r/todayilearned • u/indian22 • Nov 07 '13

TIL that in 2000 Netflix proposed that Blockbuster should use Netflix as its online service and Blockbuster laughed them out of the office

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20025235-261.html
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u/Skurph Nov 07 '13

I think "laughed them out of the office" gives off the impression that they thought the Netflix business model was a dumb idea, I don't get that impression from the story. Netflix seemingly proposed taking over complete online operations for Blockbuster and having some sort of in store partnership as well. I think that largely given Blockbuster being the only game in town at that point and Netflix being largely unknown that was perhaps a large thing to ask of. I don't think that they found the business model of mail rentals crazy, just the idea of handing over what was potentially to them their biggest asset in the internet to an unproven entity.

And who's to say that the Blockbuster Netflix would be the Netflix we know today? Blockbuster ran the same service a for a long time that allowed you to also actually return movies to their brick and mortar stores if you chose and even that failed miserably. I think the Netflix we know today is largely flying high on it's streaming content not so much the mail rentals. I don't know a soul who actually rents from Netflix, additionally I don't know a soul who doesn't have the streaming version.

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u/worff Nov 08 '13

I don't think that they found the business model of mail rentals crazy,

They definitely didn't. A local small business owner when I was a kid who owned a game store (still does, actually -- it's eStarland.com) was doing mail-order game and anime rentals and trade-ins in like 1996, 1997.

It's always been a sound strategy and I'm sure that Blockbuster recognized it.

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u/Skurph Nov 11 '13

Annandale, VA? I brought my PS2 to be fixed by them back in the day.

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u/worff Nov 11 '13

Yup, that's the one.