The leader of Netflix left the scene – technology

Bill Gates gave the helm of Microsoft to Stephen Ballmer.

Jeff Bezos hands over leadership of Amazon to Andy Jassy.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin pass the Alphabet portfolio to Sundar Pichai.

Now is the time Reed Hastings leaves the scene And make room for someone else.

The former math teacher has already had a big enough impact on our lives to be in the same category as the previous namesake. Netflix is ​​the leading streaming platform worldwide, currently has 231 million subscribers and has forever changed the way we consume movies and series.

According to legend, Hastings had the idea to create Netflix in 1997 after racking up huge debt at Blockbuster (a company that dominated the DVD rental market) and thought the whole process would be easier if it worked like a gym subscription with monthly payments.

Since then, Netflix’s success has been a result of doing the right thing at the right time even when there was no sign of doing so.

• At the height of the dotcomInstead of betting on digital and streaming immediately, I set up a distribution network with the US Post Office, with only one landing page to aggregate DVD orders, which were then delivered within two days in the envelopes that made the company famous.

• in 2007when Internet coverage in the United States was already important, launched the streaming service as an “extra” for those who already subscribed to traditional DVD rentals and began making their first tests with the platform.

• in 2011With the massive growth of the Internet as an infrastructure that has given wide reach to social networks, e-commerce platforms, and video platforms, Netflix has launched its first subscription plan focused on streaming, delivering movies and series remotely in one click.

• in the year 2013When content licensing costs began to rise, it began investing heavily in original productions, first in the US (“House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black”) and gradually abroad (“Narcos”, “Dark” and “Squid”). Game”), becoming a global entertainment brand.

In this way, he created a file A guide to success in the broadcast industry It led major companies such as Disney, Warner Bros. (HBO) and Amazon to follow in its footsteps without being able to anticipate it. But he didn’t do it alone.

Over the course of 25 years, Hastings has also created a strong culture at the company, which began with the challenging recruitment process and culminated in assigning responsibilities to every element of the company, regardless of hierarchy. Perhaps it was this feeling of empowerment that led him, in 2020, to appoint Ted Sarandos as co-CEO, so he could share the duties of running a global entertainment brand. It’s not a common structure at a company like Netflix, but it’s the form of leadership that will stick with his departure, which was announced last week.

Reed Hasting will now serve as CEO, keeping in touch with the company, but not in the day-to-day intensity. Ted Sarandos will remain Co-CEO and strongman in the entire content space. Greg Peters was Netflix’s former COO and will take over from Hastings, responsible for the entire operational area, which includes managing the company’s expenses, expanding into new markets and the daunting task of resolving password sharing.

• The change at Netflix came after the streaming platform announced an addition 7.7 million additional subscribers In the last quarter of 2022.

• Although the general difficulty that The share price fell by 39%.Netflix remains ahead of the competition in terms of its international presence and platform profitability.

Read also: Netflix is ​​looking for a host or hostess to work on the company’s private jet and it’s a very attractive offer (BBC)

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