Yahoo Finance Netflix is older than Google: 10 surprising facts
Netflix, one of the world's leading internet companies, which has become a household name and a go-to destination for entertainment, is not just a streaming service that offers its customers a wide variety of TV shows, movies, and documentaries.
While there are myriad platforms to choose from - such as Disney+, Prime Video, Stan and HBO Max, to name a few - with more than 200 million paid subscriptions worldwide, Netflix is undoubtedly the crowd favourite.
Though it has several competitors in the streaming segment, Netflix gained its advantage through the quality of its content and its user-friendly interface, which also cleverly keeps its audience watching.
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But the Netflix we know today wasn't always as slick and easily accessible.
Here are 10 unusual facts that show Netflix's reality is stranger than fiction.
It was originally called Kibble
Before being officially launched, Netflix was called Kibble, which literally means "pet food".
According to Fortune, while explaining the backstory on how the company came up with the name, co-founder and original CEO Marc Randolph said he was concerned about building a service that looked good but that nobody wanted to use.
He chose Kibble to remind them of the old advertising adage that: “It doesn’t matter how good your dog-food advertising campaign is if the dogs won’t eat the dog food.”
Rudolph believed the beta name should be so bad that it would force them to come up with a better one before launch. Which is eventually how Netflix was chosen.
Names such as Webflix, TakeOne, and NetPix were considered before Netflix was settled on.
Rudolph admitted they didn't quite like the name Netflix initially because it reminded them of "skin-flicks" (porn films) and it had the ‘x’ to go along with it.
Netflix is older than Google
Netflix was founded 24 years ago, on August 29, 1997, while Google was founded 23 years ago (September 4, 1998). So, technically, Netflix is one year and six days older than the world's biggest internet company.
In the first half of 2019, Netflix accounted for 12.9 per cent of the world’s downstream traffic volume, gathering more traffic than Google by just 0.6 per cent.
Netflix started as a DVD rental website
Netflix initially sold and rented DVDs by mail in the US and later shifted focus to just the DVD-rental business in April, 1998. A year later, Netflix changed its pay-for-use model into a subscription model.
Having achieved success in the space over a decade, Netflix introduced streaming media and video on demand (VoD) in 2007.
It was not until 2013 that Netflix entered the content-production industry to provide subscribers the platform they crave today.
But it's interesting to note that millions of users still subscribe to Netflix DVD out of choice, although the scope of that library has shrunk.
You can access Netflix’s DVD rentals with a separate subscription. Each DVD rental costs around $10.64 a month, or an additional $2.66 for Blu-rays, according to Facts.net.
Netflix was almost sold to Blockbuster
Given it was not making enough money to survive, Netflix was almost sold to Blockbuster, the once-ubiquitous video-rental chain.
Reid Hastings tried to sell Netflix to Blockbuster for a mere $66.5 million.
However, Blockbuster turned down the offer, which eventually pushed Netflix into digital streaming and the massive success it is today.
Netflix once rented out Chinese pornography by mistake
Years ago, when Netflix mainly rented and sold DVDs by mail, subscribers who opted to rent the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal received a completely wrong delivery in the form of Chinese pornography.
MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe, who was also a co-founder of Netflix, admitted during a Sundance event that he and his partner accidentally sent porn to Netflix members during the early days.
Netflix was testing its ability to put video onto DVD within 24 hours by transferring to disc former US president Bill Clinton’s testimony about the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Lowe said the person who was handling the duplication proces, also duplicated pornography. The mix-up occurred due to incorrect burning and labelling of discs in a hurry.
“We sent thousands and thousands, and a couple of hundred had porn on them! We told our customers to send them back — no one did,” Lowe said, according to Daily Mail.
About 66% of Netflix users share an account
Until recently, Netflix had not been proactive in regulating account-sharing rules.
The company maintains it has always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with its Standard and Premium plans including features like separate profiles and multiple streams.
Though the current subscription models have been very popular, the company says it has created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared.
It was concerned about accounts being shared between households, which was impacting its ability to invest in new TV and film content.
As a result, the company has been working on ways to enable members who share outside their household to do so easily and securely, while also paying a bit more.
Netflix’s first original production was test footage
Netflix's first film, The Example Show, was made to test frame rate and video quality on its servers.
It features bizarre and random scenes that were stitched together by the management.
This video is still available on Netflix Instant under many titles and many different lengths.
Shares of Netflix sold for $19 in first IPO
On May 23, 2002, Netflix's stock began trading on the Nasdaq. Stock was first sold at an initial public offering (IPO) price of $19 per share.
Netflix has split its stock twice since its IPO. A 2-for-1 stock split occurred in 2004. A 7-for-1 stock split occurred in 2015.
According to Nasdaq, if you had bought one share of Netflix's stock on the day of its IPO and held it until now, you would have 14 shares today.
Or, if you had purchased $1,331 worth of stock, you would have obtained roughly 66 shares at the time of Netflix's IPO.
After Netflix's stock splits, you would own 924 shares. At the stock's current price of $490 per share, those shares would be worth around $452,760 today.
Secret Netflix codes can unlock loads of hidden movies and shows
Despite there being a plethora of content to be consumed on Netflix most of us only watch the shows and movies that appear on the front screen or are recommended by our friends.
The shows suggested by Netflix are completely determined on the basis of your watching pattern.
But if you want to explore and find the best shows that even Netflix’s algorithm can’t suggest, there is a solution.
If you know the Netflix secret code of your favourite genre, then it’s quite easy to navigate and find the movies you like the most.
Adding the secret code to the URL will take you to that category.
You can download anything to watch offline for later
The Netflix app lets its subscribers download any title in its library for offline viewing.
However, it prevents downloads from being exported from one device to another. It will remain within the app itself.
You can simply click the download button next to each video to download a series or movie on Netflix.
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