The era of Netflix sending people DVDs in the mail is now officially over.
The company announced it was finally ending its original business, sending people little red envelopes with movies inside, earlier this year. This wasn’t the first time Netflix made this decision; in the fall of 2011 they announced a plan to spin off their DVD business and make a separate company called “Qwikster.” At that time, the news was met so negatively that Netflix reversed course and kept the DVDs in house.
This time, though, they went through with the plan; tvery last discs went out by Netflix this week. In addition, customers won’t be charged for these final discs if they are not sent back — although if you rented something and want to send it back, you have until October 27 to do so. (That also includes any of the “Finale Surprise” discs, which were given out to people who opted in to receive extra DVDs from their queue.)
To mark the end of the era, Netflix released a video commemorating the years of DVD shipping. You can watch it below. It may make you nostalgic:
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During the dot-com bubble, Netflix offered to sell the company to Blockbuster Video for $50 million. Blockbuster thought the offer was a joke and passed on the purchase. As we all know now, that probably wasn’t the best move. Today there is one Blockbuster store left in the entire world and Netflix is a Hollywood giant. The company launched a streaming service in 2007. In 2008, anyone who subscribed to the mail service got free streaming.
Today, the company is 25 years old and is now primarily a streaming company that makes much of its own original content. Netflix is also selling a sleeping bag designed after the red envelope they used to ship their DVDs.
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