What amazes me more is that Netflix began in 1997 and had the foresight to name themselves Netflix and not Mail-flix, yet they didn't begin streaming until 11 years later.
I wonder how long they were working on streaming before it was released. A lot of planning must have gone into something that beat the company's traditional model in just two years.
Personally, I don't think the 'Net' in NetFlix is about streaming. It's about the InterNET. Yes, the delivery mechanism was based on physical mail, but everything else was done on Internet [Browsing/Selection/Recommendations]. This is in contrast to B&M stores like Blockbuster.
[I don't want to take anything away from Netflix, I have completely stopped using DVDs since they started streaming movies. They completely rule the online streaming market.]
I talked to NetFlix about streaming in 2004 and I got the impression that they'd been working on it for some time. (Thinking about streaming is no big deal - there were pre-99 startups working on streaming and Hastings surely knew about them.)
To be clear... there were pre-99 startups that DID streaming. I was invested in one. But B-movies from the 50s apparently have a smaller market than one might think -- and you probably already think it has a really small market.
I wonder how long they were working on streaming before it was released. A lot of planning must have gone into something that beat the company's traditional model in just two years.