Yesterday in our office, Gary Kayye said, “You know what? Netflix was actually one of the most impactful technology introductions in my lifetime.” For someone who reeeeeally loves technology and is definitely an innovator on Geoffrey Moore’s famous adoption curve, that’s a pretty bold statement.
But he has a point — Netflix, founded just over 20 years ago, made entertainment on demand in the home accessible in a totally different way, first with its DVD subscription service and then with its video streaming platform. Blockbuster said it wouldn’t work because bandwidth limitations would thwart adoption, but we all know how that turned out. After that (and YouTube), video was on the network and it would be there to stay. Now it’s part of our industry’s job to make sure that all works just fine. Who knows what we’ll be looking back on 20 years from now.