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It’s hard to believe, but Netflix was founded 25 years ago on August 29, 1997. That’s right. Netflix is a quarter of a century old.
When Netflix was launched, its website carried 925 titles, all DVDs, which they would mail to customers in a soon-to-be iconic red envelope.
Later that year, Jeff Bezos and his new four-year-old Amazon.com offered to buy the company for a reported $14 to $16 million. Netflix turned him down.
In the year 2000, Netflix offered to sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbuster turned them down.
In February 2007, Netflix delivered its one billionth DVD.
The next major step in the company’s evolution came on February 1, 2013 the first critically-acclaimed Netflix Original, House of Cards, premieres on the service.
Fast forward (pun intended) to today and Netflix now has 220.7 million subscribers worldwide with revenue of $29.7 billion in 2021.
To celebrate their 25th anniversary, Netflix shared more 25 facts many people probably don’t know about the ubiquitous streaming service.
25 facts about Netflix for the company’s 25th anniversary
1. On April 14, 1998, NetFlix.com launched.
2. The first DVD ever shipped was Beetlejuice (March 10, 1998).
3. The number one most used profile icon globally: Boss Baby, 11 million profiles.
4. The first Netflix DVD envelope was white, not red.
5. One Netflix fan created a dress out of 1,500 DVD envelopes.
6. In 2007, Netflix began streaming.
7. On Jan. 6, 2016, Netflix went live in 130 countries simultaneously.
8. The first Netflix Original was Lilyhammer.
9. The show with the most MyList Adds is Money Heist.
10. Subscriber number 500,000 was invited to a company meeting and given a lifetime subscription.
11. At one time, Netflix had over 70,000 “secret codes.” Today, they have 30,000.
12. The original name for Netflix was Kibble.
13. Netflix invented the original streaming box, but decided to spin it off into Roku.
14. Following the launch of The Queen’s Gambit, there was a 125% increase in chess board sales.
15. Netflix’s live experiences have played host to a whopping 42 marriage proposals around the world. 35 at The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience, 6 at La Casa de Papel: The Experience and one at Stranger Things: The Experience.
16. The first Netflix game downloaded was Stranger Things: 1984.
17. Netflix is available in 37+ languages and 190 countries worldwide.
18. Netflix has offices in 28 cities across the globe.
19. In 2015, “binge-watch” was declared the word of the year and was added to Merriam-Webster in 2017.
20. The first recorded use of the phrase “Netflix and chill” was in a tweet by “NoFaceNina” (La Shanda Rene Foster) on Jan. 21, 2009.
21. The iconic Netflix sound was nearly a bleating goat before landing on tudum.
22. There was a campaign for “Netflix socks,” which detected when you fell asleep and paused the show or movie you were watching.
23. Netflix had its own awards show called The Flixies.
24. In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s created a Netflix & Chill’d ice cream flavor.
25. Squid Game is Netflix’s most popular title ever.
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