Short answers, pulled from the story.
Netflix was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. Hastings, a computer scientist and mathematician, and Randolph, a marketing director, conceived the business model while carpooling between Santa Cruz and Sunnyvale.
Netflix launched in Canada in September 2010 as its first international market. The company subsequently expanded to Latin America in September 2011 and to Europe in January 2012, starting with the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Netflix released House of Cards on the 1st of February 2013 as its first Netflix Original production. The political drama was led by Kevin Spacey and directed by David Fincher, marking the first instance of a first-run television series commissioned by a streaming service.
Netflix announced the discontinuation of its DVD-by-mail service on the 29th of September 2023. Users of the service were able to keep the DVDs they had received, and the company had sent out over 5 billion shipments over the service's lifetime.
Netflix won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery on the 4th of December 2025 and announced the purchase of the assets for $72 billion on December 5. The deal includes HBO, DC Entertainment, and various film and television studios, with completion expected in the third quarter of 2026.
Netflix exceeded 300 million subscribers worldwide in January 2025 after adding a record 18.9 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024. This brought the total to 41 million subscribers for the full year 2024.