Hollywood was at its peak in 1996. It not only dominated the North American film market, but also conquered cities and lands all over the world and had a huge influence.

The press conferences of Sony Pictures, Lin's Pictures, MGM Pictures and New Line Pictures were like a bombshell in Hollywood. When other big companies were not ready to welcome the new industry, they were shocked by the news.

For these large companies, it is best for them to control new industries. No matter how bad they are, they should ask others to come to the door for cooperation, so that they can gain more initiative, but this time they miscalculated.

After Sony Pictures has become the "Shang Sanchang" in Hollywood after annexing Columbia Pictures. Lin's Pictures has been in the limelight in recent years, spanning the eastern and western hemispheres. Many people in Hollywood have privately called it the "seventh largest".

MGM Pictures has fallen into the world since the 1980s, but it still maintains a 6% market share in the US film market.

Xinyi Film has always been a second-rate film company in Hollywood, but it focuses on independent production and its strength is not small.

These four film companies joined forces to say that they accounted for half of Hollywood, but they were enough to shake the entire Hollywood.

You should know that things like supporting new technical standards are difficult or simple, and it depends on whether anyone can fire the first shot.

With the help of the first bird, everyone is afraid of being left behind and being eliminated by others, and the original iron curtain will naturally collapse from the inside.

After the press conference of the four film companies was held, the rest of Hollywood companies were in a panic and they discussed whether to follow up and support the DVD standard.

At this time, the first batch of DVD players produced by Sony and Toshiba have been pre-sale in Japan, and the five trial sales cities in the US market have also been confirmed, namely Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington.

In just less than a month, the upstream production and sales channels of DVD players have opened up channels, and the downstream content support of DVD video tapes has also been highlighted. Although it has not yet been fully integrated, it is enough to open up the DVD industry in the early stages.

All industry-related movies, records, and game companies feel a new wave that is coming.

Two weeks later, Polykin, a well-known record company with A&M, Motown and lsland labels, as well as Polydor and LondonPhilips, announced that it would support the DVD standard.

As soon as this news came out, it shocked the European and American film and television entertainment industries, including several major Hollywood companies.

Because it is well known that Sony Pictures is one of the shareholders of Lin's Pictures.

In the eyes of the outside world, the joint camp composed of Sony, Lin's, MGM and the new line half a month ago was actually led by Sony Pictures.

It is understandable that your own family supports your own family.

But Polykin joined the DVD camp, the situation was different.

It is one of the largest record companies in the world today. With the addition of Polykin, it means that the DVD standard camp has won the entry permit in the music field and has won another game after the film field.

The rise of the DVD standard camp is unexpectedly fast!

Such a rapidly changing industrial structure has made every company in it feel anxious and entangled, and many internal discussions about whether to join the DVD standards have become increasingly louder.

And amid such discussions, a website called NETFLIX is about to be launched in a beige building at 165 Paloato University Road, Silicon Valley.

It is easy to run a website that sells videotapes online and rents as its business, but there are too many things to do.

Fortunately, Tao Yushu is a reasonable boss. He not only gave Mark Randolph and others enough time, but also gave them enough investment and trial and error costs.

June 18, 1996 was the day when Netflix's website was officially launched.

Before this, they had purchased 600 movies, 20 documentaries, 45 concerts, concerts, and a total of 65,000 DVD video tapes in stock, and this is already all kinds of DVD video tapes available on the market.

The new DVD video tape is far from comparable to VHS video tape in terms of stock types, but it also has its benefits.

The lightweight and relatively low purchasing price are the two benefits that are simply created for Netflix.

On the morning of Netflix's launch, Tao Yushu got up very early and woke up at 4 o'clock. Lin Chaoyang was still sleeping. She quietly put on her slippers, walked out of the bedroom and closed the door.

She came to the kitchen to make coffee for herself and made two more sandwiches.

The house on Mulholland Road is good everywhere, but the kitchen is completely Western, making Chinese food is very troublesome, and the couple did not bring their nanny, so they eat breakfast every day.

While chewing the cold sandwich, Tao Yushu thought that he should equip this house with some staff.

She drank the only half cup of coffee left in the coffee pot, and did not intend to leave it for Lin Chaoyang, who was more willing to drink tea.

When I left the door, the black Mercedes-Benz was already waiting at the gate of the yard.

After getting in the car, Tao Yushu closed his eyes and looked back at all the plans he had made for Netflix over the past year.

The promotion of DVD standards has seemed to be very good over the past period of time. Everything went smoothly, whether it was software or hardware, but Tao Yushu's still finds it difficult to get it easy.

She thought of the days when she first started Lin's Pictures, which were both stressful and motivated.

The pressure on Tao Yushu comes from the unknown. Even if the promotion of DVD standards goes well, no one knows whether DVD will be successful.

No one knows how it will operate if it really becomes popular in the future.

Will it be the format standard mainly used for movies? Is it suitable for listening to music and playing games? Are you willing to use the five-channel DVD channel to watch movies in home theaters, or do you prefer to go to the cinema to enjoy the big screen?

Everything is unknown.

What's more, VHS video tapes are still popular and have already covered all aspects of film history, music and even education. How could anyone purchase a batch of emerging products for no reason?

Tao Yushu never attributes her success to how great she is. She is also an ordinary person and will be as worried as possible failures and setbacks.

She turned her eyes out the window. Los Angeles in June were full of Da Sikki. The reason why she got up so early today was to go to Silicon Valley to participate in Netflix's online day.

At around 9 a.m., the black Mercedes-Benz stopped in front of the beige building on Paloato University Road.

Tao Yushu followed the stairs to the second floor, immediately attracted everyone's attention, "It seems that everyone is ready!"

There are only 30 employees in the second floor, which looks empty in the office area of ​​more than 400 square meters. Most of them are employees in charge of the online bookstore FutureFantasy.

When the employees saw Tao Yushu, they showed expressions of nervousness and excitement on their faces.

Everyone knows that they have been waiting for a year to achieve today.

After saying hello, Tao Yushu held a regular meeting for everyone as usual. There was no command or preaching, all of them were to inject chicken blood, sprinkle chicken soup, and draw big cakes.

After being a boss for so many years, she is very good at these things.

After the regular meeting, Tao Yushu glanced at his watch and said to Mark Randolph: "In 5 minutes, the reporter's phone calls will come in one after another, you are ready."

More than a month ago, Tao Yushu had already arranged media publicity work for Netflix after it went online.

With Lin's Film's influence, Netflix can become famous as soon as it goes online, but Tao Yushu didn't do that, but just arranged some interviews from local media.

The rice must be eaten one bite at a time, and the things must be done bit by bit.

Mark Randolph was a little nervous when he heard this. He had not received many interviews in more than ten years of starting a business. This time he prepared a manuscript in advance so that he could sound as natural as possible when answering questions.

"Of course, our Netflix is ​​the first online DVD rental store in the United States, which is a great invention across the ages."

"Every DVD enthusiast, movie lover, music lover, no matter where he lives or how far he lives from the audio and video store, can now buy or rent any DVD video tape available on the market."

"VNS video tapes are about to become a thing of the past, lightweight and low-priced DVD tapes will subvert the film and television industry."

"No need to drive there, no need to find parking spaces, no need to wait in line, and even return is more convenient."

"We never close and serve every customer 24/7."

Lin Chaoyang used to say that Americans have a good idea of ​​bragging, and Tao Yushu now has to admit this.

Mark Randolph looks so kind. He almost brags about to the sky when chatting with reporters on the phone.

For more than half an hour, Mark Randolph was interviewed by three media outlets, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

As soon as the interview was over, he couldn't wait to rush to the engineer Eric's computer.

The website was launched at 10 o'clock, and he just finished the interview at 10:02 o'clock.

"Here! Come!" Eric shouted.

Netflix has created an automatic confirmation email function for users, and customers will automatically confirm payment and delivery information through email after placing an order.

At 10:03, Netflix's first order came, and everyone standing behind Eric couldn't help but cheer.

Tao Yushu looked at the order information carefully and found that it was a purchase order, and he felt a little disappointed.

Her hope for Netflix is ​​that this website can sweep the American videotape rental market, and the market is still a little smaller as for videotape sales.

Over the past six months, several Netflix engineers have been on the forum and have attracted many American technical teenagers. These people are looking forward to Netflix going online as soon as possible.

Of course, in addition to this, Netflix has also made a lot of advertising locally in California, spending more than $100,000.

For a startup, such a publicity offensive is already considered a big deal.

"Our first order was JackChen's "Drunk Fist"!" Eric said excitedly.

"Tomorrow I will have someone make a 24K pure gold "Drunk Box" DVD to the company."

After Tao Yushu said this, everyone cheered again.

This is a joke Tao Yushu told everyone a few days ago. She said she would make the first movie for sale or lease after the website was launched into a gold DVD.

Just as the cheers of the crowd were not yet finished, the ringtone symbolizing the order rang again. At the same time, there were three more people in the waiting queue on the computer screen.

Mark Randolph remembered something and said hurriedly: "Print the order quickly, scan the packaging and out of the warehouse."

With the experience of operating the online bookstore FutureFantasy, Netflix employees have long been familiar with the online shopping process.

Order confirmation, credit card authorization, order printing, packaging, scanning, packing and out-of-stock processes are less than 10

All completed within minutes. Scan the order here and the order on the computer has already shown "in transit status".

"Perfect!" Mark waved his fist excitedly.

"Man, there is also the test of transportation and mailing." Reed poured a basin of cold water on him.

"I know, I know."

In the next ten minutes, the sound of prompts came from the speakers, and each sound represented an order, and everyone on Netflix's face was filled with joy.
To be continued...