After 25 years, Netflix plans to shut down its core business of DVD rentals. Simply put, the company explains that declining demand for physical rental content has made it difficult to deliver the desired quality, and that it will ship its latest movie discs only until September 29.
Netflix released its first disc, Beetle juice, in 1998. So far, this company has been able to send more than 5.2 billion videos to more than 40 million customers. Now, the company explains in its blog post: “After an incredible 25 years, we have decided to discontinue DVD.com later this year. “Our aim has always been to provide the best possible service to our members, but as the business continues to shrink, this will become increasingly difficult.”
The company first unveiled its streaming service in 2007, and the business grew so quickly that by 2009 it had become Netflix’s most popular offering. Netflix then tried to spin off its DVD rental service into another company called Qwikster in 2011, but eventually moved it to the DVD.com domain in 2016.
On the other hand, the decision to remove DVD rental will also have financial advantages for Netflix. While the company is still recovering from 2022, its first-quarter profits were still worse than a year ago. Its subscriber growth has also been relatively modest, reaching 1.7 million new users. Removing the DVD rental unit could help Netflix cut costs; Even if the savings are relatively small.
Netflix has also had its eye on the video game industry for the past few years and launched its own mobile gaming service a few years ago.
