Netflix is one of those companies that you would totally invest in if you could go back in time a decade or so. Once the leader of a fairly niche market that Blockbuster practically laughed off the negotiating table when an acquisition was discussed, Netflix has since risen to become a multi-billion dollar powerhouse with tens of million of subscribers and billions of streaming hours every month. In fact, all the numbers seem to indicate that Netflix will soon become the top “television network” in the world.
With 65 million subscribers, and counting, Netflix has moved from a small-time DVD mailer to a video nexus of unrivaled proportions in just eight short years. After floundering at the dawn of the decade, Netflix has turned on the afterburners, now streaming more than 3 billion hours of video every month, and turning the entire entertainment industry on its head in the process. But Netflix is more than just a video streamer these days. The company has grown so quickly that it now eclipses traditional TV networks in both popularity, and viewing hours, and its trajectory is sending it straight into the eye of the hurricane that is HBO. Follow us below to see how Netflix went from pest to predator in the TV landscape, charting a course to become the biggest entertainment network on earth. The easiest way to understand just how big Netflix has become is to get into the numbers.