Netflix has come a long way since 1997, when two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Marc Ran-dolph and Reed Hastings, decided to start an online DVD store before most people owned a DVD player. They were surprised and elated when launch-day traffic in April 1998 crashed their server and resulted in 150 sales. Today, Netflix has more than 25 million subscribers and annual revenues above $3 billion. Yet long- term success-or even survival-is still far from guaranteed.
Journalist Gina Keating recounts the absorbing, fast-paced drama of the company's turbulent rise to the top and its attempt to invent two new kinds of business. First it engaged in a grueling war against video-store behemoth Blockbuster, transforming movie rental forever. Then it jumped into an even bigger battle for online video streaming against Google, Hulu, Amazon, and the big cable companies. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/1954.html
Netflix ushered in such innovations as DVD rental by mail, a patented online queue of upcom-ing rentals, and a recommendation algorithm called Cinematch that proved crucial in its struggle against bigger rivals. Yet for all its success, Netflix is still a polariz-ing company. Hastings is often heralded as a visionary-he was named Business Person of the Year in 2010 by Fortune-even as he has been called the nation's worst CEO. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/1954.html
Netflix also faces disgruntled customers after price increases and other stumbles that could tarnish the brand forever. The quest to become the world's portal for pre-mium video on demand will determine nothing less than the future of entertainment and the Internet. Drawing on extensive new interviews and her years covering Netflix as a financial and entertainment reporter, Keating makes this tale as absorbing as it is important.文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/1954.html
文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/1954.html文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/1954.html
