reed hastings
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
BY NOLA BOOTH
Reed HastingsFounder of Netflix
Before Netflix
Joined the Peace Corps after Grad School
Founded Pure Software in 1991 as an engineer, acompany based on a debugging tool for engineers
Became CEO of Pure Software in 1995
Pure Software purchased in 1997 by RationalSoftware for $750 million
Money from selling Pure Software used to foundNetflix
How Netflix Began
1997- Hastings receives a $40 late feefor Apollo 13, embarrassed
DVDs not yet on the market, still theage of VHS tapes
Idea begins with rental by mail, notsubscription based, minimal success
Decision to move on to subscriptionbased plan- people sign up to pay afixed amount per month for DVDrentals
Remarkable success, subscriptionrenewal rate after free Netflix trial at80% by 1999
Renewal rate up to 90% as ofJanuary 2009
How It Works
Users create a queue of the movies they want to watch
Users receive a movie in an envelope via mail that doubles as their return envelope
Users send back a movie to receive the next one on their queue
Several plans available after free trial period:
1 DVD at-a-time for $8.99 per month
2 DVDs at-a-time for $13.99 per month
…….
All the way up to 8 DVDs at-a-time for $47.99 a month!
Advancements and Plans for the Future
Almost every subscription includesunlimited online streaming ofmovies
An additional device, such as a Roku(shown to the left), can be used tostream select movies from Netflix to aTelevision
“We named the company Netflix(NFLX), not DVDs by Mail because weknew that eventually we would delivermovies directly over the Internet.DVDs will be around a long time, butwe’re building for the day when they’renot.”
-Reed Hastings
“Stay Flexible” -Hastings
So Why Do We Care?
So What?
I’ll Tell You!
Caters to “Americans’ love ofmovies [and] their love of notgetting off the sofa even to go tothe video store” (Patrick J. Sauer)
But perhaps more importantly…(or perhaps not):
Dealt with the late fee issue- WhenVHS tapes cost $70, or DVDs werenew, late fees were necessary
Now that DVDs sell for under $20brand new, late fee is a needlesspunishment
Pushed competing video storesto work harder and make customers’lives easier- beneficial for theconsumers!
In short…
But I don’t wanna.
Made our lives easier!
Works Cited
Abkowitz, Alyssa, comp. "How Netflix Got Started." Fortune 28 Jan. 2009. Fortune Magazine. CNN.Web. 21 Sept. 2009.<http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/27/news/newsmakers/hastings_netflix.fortune/>.
Andrews, Paul. "Videos Without Late Fees Reed Hastings, Digital Entrepreneur." US News & WorldReport 29 Dec. 2003: 64. Proquest LLC. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://proquest.umi.com>.
Graham, Adam. "Video Stores Getting Squeezed by Internet, On-Demand." Detroit News [Detroit] 28Feb. 2005. Proquest LLC. Web. 28 Sept. 2009. <http://proquest.umi.com>.
Netflix. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. <http://www.netflix.com>.
Sauer, Patrick J., comp. "How I Did It: Reed Hastings, Netflix." Inc. 1 Dec. 2005. Inc. MansuetoVentures LLC. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://www.inc.com/magazine/20051201/qa-hastings.html>.
Schlosser, Julie. "Netflix Makes It Big In Hollywood." Fortune 13 June 2005: 34. Proquest LLC. Web.21 Sept. 2009. <http://http://proquest.umi.com/>.
Svennson, Peter. "Netflix Delivers Internet Films to TV." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [Pittsburgh] 24 May2008: A.9. Proquest LLC. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://sks.sirs.com/>.
Image Credit
http://melsutton.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/netflix-logo.jpg
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/12/1229_resolutions/image/reed_hastings.jpg
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/netflix-1.jpg
http://dpakman.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/netflix.jpg
http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/apollo-13-DVDcover.jpg
http://ace-filmeditors.org/blog/uploaded_images/roku_netflix_01_425-783960.jpg
http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070402wAPnetflixtwo_450.jpg
http://trainingfromabarkalounger.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/couchpotato.jpg
The End.