Netflix founder Reed Hastings admitted in an interview that aired Monday that Blockbuster would have killed his company if it had launched a streaming service. He also revealed that the rental store chain declaring bankruptcy was “[the] greatest day of my life.”
Netflix, Better Than a Foot Mouse
Speaking on Texas Public Radio, Mr. Hasting confessed that the old school rental firm would have beaten Netflix if it had gone digital. It didn’t and Viacom, Blockbuster’s parent company, eventually stopped supporting the brand. There is now only one, independently owned Blockbuster store in the world. Meanwhile, Netflix dominates the only video-streaming market. Mr. Hastings said:
[The] greatest day of my life was the day Blockbuster declared bankruptcy.
The Netflix boss was speaking to Rackspace founder and former CEO Graham Weston at the Kipp Public Schools Texas and Tech Bloc event. Mr. Hastings conceded that all his ideas had not been a success. Apparently, he wanted to invent the “foot mouse”. However, he advised the audience:
You just want to be super observant, watching. ‘How are things happening? What’s happening here? Why is this changing to that?’ Try to understand for yourself what is it that drives that progress.