The company said its DVD rental business had shrunk and it would no longer be able to provide quality service. Netflix will ship the last discs on September 29.
Netflix logo. Photo: Reuters
"Those iconic red envelopes changed the way people watched shows and movies at home — and they paved the way for the move to streaming," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a blog post announcing that the DVD service was entering its "final season."
Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph describes in his autobiography how he and co-founder Reed Hastings toyed with the idea of challenging Blockbuster Video with mail-order VHS tapes, but it would have been too expensive. Instead, they settled on a more cost-effective proposition: DVDs sold and rented online.
It was the first time Netflix bet on an emerging technology that would allow it to challenge a long-standing competitor, Blockbuster, which filed for bankruptcy in 2010.
When Netflix attempted to split its DVD rental business from its streaming business into a separate service called Qwikster in 2011, it met with consumer backlash. The plan was eventually scrapped.
Mai Anh (according to Reuters)
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