15 Things You Don't Know About Netflix

Sunday, Aug 23, 2020, 5:16 pm

By:James Fraser

You watch it, you like it, but do you know some interesting facts about Netflix? Netflix was started even before Google, and has seen many ups and downs through out its eighteen years of journey. Like most successful companies we see today, Netflix too was founded to address a problem! Here are 15 interesting facts about Netflix you probably don't know.

1.It all Started Because…

Every successful technology company has its own story. If you ever wonder how Netflix was started; this is how it was. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was once slapped with a $40 fine by a video rental agency for a late return of VHS copy of Apollo 13 film. This is when Reed Hastings got an idea, and started Netflix. Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded Netflix in 1997.

2.It Was Called Kibble in the Beginning

Choosing a company name is never easy, even for Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. They have considered many names for their startup like Directpix.com, Replay.com etc. They chose Kibble.com and ran the company for some time with this name before changing it to Netflix. Kibble.com domain now redirects to Marc Randolph's personal website.

3.No Wonder They are Beta Testers

Early users of any company are more like testers than customers. Do you know what the old customers of Netflix used to get? Hardcore Chinese pornography! In the early days, Netflix founders tried hard to present something new to their customers beyond the films. They have planned to offer video of Bill Clinton's Grand Jury testimony about his involvement with Monica Lewinsky to their customers. According to the book named Netflixed, the company delivered a few hundred hardcore Chinese pornography videos to their customers!

4.Netflix Executives Used to Call Their Customers

In the beginning, executives from Netflix used to call customers to inquire about their user experience with Netflix. They even used to visit their customers' houses (with their permission) to see them using Netflix live, so that they can know how the users are interacting with the software.

5.Netflix Spends Big Money on Recommendation Feature

Netflix puts lot of effort in showing accurate movie/show recommendations to their users. You may call they may have a obsession with 'recommendations', as the company spends approximately $150 million a year! Netflix maintains a special team of 300 programmers who exclusively work on recommendations thing. Back in 2007, the company even conducted a $10 million contest for the programmers to develop a perfect recommendations engine.


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6.This Netflix's 11 Minute Video Footage

Most Netflix users don't know that there is a test video available in Netflix that was created by none other the company. If you type 'example show' in your Netflix's search bar, you can actually see this video. The main intention of this video is to let users check the video quality at different frame rates. Some of you may find this video little strange and awkward!

7.There's a Solution to Buffer Issues

Those who are facing buffering problems with Netflix can use this small trick to watch videos without interruptions. When you press Shift + alt + left mouse click all together, a troubleshooting menu pops up. This menu lets you to adjust bit rate of stream. You switch to lower bit rates for better streaming, but you need to deal with poor picture quality.

8.This 2014 Funny Netflix Glitch

Back 2014, a glitch in Netflix made many of its subscribers laugh their asses off! Due to some technical glitch, the summaries of shows got messed up, creating hilarious plots and descriptions. The image says it all!

9.An Average User Spends Only Two Minutes to Search Films/Shows

This is a surprise fact, as even we thought people spend most of their lives in searching for titles in Netflix! According to a Netflix stat, an average user spends no more than two minutes to search videos in the Netflix library before selecting one.

10.Netflix Done a Huge Research on Spoilers

Netflix asked popular cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken to study how spoilers affect people's viewing habits. Netflix even created a website for the spoilers. You can watch spoilers from famous shows, or even check yourself to know what kind of a spoiler are you! You can find it at spoilers.netflix.com

11.Netflix Knows Their Users Lie

In an interview, one of the VPs of Netflix has told that viewers who often report or tell they watch documentaries or foreign films, never watch them in the first place! He said, "But in practice, that doesn't happen much."


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12.60% of All Netflix Users are Binge-Watchers

Binge watching has become a common thing today. More and more people binge watch, and the percentage is much higher among the subscribers of on-demand video content platforms like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. According to a report, more than 60% of Netflix users are binge watchers!

13.When Blockbuster Failed to Grab a Real Blockbuster

Blockbuster is a popular American rental service which ruled the video rental market in the late nineties, before the arrivals of companies like Netflix. When Blockbuster was offered to buy Netflix for $50 million, it simply turned the offer down. Blockbuster turned down offers from Netflix many times. Today, Blockbuster is nowhere near Netflix! Netflix has grown onto become a $20 billion company.

14.Netflix Crushed, and Continues Crushing Cable TV in US

More and more people choose Netflix over cable for obvious reasons. On-demand content platforms like Netflix give greater flexibility to the users. They always keep users in control of what they want to see at given point of time. In US, Netflix outnumber Cable TV with 33 million users.

15.Netflix Employees Get a Free Subscription

Entry level employees at Netflix are being paid $18 per hour. They also get a free Netflix subscription! There are many interesting facts that make rounds in the internet about Netflix secrecy of their warehouses. If such reports are to be believed, Netflix has 58 warehouses throughout United States, and most of them are not easily traceable.


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