We Bet You Didn't Know These Shocking Facts About Netflix

1. Netflix used to be called Kibble.

Marc Randolph, the founder of Netflix, had this to say about the early days of the company: "“First, pick a name that’s so bad, that you won’t even be tempted to use it when you run into difficulties finding your real domain name. Second, pick something meaningful. It’s a great way to start aligning everyone around what you think is really important."

So I called it Kibble. Kibble.com. Like the dog food. Unlaunchable name? You betcha!"

We are glad you didn't stick with that name.

2. A glitch once caused Netflix summaries to mash together.

In 2014 a bug in the Netflix system left users laughing. The glitch caused plot summaries from separate movies to merge—creating hilarious mashups of some classic (and not so classic) films.

3. Netflix creates a massive amount of online traffic.

Netflix is responsible for a staggering 37% of all North American internet traffic.

4. Netflix binge-watching could actually make us depressed.

Netflix and other streaming media services have become the crack of television, making it possible to watch an entire season of shows like House of Cards or Orange Is the New Black in one go. It seems like harmless fun, but recent headlines suggest that our binge-watching habits could be making us depressed and miserable.

The most recent findings on binge-watching associated people who binge on television with depression, loneliness and an inability to control their behavior.

"Our findings in our research show that those who feel more depressed tend to watch more programs," Yoon Hi Sung, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin and the lead researcher in the study, tells Shots.

5. Netflix nearly became a service for Blockbuster.

In the spring of 2000, Reed Hastings, the C.E.O. of Netflix, hired a private plane and flew from San Jose to Dallas for a summit meeting with Blockbuster, the video-rental giant that had seventy-seven hundred stores worldwide handling mostly VCR tapes.

Eventually, Hastings was convinced, movies would be rented even more cheaply and conveniently by streaming them over the Internet, and popular films would always be in stock. But in 2000 Netflix had only about three hundred thousand subscribers and relied on the U.S. Postal Service to deliver its DVDs; the company was losing money.

Hastings proposed an alliance. “We offered to sell a forty-nine-per-cent stake and take the name Blockbuster.com, we'd be their online service.” Blockbuster wasn’t interested. The dot-com bubble had burst, and some film and television executives, like those in publishing and music, did not yet see a threat from digital media. Hastings flew home and set to work promoting Netflix to the public as the friendly rental underdog.

By the time Blockbuster got around to offering its own online subscription service, in 2004, it was too late. “If they had launched two years earlier, they would have killed us,” Hastings said. By 2005, Netflix had 4.2 million subscribers, and its membership was growing steadily. 2 years later, Blockbuster would go out of business.

6. We now know the origin of "Netflix and chill."

2007

Netflix begins offering a streaming video service, available for free to all subscribers.

2009

The first recorded use of "Netflix and chill" on Twitter comes from user @nofacenina

2010

The first recorded use of "Netflix & chill" (with the ampersand) on Twitter comes from user @TeviStateofMind.

2011

Netflix attempts the biggest rebranding in its history—separating its delivery-by-mail and streaming businesses, and renaming the delivery business "Qwikster"—but the effort is a disaster. Customers revolt, the decision is quickly reversed, and the entire business reverts to simply being called "Netflix."

Seemingly unaware of any corporate-level turmoil, people on Twitter continue to talk about "Netflix and chill." At this point, "Netflix and chill" has no alternate, subversive meaning. It's just a two-word pairing, or, alternately, a verb phrase that means "to watch Netflix, while chilling." And it's usually performed alone. "Netflix and chill," at this point, is an introvert's metaphor for voluntary solitude.

2012

People start referring to "Netflix and chill" as a compound noun that doesn't require an antecedent verb phrase ("about to watch") or gerund ("watching"). The phrase "Netflix and chill" still has no sexual meaning, but the noun phrase usage is clearly on the rise.

2013

Netflix's streaming service begins to take off in the U.S., adding millions of members and surpassing HBO in paid subscribers. "Netflix and chill" is rising in Twitter usage, but so is the usage of other formations: "YouTube and chill," "Hulu and chill," and even the backwards "chill and Netflix."

2014

Netflix is still growing quickly, and ends the year with 57.4 million subscribers in about 50 countries. Twitter user @DoYou_Q (24,000 followers) tweets "Netflix & chill" in its new compound form.

Summer 2014

Dozens of Twitter users start saying "Netflix and chill" with a wink of innuendo. And a fascinating gendered watchword phenomenon develops. Teenage girls who had been asked to an innocent-sounding "Netflix and chill" session by boys, only to discover those boys' true motives, began issuing tongue-in-cheek warnings to other girls, telling them to be careful.

October 2014

More women (and a few men) start catching on to the second, more subversive meaning of "Netflix and chill." Scare quotes start appearing around "chill," indicating that people know what's really going on.

November 2014

The "starter pack" meme hits Twitter and Tumblr. And on November 17, @Start3rPack tweets a netflix & chill meme. The lower-right photo is of a wrapped condom. For perhaps the first time, the implicit meaning of "Netflix and chill" has been made explicit.

January 2015

The secret is out. Winking references to "Netflix and chill" begin to appear nearly as frequently as earnest "I want to watch Netflix and chill" tweets.

February 2015

As with most things popularized on Black Twitter, white people discover and eagerly jump on the "Netflix and chill" train. Popular Viner Brittany Furlan posts this Vine on Feb. 1; it racks up more than 11 million loops.

March 2015

"Netflix and chill" has achieved official catchphrase status.

7. Most people spend about two minutes deciding what to watch — before giving up.

That's the average, but we know people who can take forever just to choose one movie or show.

8. Netflix raked in a whopping $6 million in 2015.

According to their 2015 fiscal report, the company earned roughly $6.78 billion in revenue and about $1.75 billion in profits. That's a lot of Netflix subscriptions!

9. You can use a secret menu to stop Netflix from buffering.

By accessing the troubleshooting menu on Netflix, you can actually adjust the streaming bit rate so the video doesn't buffer.

Why did nobody tell us this sooner?!

10. Netflix now has a "God mode."

Not a fan of Netflix's horizontal scrolling interface? Many actually prefer to scroll vertically, aka in "God mode." After an independent developer created this mode for Netflix, the company decided to adopt it for all browsers.

11. Netflix subscribers watch for approximately two hours per day.

That sounds low, considering Netflix is the home of binge-watching. However, this is an average number, and sometimes one or two episodes are all you can squeeze in.

12. Netflix helps parents get their kids to bed on time.

Netflix allows parents to choose shorter episodes (five minutes, usually) to show their children when they beg for "one more episode" before bed.

And yep, we all did that as kids.

13. Netflix briefly introduced their own awards show.

In 2013, Netflix created The Flixies, a viewers' choice awards ceremony that would bestow such awards as "Best Guilty Pleasure" and "Best Hangover Cure." Sadly, The Flixies only lasted one year.

14. Netflix has been around longer than Google.

Say whaaa?

It's true. As a company, Netflix is one whole year older than Google.

And here we were thinking Google was the beginning of everything.

15. Netflix knows more about what we watch than anyone else in Hollywood.

Between Netflix's recommendation algorithm and their ability to track when we exit out of a movie or show, Netflix has gathered a ton of data.

16. "Binge-watch" was the Word of the Year in 2015.

Collins, a UK-based dictionary, chose the word due to its quick rise in popular usage.

LIKE if you learned something new about Netflix!