than 10%.[11]
2007January 15ProductNetflix announces that it will launch streaming video.[12]
FebruaryProductNetflix delivers its billionth DVD[13] and begins to move away from its original core business model of mailing DVDs by introducing video on demand via the Internet.
2008March 12CompetitionHulu, a competing online streaming service, launches for public access in the United States.[14]
AugustProductNetflix experiences a giant database corruption. This drives it to shift moving all its data to the Amazon Web Services cloud. It completes its shift to the cloud by January 2016.[15]
2010September 22InternationalNetflix starts expanding its streaming service to the international market, starting with Canada."[16]
DecemberLegalThe FCC Open Internet Order bans cable television and telephone service providers from preventing access to competitors or certain web sites such as Netflix.
2011AprilCompetitionVudu announces the launch of its online streaming service.[17]
JuneTeamNetflix CEO Reed Hastings joins Facebook's board of directors.[18]
September 5 International Netflix launches streaming service in Brazil
September 7 International Netflix launches streaming service in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay
September 8 International Netflix launches streaming service in Chile and Bolivia
September 9 International Netflix launches streaming service in Andean region, including Peru and Ecuador
September 12 International Netflix launches streaming service in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean
September 18ProductReed Hastings says in a Netflix blog post that the DVD section of Netflix would be split off and renamed Qwikster, and the only major change would be separate websites for the services.[19] This change would be retracted a month later.
NovemberFinanceNetflix stock plunges from 42.16/share in July to 9.12/share in November, as 800,000 subscribers quit.[20]
2012January 4InternationalNetflix starts its expansion in Europe, launching in the United Kingdom and Ireland.[21] By September 18 it has expanded to Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.[22]
AprilCompanyNetflix files with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to form a political action committee (PAC) called FLIXPAC.[23]
DecemberProductNetflix experiences massive Christmas Eve outage, due to its hosting on Amazon Web Services. Amazon issues apology several days later.[24]
2013February 1ProductNetflix starts streaming House of Cards, its first original content.[25]
August 1ProductNetflix announces a "Profiles" feature that permits accounts to accommodate up to five user profiles, associated either with individuals or themes of their choosing (e.g., "Date Night").
NovemberCompetitionDish Network announces that Blockbuster will close all remaining stores by the end of the year.[26]
2014FebruaryProductNetflix discovers that Comcast Cable has been slowing its traffic down, and announces that it will pay Comcast to end the slowdown.[27]
September 10ProductNetflix participates in the "Internet Slowdown" by intentionally slowing down its speeds, announcing its opposition to proposed changes in net neutrality rules that act against net neutrality by giving preferred websites the option to pay telecommunication companies for a guaranteed fast lane, in effect slowing down websites that don't pay for that fast lane.[28]
2015 June 24FinanceNetflix announces a 7:1 stock split in form of a dividend of six additional shares for each outstanding share, payable on July 14 to stock owners of record at the July 2 close. Trading at the post-split price will start July 15.
JulyFinanceNetflix announces that its stock has surged to an all-time high (to almost $100/share), a growth of 574% over the past five years.[29]
September 2 International Netflix launches streaming service in Japan.
OctoberProductNetflix announces that it will raise the price of its standard HD plan to $10 per month, up from $9 per month for recent customers. This price hike will be gradually rolled in, a strategy it calls "un-grandfathering." [30]
2016January 6InternationalAt the Consumer Electronics Show, Netflix announces a major international expansion into 130 new territories; with this expansion, the company promoted that its service would now be available nearly "worldwide", with the only notable exclusions including China, and regions subject to U.S. sanctions, such as Crimea (Ukraine), Syria, and North Korea.[31]
JanuaryProductNetflix announces that it will launch originals targeting kids.[32]
February 11ProductNetflix finishes its massive migration of its data servers to Amazon Web Services.[33][34]
MarchLegalNetflix states that it sends lower quality video to mobile subscribers on AT&T and Verizon’s networks for the past 5 years.[35] Some accuse Netflix of hypocrisy on net neutrality.[36]
MayPartnershipsNetflix partners with Univision to broadcast the first season of its original show “Narcos” - testing whether airing old seasons on traditional TV can lure people to sign up for its service ahead of the next season.[37]
November 30ProductAfter years of requests from subscribers, Netflix rolls out an offline playback feature to all of its subscribers in all of its markets.[38]
2017OctoberCompetitionA study showed that the number of Netflix subscribers now equal that of all the cable subscribers combined; 73% of all US households.[39]
2019June-JulycontentNetflix announced that Friends and The Office will be leaving the platform to go to other streaming platforms.
gollark: DFPWM is, by default, 48kbps, if I remember right.
gollark: <@290217153293189120> Opus has configurable bitrate, you know...
gollark: I don't understand why they didn't just use an existing codec like Opus to be honest.
gollark: Even if it didn't, many pieces of software have an operation named "copy" you could use. Or even "move".
gollark: hc™

References
  1. self. "Marc Randolph LinkedIn Profile". Retrieved October 31, 2011.
  2. Robin Wauters. "Marc Randolph Techcrunch". Retrieved October 31, 2011.
  3. Keating, Gina (2012). Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs. Portfolio/ Penguin.
  4. Stephen Czar (1998). "DVD Historical Timeline". Archived from the original on March 19, 2006. Retrieved January 30, 2006.
  5. "Netflix". Crunchbase. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
  6. O'Brien, Jeffrey M. (December 2002). "The Netflix Effect". Wired News.
  7. "Epic Fail: How Blockbuster Could Have Owned Netflix". Variety. November 12, 2013.
  8. "Offering of Netflix Brings in $82.5 Millio". May 23, 2002. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  9. "Netflix Announces First Quarter 2003 Ending Subscribers of 1,052,000, Up 74% Over The Prior Year (NASDAQ:NFLX)". Ir.net. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  10. "Blockbuster Launches BLOCKBUSTER Online(TM) – The Movie Store at Your Door(TM)". Prnewswire.com. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  11. "Netflix Prize Website". Retrieved December 8, 2006.
  12. "Netflix to Deliver Movies to the PC". The New York Times. January 16, 2007. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
  13. "The Victoria Advocate – Feb 26, 2007". p. B4.
  14. "Welcome to Hulu « The Hulu Blog". Blog.hulu.com. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  15. "Completing the Netflix Cloud Migration". Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  16. Star Staff; Canadian Press (September 10, 2010). "Netflix stumbles as it launches in Canada". Toronto Star. Toronto Star. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  17. "Vudu Launches Streaming Service". Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  18. "Netflix CEO Reed Hastings joins Facebook's Board of Directors". Engadget.com. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  19. "An Explanation and Some Reflections". Qwikster. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  20. "Netflix stock sinks as 800,000 subscribers quit – Oct. 25, 2011". CNN. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  21. "Netflix launches UK film and TV streaming service". BBC News. January 9, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  22. "Netflix Launches In Sweden, Denmark, Norway And Finland". PRNewswire (Press release). October 18, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  23. Levinthal, Dave (April 7, 2012). "Netflix forms PAC". Politico.
  24. "Netflix outage mars Christmas Eve – CNET". Cnet.com. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  25. Keating, Gina (2012). Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs. Portfolio/ Penguin.
  26. "Netflix has won: Blockbuster is closing its last retail stores". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
  27. "Netflix Agrees To Pay Comcast To End Slowdown – Consumerist". Consumerist. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  28. Rose Eveleth (September 10, 2014). "Why Netflix Is 'Slowing Down' Its Website Today". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  29. "Netflix is up over 500% in 5 years – Jul. 16, 2015". CNN. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  30. "Netflix prices are going up. Here's when you'll have to pay more - Apr. 19, 2016". CNN. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  31. "At CES, Netflix Adds Over 130 Countries to Streaming Service". The New York Times. January 6, 2016. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  32. "Netflix To Ramp Up Originals Targeting Kids". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  33. Jon Brodkin (February 11, 2016). "Netflix finishes its massive migration to the Amazon cloud". Ars Technica. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  34. "Netflix Shifts All IT to Amazon's Public Cloud - CIO Journal". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  35. "Netflix Is No Net Neutrality Hypocrite for Slowing Down Video". Wired.com. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  36. "Netflix Throttles Its Videos on AT&T, Verizon Networks". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  37. "At Netflix, What's Old Is New Again - MoneyBeat". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  38. Fung, Brain. "Netflix is finally letting you download videos for offline viewing". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  39. Consumer Intelligence Series: I stream, you stream
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