Netflix Was Named for Streaming Years Before Streaming Existed

Netflix built its entire early business on mailing DVDs to people's homes, so why did the company call itself Netflix instead of something like DVD by Mail? According to the reasoning laid out in this breakdown, the answer goes back to 1998, when the company's two founders were already looking past physical discs and toward a future where movies and shows could be streamed directly over the internet once connection speeds caught up.

That is why, even in an era when mailing DVDs was the only realistic way to get movies to customers, the founders chose a name built around the idea of streaming rather than the mail delivery model that was actually paying the bills.

YouTube Proved Streaming Video Could Work, So Netflix Followed

Once YouTube demonstrated that streaming video online was actually viable, Netflix moved to offer streaming itself, running it alongside its existing DVD mailing service rather than replacing it right away. The two business lines operated side by side for years.

The DVD Mailing Business Quietly Made Hundreds of Millions a Year Until 2023

Even as streaming grew, Netflix's original DVD by mail service kept generating serious money, reportedly pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the company before it was finally shut down in 2023. That timeline caught even the video's own creator off guard, who admitted, "I had no idea it was going on that long, either."

Streaming Left Blockbuster With No Way to Compete

Once streaming removed the need to mail out or physically pick up DVDs and Blu-rays altogether, Blockbuster was left without an answer. Its only option to try to compete was closing thousands of stores and tearing down the physical retail empire that its entire business had been built on.

Did you know Netflix's DVD mailing business lasted all the way until 2023?