Some sites just are before their time. “Broadcast.com” was a website in 1995 dedicated to streaming shows and movies. In 1999 it was sold to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion. It failed and is considered one of the worst purchases in tech history (this was before Twitter). In 2007, Netflix would launch its TV show and movie streaming services and grow to be worth $197 billion.
Yeah it’s not enough that you have a good idea it has to be at the right time as well. Netflix had the perfect business model to launch into streaming when it did. You had the rise of the internet and people slowly shifting away from physical media. You had the downfall of blockbuster. And they had built a user base with their dvd mailing service that they could ease into online streaming as they built their online library. It was perfectly timed and everyone jumped on board.
Now the tables have turned though. You have a dozen competing streaming services and they’re putting out better content and backing their series when Netflix just cancels everything. As the streaming services merge Netflix is going to struggle to beat their catalogs so it might not be that long before we think of Netflix like we think of blockbuster.
Classic Yahoo!. Just like their one billion Tumblr purchase later on. They had no idea what to do with it until they sold it for peanuts years after.
The downfall of reddit doesn’t suddenly turn Google+ into a good product.
