10 most profitable movies of all timeIn this article we are going to list the 10 biggest companies competing with Netflix. Click to skip ahead and jump to the 5 biggest companies competing with Netflix.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) has revolutionized streaming like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has e-commerce or Walmart (NYSE:WMT) has retail. I am sure most of the people reading this article will have Netflix and why not? I do, even though the library in my country is probably half that of anywhere else.
While you might think that Netflix only came into existence a few years ago, but the company was actually established way back in 1997. Of course, in those days, it didn’t offer streaming services mainly because the internet at the time across most places in the world was insufficient to host streaming even in 360p, let alone in HD or 4K. Even in the early 2000s, high internet speed was a luxury few people could afford, and buffering even a music video in low resolution was a chore most internet connections strained against. I remember trying to watch a 3 minute music video in 2003, and waiting for hours for the video to load. Now, I can watch a 4K movie on Netflix without feeling any sort of lag at all.
Initially, Netflix would rent out DVDs. The owners of Netflix had just come off a successful sale of their computer mail-order company, selling it for $700 million and getting the idea of Netflix. In fact, it was Amazon which had inspired them and they decided that they wanted to sell or rent products online, and initially considered VHS tapes, but realized they were too bulky and DVDs would be much easier and profitable to ship. And thus, Netflix was born.
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Initially, the company had less than 1,000 titles and just 30 employees, but business started to grow steadily and in 1999, the company introduced the subscription method, which it still employs today. Instead of paying separate rent for each DVD you took, you just payed a monthly subscription fee and you could in exchange rent as many titles as you wanted. This method was so successful that the single rental model was entirely phased out by 2000. Since it had no due dates or late fee charges along with unlimited rentals, it started to grow in size and stature and had nearly 300,000 subscribers in 2000, providing major competition to Blockbuster. However, despite gaining subscribers, the company was actually still making losses worth millions of dollars and Blockbuster offered to buy it off for $50 million to boost its online presence, a deal with Netflix rejected and I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief that the deal didn’t go through or else we might have been deprived of the Netflix we have today.
It was in the mid-2000s that Netflix moved to streaming, as internet speed had improved significantly and lower costs of procuring internet connections led to more households getting high speed internet, which finally made it feasible to provide movies online. On the other hand, the popularity of Netflix’s DVDs started to dwindle and even though the company rented its 1000th DVD back in 2007, it started to move away from this business and focus exclusively on providing streaming content. And even though Netflix had gained significant popularity in the United States, it was still not quite as well known outside of the country. To counter this, Netflix started its global expansion and became available in several countries across the world, along with also obtaining the rights to international content and providing it to its subscribers as well. Currently, Netflix has close to 200 million subscribers across the world and has become a really profitable company. It is also responsible for bringing niche international shows into the mainstream. An example of this would be La Casa De Papel, or Money Heist, which is a Spanish show and would’ve died in obscurity until Netflix picked up the rights and the show’s popularity boomed across the world, resulting in several more seasons and the stars of the show becoming international celebrities. Due to its video recommendation algorithm, subscribers are also suggested indie titles which the users might like which has been a boost for these indie studios too.
The best thing about Netflix is the fact that it constantly aims to improve the user experience. I mean, I love the skip opening credits button, giving me the option of having to listen to the same credits especially when binging, while the fact that it automatically skips closing credits when you’re binging one episode after the other is really helpful too. Of course, it does get annoying sometimes when you’re browsing TV shows and movies, only for the trailer of the movie to begin midway, but Netflix has even added an option to disable autoplay, which shows that it listens to its consumers and is ready to tailor the process and providing a best fit solution as well. And perhaps the biggest thing going for Netflix is the fact that it is extremely easy to use, and there are no ads or commercials, allowing you to watch your movie or TV show without any interruptions whatsoever. In fact, Netflix is so easy to use that many people I know who used to pirate movies have instead turned to Netflix because of its convenience, and hence moved from illegal activities to legal activities as well.
In recent years, Netflix has gotten so huge that it has spent over a billion dollars in producing original content, which includes both TV shows and movies. Some of its content has been incredibly well-received by both critics and subscribers, such as House of Cards, Stranger Things, Dark, Narcos and the Queen’s Gambit among many others. However, it has also had a lot of shows and movies which have failed to make a similar impact such as Richie Rich, The Open House, Paradox, Sextuplets, The Last Thing He Wanted and many others. This basically means that it is a bet to start any Netflix show and know whether you’ll get excellent quality or a mediocre production.
However, whether you’re a fan of the content being produced by Netflix or not, what you can’t deny is the power and influence the company has, which has even allowed it to challenge major movie studios. If you take a look at the richest movie stars right now, the one thing you’ll notice is that a lot of their earnings come from Netflix rather than major movie studios. In fact, in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic shutting everything down across the world, including production of content, major movie stars instead padded their earnings with movie deals and content deals with Netflix, with Dwayne Johnson, the highest paid actor in the world, receiving $25 million from Netflix for working on Red Notice with Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds. And you can only see Netflix content if you have a subscription, which is why original content is a move by Netflix to gain more and more subscribers and improve their earnings even more. And if things continue this way, Netflix will soon be a major competitor to movie studios. The company has also made its presence in prestigious awards ceremonies such as the Oscars, where it has garnered multiple nominations for its original content.
Speaking of the pandemic, perhaps no year was as important to Netflix as 2020. As billions of people across the globe were confined to their homes as the pandemic devastated the world, there was little for them to which is why many resorted to watching Netflix, which in turn saw demand for its content increase significantly. It got to the point that the European government requested Netflix to reduce the bit rates it take people to stream content, to allow more people to stream content without any issues. This was done to reduce Netflix traffic on European servers and enable them to work without issue. I can easily say personally at least, that lockdown would’ve had been a lot more difficult had Netflix not been available to me, and the monthly fee I pay to access hundreds of hours of content, including some of my favorite TV shows, is absolutely worth it.
However, other companies have started to realize the importance of entering the lucrative streaming market. While a few years ago, there were hardly any major competitors to Netflix, this has all changed with times and many major companies have started to provide streaming options as well, including the production of original content, which has led to the market becoming saturated. While this has benefits for viewers, including more accessible content than ever before, there is a downside that if someone loves five shows available on five different streaming services, the person has to shill out the monthly subscription frees for five services, which is purely unstainable. These streaming companies have been able to make a dent in Amazon’s market share in the content streaming industry. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the biggest competitors to Netflix, starting with number 10:
10. FuboTV (NYSE:FUBO)
Fubo provides streaming services in respect of sports channels mainly, in addition to news, movies and television series and is headquartered in New York.
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