Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph co-founded Netflix in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail business.
The company began as a DVD rental and sales service operating through the internet. DVDs were lighter and easier to mail than videotapes, and Netflix used a subscription model that eventually removed late fees and allowed customers to keep a limited number of discs at home.
Netflix introduced its subscription-and-queue model in 1999. It later added a recommendation system and expanded from physical rentals to internet streaming, launching streaming in 2007. The company began producing original programming in the 2010s and became a major global entertainment distributor.
The popular story that Hastings founded Netflix because of a single late fee is disputed as a simplified origin myth. Randolph was the founding chief executive, while Hastings later became the company’s most prominent long-term leader. Netflix did not begin as a streaming-only company.