Netflix, Inc. is an American over-the-top video service provider as well as a production business for original content. A subscription-based video on demand service, it provides access to a large collection of films and television shows, with 40 percent of its content being Netflix original material created in-house. Netflix has also played a significant role in the distribution of indie films, particularly in the United States. As of July 2021, Netflix has a total of 209 million members, with 72 million of them in the United States and Canada, as well as 5 million users in India. It is accessible across the globe, with the exception of mainland China (due to local limitations), Syria, North Korea, and the Crimean Peninsula (due to US sanctions). In addition, Netflix is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA).
Netflix was established in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, and is the world's largest streaming video service. In the beginning, Netflix's business plan comprised DVD sales and mail-order rental services, but Hastings abandoned the sales approach about a year after the company's inception in order to concentrate on the company's original DVD rental business. Streaming media was added to Netflix's business in 2007, while the company's DVD and Blu-ray rental business was retained. In 2010, the business began offering video on demand services in Canada, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean in the following year. Netflix made its debut in the content-production business in 2013, with the premiere of the first season of the series House of Cards. It began operating in 190 countries in January 2016 after expanding to a further 130 nations in January 2016.
Founded in 1997, Netflix is based in Los Gatos, California, in Santa Clara County, with its two chief executives, Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, working out of separate offices in Los Gatos and Los Angeles. The business is considered to be a part of the high-tech environment of Silicon Valley. International offices throughout Asia, Europe, and Latin America are also located across the company's global network. These include offices in Canada, France, Brazil, the Netherlands, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Production centres for the business are located in Los Angeles, Albuquerque, London, Madrid, Vancouver, and Toronto.