What did phones look like in the early days of Netflix?

Trivia 18 of 30

What did phones look like in the early days of Netflix?

Netflix is the grand daddy of all video streaming services, and still the dominant platform (as of 2023), holding approximately 25% of the market share. Disney+ and Amazon Prime are currently tied for second place, with 20% each (Cultmtl.com).

But Netflix actually began as a mail order DVD service over 25 years ago, in 1998. It had only one distribution center at the time, in California. This meant that if you were on the East Coast, it could take you up to four days to get your DVD (Barry W. Enderwick).

Back in 1998, when Netflix went live, social media wasn’t a thing. Friendster came online in 2002, MySpace in 2003, Facebook in 2005, Twitter in 2006, and Instagram in 2010. When North Americans first discovered TikTok in 2018, Netflix had already been around a full two decades (Barry W. Enderwick).

By the year 2000, Netflix had amassed about 240,000 customers. That year, the world was also introduced to the Nokia 3310, which quickly became one of the best selling phones at the time (Wikipedia.org).

The most popular DVD rentals on Netflix during its first 10 years of operation (i.e. between 1998 and 2007 – the year it began to stream content) were:

• 1998: The Big Lebowski
• 1999: Office Space
• 2000: Gladiator
• 2001: Memento
• 2002: The Bourne Identity
• 2003: Mystic River
• 2004: The Notebook
• 2005: Crash
• 2006: The Departed
• 2007: The Bucket List

(Netflix.com)

Streaming content

Netflix began streaming content directly to TVs, computers, and tablets in 2007 with a library of 1,000 titles. The new service was included free in Netflix’s $5.99 per month mail order DVD subscription plan.