Netflix as a company was founded on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California, by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph.

It came out to the public as an online DVD-rental website on April 14, 1998, when Netflix.com officially launched as a mail-order DVD service.

Later, the Netflix streaming service — the version most people think of today — launched on January 16, 2007, introducing the “Watch Now” feature that let subscribers instantly stream movies and TV shows online.