IntroductionFounded in 1997 by its current CEO, Reed Hastings, in 2009, Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) was the worldÃÂÃÂs largest online subscription-based DVD rental company based in Los Gatos, CA. It offered its 10 million customers an access to more than 100,000 DVD titles in more than 200 genres. Starting at $9.99 per month, different price levels were currently offered by Netflix, each which allows its subscribers to possess different amount at a time with no late fees. (Netflix, 2009) By the time the Netflix was launched, Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI), the biggest mogul in the video rental realm foresaw NetflixÃÂÃÂs attempt to pioneer its online rental services as a futile endeavor, since it was believed that video rental customers would not desire to wait for days for the DVD. Nevertheless, Netflix had proved BlockbusterÃÂÃÂs assumption wrong. In the year of 2008, despite the downturn of the U.S. economy due to the subprime mortgage crisis, still, Netflix, one of a handful of companies that had their stock prices rose over the dreadful year of 2008, enjoyed a 6.72%
rise in its average stock price, whereas Blockbuster suffered a 66.75% loss. (Google, 2009)One of the most intriguing key to NetflixÃÂÃÂs success was its ability to predict the future. In 1997, by the time that Netflix was launched by Hastings, most of video rental services only offered VHS videotapes to be checked out, in addition, DVD players had been released for several months. Nevertheless, Hastings firmly believed that the DVD rental services would be highly profitable in the next couple of years. Regardless whether he was lucky or not, he was right!What were NetflixÃÂÃÂs secret recipes for its astonishing success? In this paper, NetflixÃÂÃÂs strategies will be analyzed using PorterÃÂÃÂs Five Forces model and other analyses as the tools.
Business Models analysesPorterÃÂÃÂs Five ForcesDeveloped...