How Netflix destroyed Blockbuster

If the rise and fall of Blockbuster has taught us one thing, it's "evolve or fall by the wayside." Also, blind greed may get you to the top, but it'll never sustain great heights.

In September, Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Since then, it's been revealed that it may not be able to meet all of the financial obligations under the filing. Big surprise.

For years, the doomed rental house flailed from one poorly planned initiative to another -- all in the hopes of catching the runaway train that is Netflix. It briefly ditched late fees, only to reintroduce them as "restocking fees" when it couldn't keep up with the loss of revenue. It touted the 28-day new release window it held with Warner Bros, Fox, and Universal -- but saw its rental kiosks lose the advantage in December. And with its finger on the pulse of modern technology, it pushed SD cards into those kiosks rather than putting all of its resources into Blockbuster On-Demand.

Seemingly every idea out of the brick-and-mortar retailer was firmly entrenched in the 1990s. Zero forward thinking across the board. And CEO Jim Keyes was arguably the worst offender.

Keyes has said, in regards to Netflix's "confusing" interface on its many, many partners' devices:

What I want to do is punch a button on my remote, and have access to 10,000 movies. You can get it all here. I'm going to be brash for a moment, but I don’t have to figure out how to get it from my Nintendo machine to the screen. I know I can do it, but I don't want to -- it makes my head hurt to think about it!

Yes, Jim. But 20 million Netflix subscribers seem to have no trouble wrapping their head around it.

With its constant growth and heavy push to streaming video, Netflix has been crowned the world's leading online video subscription service. But how did it do it? This infographic -- courtesy of Online MBA Programs -- sheds some light on how Netflix beat Blockbuster.

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its obvious, technology keeps progressing and now we are getting more and more digital stores, why going to blockbuster, spending gas, time, and risking when you can watch movies for a lower price and you dont have to more from your chair(lol)

well netflix doesn't have all there movies streaming yet and cant rent game either please dont said game fly because after few months you not be able get new titles alway be out of stock and some time i do like rent games before i do buy them

"as techonoly progresses humans will get lazy and fat " lolz

indeed moving around is a good thing for real

SuperAPG1 wrote:"as techonoly progresses humans will get lazy and fat " lolz

As time passes, our future looks more destined to be a WALL-E movie outcome o_o.

and wow... I knew blockbuster was doing bad but I didn't realize their history and going bankrupt? damn... lets see if Netflix is smarter and stays on top for a while or falls down like the rest, taken over by another in the future.

yes more time pass more we get like wall-e movie if the world doesn't end like in 2012 :p

The majority of video stores are closing down due to the trend in instant streaming and mail-in movies. I don't know if you guys have heard of Red Box, but they're pretty much like movie vending machines that are set up in certain locations such as grocery stores, Walmarts, Targets, and some gas stations. You can rent movies for about a dollar a day and it has to be returned by the following day 6 p.m. to ANY Red Box location. Since Americans will always go for things that are easily accessible and more convenient to them, it would be ideal for them to stick with the instant streaming deal. The only set back with instant streaming is that the selection isn't always great. Many movies are only accessible via disc. Either way, whether it's through the video store, Red Box, or instant streaming, we're not always guaranteed the movies we want to watch.

but they dont have video games i want to rent some video games some times :p without buying them first

SPADEZ wrote:

SuperAPG1 wrote:"as techonoly progresses humans will get lazy and fat " lolz

As time passes, our future looks more destined to be a WALL-E movie outcome o_o.

and wow... I knew blockbuster was doing bad but I didn't realize their history and going bankrupt? damn... lets see if Netflix is smarter and stays on top for a while or falls down like the rest, taken over by another in the future.

WOW i was thinking the samething as in the movie in wall-e

Vicky wrote:but they dont have video games i want to rent some video games some times :p without buying them first

REDBOX is just movies if you want games to rent check gamefly or blockbuster

gamefly after 3 months all new game out of stock always it sucks yeah blockbuster where rent my game if they go under i cant do that any more :p

Vicky wrote:gamefly after 3 months all new game out of stock always it sucks yeah blockbuster where rent my game if they go under i cant do that any more :p

i thought u were japanese / there block busters in japan ?

no no i dont live in japan i am half japanese though now i wonder if there is a blockbuster in japan i would have to asked my mother edit yeah it like blockbuster it has moives it called Tsutaya But no video games but you can rent cd's that right rent cd's because japanese know it against the law to copy them and they will not

o wow

http://www.tsutaya.co.jp/index.html japan blockbuster well it like it but no video games but they rent cd's also can rent Manga from there

everything in japanese >.< no Understand lolz

yeah of course sorry about that >.<

i think i saw something about psp games ?

no japan made it ilegal to rent games anymore so i doubt that maybe they sevre all of asian i think they do but there no more renting games in japan they really push for this years back really sucks when i visit my mother >.<

that suckz