Netflix | Watch DVD movies in your home

For several years, movie buffs have gone straight to film theaters and video stores to watch much sought-after motion pictures. Offering a different concoction to the booming movie industry and aficionados alike, NetFlix offers rental-by-mail and streaming media to their avid customers. The site has more than 7.5 million subscribers paying monthly fees to enjoy quality movies at the comfort of their homes.

Convenience in Service

NetFlix.com presents a flat-rate monthly subscription for DVD rentals. The process starts when the subscriber submits a rental queue, an order list of the films he/she wishes to borrow, to the main website. The company has district depots from where the DVD’s will be coming from. Although NetFlix’s main headquarter is in Los Gatos, California, they use U.S. Postal Service as their main courier, providing service to all parts of United States. The website offers a collection of more than 90,000 movie titles to date with a plan costing $16.99 per month. The plan gives you the convenience of renting three DVD’s at once with no due dates or late fees.
One of the most desired features in NetFlix is being able to “watch instantly”. This feature allows online customers to view near DVD-quality films and taped TV shows through the internet. Unlimited access of online streaming is provided to most website subscribers. Watch Instantly houses movies and shows at sky-scraping count of 12,000+. The highlight on this new segment in the website gained a lot more subscribers for NetFlix, with families downloading various films while they sit and wait in front of their personal computers.
A deal also began with Microsoft releasing NetFlix videos through Xbox Live. The plan was open to Gold members of the website starting on November 19, 2008. Xbox 360 proud owners who also have U.S. Gold Membership will soon enjoy a stream of more than 12,000 shows and movies once the software is upgraded this fall.

Conquering All Networks

An initial public offering, issuing common stocks to the public, was made on May 29, 2002 with shares numbering to 5,500,000, each costing $15. On the fiscal year of 2003, the company announced a total profit of $6.5M on revenues of $272M.
Demographics show that last December 2007, the website has garnered a whopping sales quote of $1,205.3M with an income growth of 36.4%. When the website was first launched in April 1998, founders Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings had no idea that they were about to make waves in the movie industry. In the status quo, the company plays a major role in shaping the market of independent filmmaking. The distribution of Red Envelope Entertainment showcases a number of independent movies available in the NetFlix website.

Spirited Force

Over the years, NetFlix has paved way for other video stores and companies to create online branches. Although competition has spread through the movie rental industry, NetFlix still remains to be the leader in revenue and market over companies like Blockbuster, Hastings Entertainment and Movie Gallery.
In the near future, the company plans to expand its services to other countries including the United Kingdom and Canada.