Netflix has become extremely popular over the last few years. This video streaming service has officially been available in South Africa since January 2016 and has seen steady growth over the last two years and today it’s one of the most popular video on demand streaming services on the planet.
Here are 20 things you did not know about Netflix:
1. They’ve been around longer than Google. The company was founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in August 1997 (a year before Google was founded).
2. The idea behind it came in 1997 after the CEO was charged $40 for a late VHS copy of Apollo 13.
3. Netflix didn’t start out as a streaming service, its initial business model included DVD sales and rentals.
4. In 2007 the company expanded its business with the introduction of streaming media, while retaining the DVD and Blu-ray rental service.
5. In 2000, Netflix was offered to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbuster declined the offer and has become nearly irrelevant. Netflix is worth an estimated $20 billion today.
6. The streaming service has only been available in countries outside the USA since 2010. Since January 2016 Netflix is available in 190 countries around the globe.
7. In 2013 they expanded their business to include television and movie production. Their first original production was the television show House of Cards.
8. To date the streaming service has released more than 126 original series and films (that’s more than any other network / cable television channel has released).
9. As of April 2020, they have a subscriber base of over 180 million. More than 16 million subscribers started streaming in 2020 alone.
10. There are more Netflix subscribers in the US than there are cable TV subscribers.
11. The average subscriber streams around 90 minutes a day.
12. Viewers feel at home starting their day with comedies like Fuller House. The Tanners may have originally premiered at 8 PM on linear television, but today, the Fullers are devoured before 8 AM. While you might not expect popular parodies to stir laughs bright and early, around 6 AM members are 34% more likely to watch comedy compared to the rest of the day, with the new comedy wake-up block including the likes of the ladies from Grace and Frankie, Kimmy Schmidt (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Ethan Turner (Friends From College), to name a few.
13. Viewers mostly watch high drama at high noon. When viewing schedules are set by people and not programmers, lunchtime becomes no binging exception. Across the world, drama accounts for nearly half (47%) of viewing between noon and 2 PM (an increase of 5% compared to the rest of the day). Midday streaming is especially prevalent in countries such as Brazil where members are 25% more likely to watch at this time compared to the rest of the world – who says shows like Narcos and Orange is the New Black are strictly evening fare?
14. It’s no surprise thrillers like Stranger Things and Breaking Bad are being enjoyed in the evening – globally the genre sees a 27% increase come 9 PM. But viewers are kicking the Upside Down and Walter White out of bed by 11 PM and restoring balance with partners like Dev Shah (Master of None), Trevor Noah and Bojack Horseman before they hit the hay – apparently members around the world choose to start and end their day with a laugh.
15. Globally, 15% of streaming happens between midnight and 6 AM and even rises as high as 21% in Japan and South Korea. And what these night owl members are watching is not what you think – documentaries see a 24% increase in viewing during this time, including titles like Abstract, Making a Murderer and Planet Earth. The pursuit for quality entertainment (and knowledge) doesn’t dim when the lights go out.
16. With Netflix viewers can fit TV watching around their daily lives, rather than the other way around, so that’s why you see peak streaming as early as 5 PM in India to as late as 10 PM in Argentina and Singapore.
17. Bright (a Sci-fi thriller which featured Will Smith in the leading role) had an estimated budget of $90 million. The film was exclusively released on Netflix in December 2017.
18. Their employees can take as many days off as they want. According to a spokes person: “It’s about freedom and responsibility and treating people like adults.”
19. They study top illegally downloaded titles on sites such as BitTorrent to determine what should be added to its line-up.
20. The streaming service has over 76,000 categories, including “Cool Moustaches,” “Imaginative Time Travel Movies from the 1980s,” and “Mind-bending Romantic Foreign Movies”.
Bonus Fact: Netflix is definitely profiting from the Coronavirus pandemic. According to JustWatch, they had a 332% increase in streaming activity. Disney+ is in second place with 290%, followed by Amazon Prime (which saw a 266% increase) and Hulu (which saw a 259% increase).
Well, there you have it, 20 things you did not know about Netflix. I trust that you’ve found these facts interesting, so feel free to share this info with your friends on Facebook & Twitter. Sharing is caring after all.
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