Each One Teach One

  

       Reed Hastings met Marc Randolph from his original start-up company before it was sold,  allowing him to take on a small venture called Netflix. The two friends co-founded the now massively popular streaming service on August 29, 1997. Netflix originally started and still is an online catalogue where customers can order a wide range of films on DVD to their home. Randolph and Hastings thought of this idea while car-pooling to work together. They were against the cost and risk of shipping VHS tapes and wanted an easier method to distribute films straight to people's doorsteps. In early 1997 they finally got their wish with the release of DVD. They officially launched in 1998 and it wasn't long before they rid themselves of the per-rental model and completely transitioned to being a subscription service. It took a while to fully find its footing, but once it did, Netflix became a hit. Netflix only continued to grow in popularity and size before they launched their streaming service in 2007. This is when things really changed and people could digitally access all kinds of movies right from their couch. People were now watching their favorite shows and movies fully online and didn't have to bother with ordering a disc. This soon made streaming services a necessity and has brought us to where we are today. Hastings and Randolph basically saw the potential for a market for cheaper and easier access to movies. They wanted to allow people to have movies safely delivered to their door without all of the expenses and problems that came with VHS and in-person rentals. Their invention changed our world in a lot of ways. Initially, it changed the way people were able to watch movies. It definitely helped to make DVDs more popular, and since not everyone was able to just buy every movie they wanted to see, Netflix was the perfect solution. There were obviously video rental services like Blockbuster but none that were delivered to your doorstep and offered such a large catalogue. Netflix also quickly transitioned to a subscription-based service rather than per-rental. This appealed to a lot of people and made it much more affordable to now easily watch all the movies you want. When Netflix became a streaming service that is when things really started to change. It's ultimately completely changed the way people watch movies now. It was the first of its kind and was for a long time before more services began to gain popularity. Now streaming is the primary way people get their dose of entertainment from film and TV. Every production company now has their own service and has actually caused Netflix to lose a lot of its customer base. Netflix also paved the way in streaming services also becoming production companies. Netflix has produced an astounding number of films and has even gone on to win awards and work with A-List actors and directors. It's changed communication because watching any movie you desire used to not be something you could just do at the touch of your fingertips. Watching a movie was often much more of a communal activity. People would watch movies as a family and obviously the main place that people watched movies was in the cinema. There were also less movies being produced so there was a better chance that the movies you saw were also being watched by acquaintances and provided people with conversation. Nowadays everyone sits at home by themselves and binges movies and TV shows. It's become a much less significant experience than it used to be.