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April 28, 2006
Putting the fix in Netflix: a history
At Business 2.0, G. Pascal Zachary curates a gallery showing 13 steps across seven years in the evolution of the NetFlix envelope: "When the DVD first came out, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings had a key insight: The plastic disc's light weight and small size would make it cheap and easy to send through the mail, letting him create a cross between Blockbuster and Amazon.com. By taking advantage of the U.S. Postal Service, it could send rental DVDs to customers through the mail - and accept returns the same way. 
But before Netflix became a dotcom darling with millions of subscribers, it had to figure out the details of how to mail DVDs cheaply and economically. Learning the ins and outs of the post office's operations was key: Every ounce of weight in the mailer added to postage costs - but if the mailer was too flimsy, DVDs broke in the mail." [More at the link.]
Posted by Ray Pride at April 28, 2006 02:33 PM
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