Netflix is synonymous with streaming for most Internet users and for its 220.67 million subscribers across the planet. However, the company started 25 years ago as a mail-order DVD rental service. While this story is well known, many are unaware that this offer is still active in the United States.
A Netflix offer highly appreciated by customers
Our colleagues from Business Insider are precisely interested in the customers of this service. Most are movie buffs looking for some rare gems not available on streaming. Others live in rural areas where the internet connection is too slow and they value access to physical media.
As with its streaming platform, Netflix offers several formulas to its customers. Thus, for 10 dollars per month, they can obtain a DVD or a blu-ray at a time, while the plans at 15 and 20 dollars give access to two and three discs. Note that shipping and return costs are free.
Attractive on paper, this offer nevertheless suffers from the decline of the DVD and blu-ray market. Moreover, Netflix only had 17 distribution centers at Uncle Sam in 2018, compared to 50 a few years ago.
Similarly, according to figures from 2019, only 2.15 million members were using this service compared to 3 million in 2017. Since then, things would only get worse, and in its 2021 accounts, Netflix states that this segment of activity brought in $182 million, compared to $30 billion for streaming.
So will the streaming giant put an end to this service? It is unfortunately likely if we are to believe our colleagues. Reed Hastings, the company’s co-CEO, said in 2019 that he saw the DVD service last another 5 years, or until 2024. He then specified that he was also in no hurry to do so. stop. As Netflix tries to cut costs and has even laid off staff, sentimentality and nostalgia unfortunately don’t seem to be in order at the streaming giant.
