Popular Internet movie rental company Netflix has reached a milestone. It has shipped its 2 billionth movie. Perhaps more interesting is how much more quickly it shipped its second billion than its first.
“Netflix shipped its one billionth DVD (a copy of “Babel”) to a member in Helotes, Tex. in February 2007,” says Steve Swasey, Netflix VP of corporate communications. “It took eight years for Netflix to reach one billion shipments — less time than it took McDonald’s to sell one billion hamburgers — and just over two years to ship the second billion.”
And presumably that doesn’t include all the movies watched through Netflix’s streaming on demand service, which itself is growing in accessibility and popularity. If the company can get its streaming catalog on par with its DVD offerings, it’s just going to be that much more popular.
Swasey called an Alabama man on April 1st to let him know that he had been the recipient of the 2-billionth shipped Netflix DVD. Swasey explained that his prize was a lifetime subscription to Netflix. Of course the guy thought it was an April Fool’s joke, which apparently it wasn’t.
It’s unclear which plan he gets for free, but as long as it’s free for life, I doubt he cares much. Another thing that is unclear is whether or not Netflix included all of the replacement DVDs for damaged discs into that 2 billion. If so, I’d be interested to know the number on that.
