As a 30+ year member of the AICPA, Nancy has experienced all facets of finance, including tax, auditing, payroll, plan benefits, and small business accounting. Her résumé includes years at KPMG International and McDonald’s Corporation. She now runs her own accounting business, serving several small clients in industries ranging from law and education to the arts.
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Netflix was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph.
What was Netflixâs original business model?
Netflix was originally a DVD-rental service that charged a fee for each rental.
When did Netflix introduce streaming services?
Netflix introduced streaming services in 2007.
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Netflix has maintained its headquarters in Los Gatos, California, since its early years as a DVD-rental company.
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Netflix, Inc. is a media company based in Los Gatos, California, founded in 1997 by American entrepreneursReed Hastings and Marc Randolph. The service is best known for offering on-demand streaming of movies and television shows and for releasing its own original productions, many of which have been nominated for awards. Netflix, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol NFLX, initially gained popularity when it disrupted the Blockbuster video-rental model. The service has since challenged video streaming and cable companies, then content creators, and, as of 2025, broadcasters and movie studios.
Video rental (1997â2006)
Netflixâs First Delivery
The first DVD mailed to a customer by Netflix, in March 1998, was the irreverent horror-comedy Beetlejuice (1988), directed by Tim Burton.
Netflix was launched in 1997 as a DVD-rental service that charged a fee for each rental. The website was initially launched in 1998 as NetFlix.com. With tens of thousands of titles available, subscribers could select movies and TV shows through the website and receive the discs by mail. In 1999, Netflix offered an online subscription service; by 2000, it included flat-fee unlimited rentals with no due dates, late fees, or shipping fees.
In 2000, the company introduced a personalized movie recommendation system, which used an algorithm to predict viewersâ movie preferences based on their previous choices. The system was enhanced after the Netflix Prize contest in 2006 challenged 40,000 contestants to improve the accuracy of movie recommendations by 10%. The $1 million prize was awarded in 2009 to BellKorâs Pragmatic Chaos, a team made up of seven mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers from the United States, Canada, Austria, and Israel.
In 2007, Netflix introduced streaming services that allowed subscribers to access content directly over the Internet. Streaming quickly gained momentum, becoming unlimited for most subscription plans. Netflix partnered with makers of video game consoles, Blu-ray players, and other electronics to enable video streaming on those devices.
Netflix introduced a streaming-only plan by 2010 and that same year introduced an app for iPhones (the app became available on some Android devices by 2011). The company initiated its global expansion to Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe by 2012, reaching more than 190 countries and territories by 2016.
The Video Streaming War (and Subsequent Subscription Fatigue)
Netflixâs unsuccessful bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
In December 2025, Netflix agreed to acquire the studio and streaming divisions of Warner Bros. Discovery in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at about $72 billion, or roughly $82.7 billion including debt. The deal would have brought Warner Bros., HBO, and HBO Max under Netflixâs control.
On February 26, Netflix declined to match Paramountâs higher bid, saying that the increased price was no longer financially attractive. Paramount subsequently acquired Warner for about $81 billion in October 2026, and the combined company was renamed Skydance Corporation (SKYD).
As streaming became its primary revenue generator, Netflix shifted its focus to producing original content in 2013. By 2023, Netflix boasted more than 3,600 original titles.
In 2022, Netflix said it would begin cracking down on password sharing, noting that more than 100 million households had shared their account passwords with others. The crackdown was credited with boosting subscriber rates. Netflix reported that it had added 8.8 million subscribers worldwide in the third quarter of 2023. The company also said it would raise prices on its streaming services, confident that users would be willing to pay more to access the companyâs broad collection of original shows and movies, including The Crown, House of Cards, and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Live programming and increased competition (2023â )
In 2023, Netflix began livestreaming with its stand-up special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage. In January 2024, Netflix said it had inked a 10-year deal with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to stream a weekly live professional wrestling program, Monday Night Raw, beginning in 2025. In March 2024, the company said it would livestream a fight between boxersMike Tyson and Jake Paul in July.
Award-winning original content
Notable Netflix series include:
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Eleven, who has telekinetic powers, is popular among Stranger Things viewers.
The Crown (2016â23), a drama about the British royal family that won more than 100 international awards, including 5 Critics Choice Awards, 21 Primetime Emmy Awards, 2 Golden Globes, and 7 Screen Actors Guild Awards
Stranger Things (2016â 2025), a sci-fi drama set in the 1980s that has won more than 100 international awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award
Money Heist (2017â21), a Spanish crime drama
Bridgerton (2020â ), an adaptation of a romance novel series set in 19th-century London
Squid Game (2021â ), a South Korean show centered on a bloody survival game; it has won more than 40 international awards, including a Peopleâs Choice Award
Notable Netflix movies include:
Roma (2018), which won three Academy Awards, including best foreign language film
The Irishman (2019), which was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture
Marriage Story (2019), for which Laura Dern won an Academy Award for best supporting actress
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), which was nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), which won four Academy Awards
Netflix has used a variety of marketing approaches to promote its original programming. For example, the popularity of Squid Game prompted Netflix to produce a reality competition spinoff, Squid Game: The Challenge (2023). The streaming service has produced live events commemorating its shows; for example, Bridgerton was adapted into an immersive traveling production (The Queenâs Ball: A Bridgerton Experience) in 2022.
In January 2024, Netflix received 19 Oscar nominations. It won one award at the ceremony in March for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a short film directed by Wes Anderson. Other nominated titles included May December, The After, and El Conde.
In October 2026, Netflix said it would cut nearly 1,000 jobs, or about 6% of its workforce, in its largest round of layoffs since 2022. The reductions primarily targeted its product, technology, legal, and human resources teams. Although Netflix continued to report growth in revenue and profits, it faced increasing competition for viewers and slowing growth in viewing time.
