EOTO Takeaways

    One technology that I learned about during the EOTO presentations was Netflix. Everyone knows Netflix as the streaming empire that it is today, but Netflix was around long before House of Cards premiered on the service. Netflix was created by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in 1997. Their business model was to sell and rent out DVDs through the mail. They were trying to compete with Blockbuster, who was the DVD rental giant at the time. Hastings and Randolph wanted to create a version of Blockbuster that could be sold by mail. This business model of having things sent to you instead of you having to go out to the store to get it yourself has expanded rapidly since Netflix started sending out videos. When Netflix got into the DVD business it was a robust market recording 16.4 billion dollars in 2005. However,  DVDs have been in decline ever since this and that is directly because of Netflix.

   

   In 2007, Netflix began a streaming service called "Watch Now".  This gave consumers the ability to watch content at home on their television and computers. Netflix made deals to with systems such as the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 to put the service on their devices, which helped Netflix grow faster. This move by Netflix helped render DVDs obsolete as it is much more convenient to play a video on your Apple Tv compared to having to put a disc in a player to watch the video. In 2013 Netflix began creating original series, with the debut of House of Cards. Since 2013, Netflix has created hundreds of shows and films. They have forced studios such as Disney and Warner Brothers to create their own streaming service to keep up with the changing times. Netflix has given creates opportunities to make films and shows in a way that traditional cable and film studios would not allow. Netflix has caused people to develop addictions to their phones. According to the person who gave the presentation class, people watching Netflix spend an average of 3.2 hours a day watching Netflix. Because it is so convenient to watch Netflix, people are doing it at an unhealthy rate when they should be going outside or meeting new people. While there have been some unfortunate side effects of Netflix, their streaming service is one of the most important technological advancements of the twenty-first century.