The Best Entertainment Era

Due to the completion of the shareholding change, Ronan needs to rush to San Francisco as soon as possible to inspect Netflix on the spot. It is impossible to leave too much time for Mark Randolph. If Mark Randolph does not make a decision for a long time, he can only start a backup plan.

Of course, that would add a lot of trouble.

Perhaps because too much effort and enthusiasm was poured into Netflix, just three days later, Mark Randolph gave Ronan an exact reply, saying that he would continue to stay at Netflix as the CEO.

In this way, Ronan can save a lot of trouble, and it can also ensure that Netflix can achieve a smooth transition after the shareholding change.

Later, Ronan, accompanied by Mark Randolph, came to the Netflix headquarters in St. Andrew, San Francisco.

This is an office park next to Highway 17 in Scotts Valley. It was converted from the office of a branch of a bankrupt bank. The area is not very large and the decoration is relatively old.

The office also seems to reflect Netflix's current financial woes.

As soon as he entered the office area, the green carpet was shining brightly. Mark Randolph half-jokingly said to Ronan: This is the color of dollar bills that everyone desires.

Ronan nodded, but his eyes were attracted by the thick metal armored door on the wall opposite the office area.

Mark Randolph introduced: It used to be a bank vault, and later, together with the office area next door, I transformed it into a Netflix warehouse.

Ronan said, Let's go and have a look.

In the eyes of countless people at Netflix, Ronan walked through the long and narrow office area. There were dozens of rows of folding desks and cheap office chairs in the office area. On the computer monitor, there is expensive Oracle software running.

Through the office area, Ronan followed Mark Randolph into the warehouse.

Except for the small office at the entrance, the huge warehouse is filled with shelves full of DVDs.

Mark Randolph introduced the person in charge of the warehouse area to Ronan, and Ronan chatted with him for a while, and then asked Connie next to him to record relevant personal information.

After visiting the warehouse, Ronan returned to the office area, and Mark Randolph quickly called a meeting of all the company's personnel.

Facing the entire staff of Netflix, Ronan didn't say much,

Primarily used to stabilize personnel for a smooth transition.

Shareholding changes will always have various impacts on the company, and personnel must be stabilized.

As long as Netflix doesn't experience widespread departures, it won't pose much of a problem.

After all Netflix personnel gathered in the office area, Ronan and Mark Randolph came to a high platform in front of the warehouse.

Let me introduce myself, I'm Ronan Anderson. Ronan said loudly: The owner of Hollywood Relativity Entertainment Group, a film producer.

His voice is loud enough: Just last week, Relativity Entertainment completed the wholly-owned acquisition of Netflix. Many people may have heard some rumors. I hereby declare that Netflix's corporate structure and business policy will not undergo any changes. For this reason, I specially invite Mr. Mark Randolph to serve as the CEO of Netflix after the shareholding change.”

Mark Randolph said with a smile: Everyone, we are all old friends, so I don't need to introduce myself?

As soon as this was said, there was a lot of laughter from below, and the guard and suspicion in the eyes of many employees dissipated a lot.

With Mark Randolph as the CEO, in addition to ensuring the continuity of Netflix, it can also effectively calm people's hearts.

This is also one of the reasons why Ronan sent out the invitation in person.

At this point, Ronan added: Netflix's plan and purpose will not change. Building a website with an attractive, convenient user interface and a smooth running back end, and fast and complete delivery of DVDs to customers .”

After these words, there was not much warm applause from below.

Many Netflix employees breathed a sigh of relief. They are not afraid of the company’s shareholding change. Strictly speaking, there is no difference between working for the former boss and the current boss.

This job pays well. If you change jobs rashly, your mortgage, car loan, and credit card will all collapse in the event of an accident.

Ronan continued to stabilize people's hearts: Starting from January 1, 2002, Relativity Entertainment will inject $100 million into Netflix for a period of one year to improve the office environment and employee benefits, as well as to promote the company's business. develop!

After stabilizing the company's personnel, Ronan immediately called a meeting of Netflix's management.

This time from Los Angeles, in addition to Mark Randolph and Connie's assistance, Mary and Garcia also came to St. Andrew with Ronan.

The management meeting is still focused on stability. In a short period of time, Ronan will not let Netflix make many changes. There is no problem with Netflix’s existing business and management direction. What really caused Netflix’s current predicament is, on the one hand, The general environment dictates that, on the other hand, Netflix lacks the necessary funds for development.

Netflix’s highest power structure must be rebuilt. Mark Randolph was promoted from chief operating officer to CEO and continued to be responsible for Netflix’s daily operations. Ronan personally served as the chairman of Netflix, and Mary and her team temporarily led Regarding Netflix's financial affairs, Relativity Entertainment will send a special person to serve as Netflix's chief financial officer.

At the same time, Ronan and Connie's assistant team will stay in St. Andrew for a period of time to learn more about Netflix at this stage.

After taking a comprehensive inventory of Netflix's internal situation and all aspects of its business, Ronan has a sufficient grasp of the company's situation, and Netflix is ​​actually still in its infancy.

Chief among these is undoubtedly Netflix's online rental business.

Netflix’s rental business requires that the sale and rental of DVDs be based on the principle of choice. The current rental fee model comes from an improved version of the physical rental store of video tapes-the rental fee of $4 plus the shipping fee of a single disc of $2, each Add an additional disc for another $3.

The renter may keep the film for seven days and return it by postage-paid mail.

If customers like a certain movie, they can buy it directly at a 30 percent discount on the retail price.

In addition, since 2001, Netflix has also launched a monthly subscription model for registered users.

This is also the mainstream business model of Netflix's online rental, but it is still in the promotion stage.

With the rapid development of the Internet in North America, as long as Netflix can control its costs, its main business will indeed have a bright future. Previously, it was trapped in funding problems, resulting in too few licensed film and television dramas in stock.

In 1999, Netflix had only 500 DVD titles in its inventory, and most of them were old movies.

Up to now, this number has only risen to 1200.

This is not as large as the number of film libraries of any of the six major Hollywood companies, and it also includes a large number of documentaries and overseas movies.

The film source is one of the key factors that seriously restrict the further development of Netflix.

In addition, the impact of the environment cannot be ignored.

For the first two years, DVD players were still too expensive and there were too few DVD titles to adequately appeal to mainstream consumers.

There are also technical problems, because there is no unified standard for the format, and it is difficult for even large presses to provide standardized copies, so that all DVDs can be played on the same player.

But the good news is that compared with the video tapes of the year, the development of the DVD industry can be described by the speed of light.

DVD players are spreading far faster than VCRs—in March 1997, optical-mode DVD players were officially launched in North America, and 400,000 units were sold within six months.

In contrast, it took more than three years for VCRs to enter 200,000 households that year.

At the same time, the price of DVD players dropped rapidly, from an average selling price of $1,000 in early 1999 to less than $300 today.

The popularity of DVD has provided the necessary conditions for the development of Netflix.

Maybe others are still in the twilight stage, but Ronan is very clear that starting next year, DVD will completely move out of that stage of business paradox--consumers unwilling to buy DVD players because stores don't generally offer DVDs; retailers unwilling to stock Sell ​​DVDs because consumers don't have DVD players.

Ronan had already thought of a strategy to promote Netflix, and discussed with Mark Randolph for the first time-through the DVD manufacturer to place Netflix coupons in the player box, promise consumers, guarantee them Opportunity to try out a library of over 1000 movies.

This strategy quickly passed the approval of Netflix’s management. After Relativity Entertainment’s first funds were in place, Netflix quickly formulated relevant plans and prepared to promote their implementation.

Ronan also plans to use the media relationship network of Relativity Entertainment, starting in December, to do commercial promotion for Netflix in the media on a large scale.

In addition, various Netflix advertisements will also appear on the videos produced by Shahai Entertainment.

These can effectively promote Netflix and bring more customers to Netflix.

Compared with Netflix, Relativity Entertainment is already a very large platform.

When Ronan was about to leave San Francisco, he also discovered something. When Connie was sorting out the office that Reed-Hastings had left, she found an unmailed letter.

This letter from Reed Hastings himself to Mitterres contains his actual views on Netflix during this period: I have worked hard for Netflix's survival for many years, and we found that it is a lump Shit - an unfortunate parallel to what the fucked-up entrepreneurs in this valley are doing...  

Reading between the lines, Ronan can also see that Hastings really thinks that Netflix has come to an end.

In the previous life, Hastings and Netflix survived the most difficult stage and ushered in a turning point in 2002.

But the emergence of Relativity Entertainment changed everything.

After Ronan stayed in San Francisco for more than a week, he returned to Los Angeles. Netflix is ​​currently focusing on stability. Except for publicity, other actions must wait for the company to make a smooth transition before proceeding.

Back in Los Angeles, Ronan re-invested in film preparations and took time out to attend the North American premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.