File this one under, “I had no freaking idea this was still a thing!” Netflix announced today that after 25 years, they were discontinuing their DVD0-mail rental service, which caused about 50 million millennials to run to ChatGPT to ask what a DVD and what mail service was.
Yeah, the world has changed a wee bit since then. The official end to the program that was outdated 20 years ago is September 29th. This could be the big break Blockbuster was waiting for! Maybe they can steal that demographic that still uses their Sony Walkman.
Streaming is a much more lucrative part of the business for Netflix, considering they have 231 million subscribers worldwide. As for how many people still mailed DVDs back and forth, well, Netflix kept that data private, but you can assume it’s the same people that look forward to a letter from Ed McMahon telling them they may have won a Publisher’s Clearinghouse jackpot.
Actually — I stand corrected. Disregard my lame jokes because the DVD service for Netflix generated $145.7 million in revenue last year. That means roughly 1.1 to 1.3 million subscribers.
Before the video streaming Netflix launched 12 years ago, there were 16 million subscribers to the mail service.
One of the reasons many people kept their membership was that they could rent obscure movies not available on the streaming platform. Plus, it was nostalgic for many to see that red envelope in the mail.
Here’s the backstory on the little red envelopes and the mail service. Back in 1997, co-founder Marc Randolph went to a post office in Santa Cruz, California. Why? To mail a Patsy Cline CD to fellow co-founder Reed Hasting. He aimed to see if it could get there through the postal service without damage. Lo and behold, it got there safely and launched a movement.
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