「世有好劇一石，Netflix獨佔八鬥。」
一個合格的劇迷，對Netflix絕不陌生。
《紙牌屋》、《怪奇物語》、《王國》、《愛、死亡與機器人》等新晉熱劇都出自Netflix旗下。
2011年，Netflix做出決定：
分別收取流媒體和郵件磁碟訂閱費。
此舉一出，股價一度下跌60%。
如何在定價方面推動公司發展，是Netflix的一大難題。
ICON帶大家看看流媒體巨頭Netflix的橫空出世之路。
Netflix was an innovative pioneer in home entertainment, combining online account management with mail delivery of movie rentals on DVD. Netflix used United States Postal Service first class mail to send out and return movies on disk that subscribers then watched at home on their own TVs. With some ups and downs, Netflix gradually built its subscriber base and in 2002, the company had 600,000 members and had a successful Initial Public Offering that raised $82 million from the sale of 5.5 million shares at $15 a share.Revenue grew from $153 million in 2002 to $2.2 billion in 2010; after early losses, annual net income had reached $161 million by 2010.
Netflix是家庭娛樂領域的創新先驅，將在線帳戶管理與通過郵件傳遞的DVD電影租借巧妙結合在一起。它利用美國郵政最頂級的服務向消費者寄收電影光碟，用戶可以在自己家中的電視上觀看。伴隨著跌宕起伏，Netflix逐步建立了用戶基礎，並在2002年擁有60萬名會員，成功進行了首次公開募股，以每股15美元的價格出售550萬股股票，籌集了8,200萬美元。收入從2002年的1.53億美元增長到2010年的22億美元；扣除早期虧損後，到2010年，年淨收入已達到1.61億美元。
Netflix initially used a substantial cardboard box, but it was too heavy. The firm finally settled on a paper two-way mailer design with a window that allows the liner bar code to be scanned without the envelope being opened. The best innovation was to add a bar code to each disk to enable it to be identified by operators in the Netflix’s distribution centers without having to read the title.
Netflix最初使用堅固的紙板箱來作為郵遞工具，但事實證明它太重了。最後確定了帶有窗口的紙質雙向郵件設計，該窗口允許在不打開信封的情況下掃描內部條形碼。最大的創新是在每個磁碟上添加條形碼，使Netflix發行中心的運營商可以識別條形碼，而無需閱讀標題。
Netflix’s traditional through-the-mail subscription system: once a customer had gone to the website, registered, and given their credit card information, they could search for specific movies by title, actor, director, or browse genres such as Action, Comedy, or Foreign. Customers chose between plans that offered 1, 2 or 3 movies at a time, with most customers choosing the lowest level of service. In 2005 the prices were $9.99, $14.99, and $17.99 respectively. Netflix reported that typical customers rented between 2 and 11 movies per month. Netflix had set up multiple fulfillment centers with the goal of being just one day by first class mail away from most customers. A customer ordering on Monday was highly likely to come home from work on Tuesday and see the DVD waiting in his or her mailbox.
Netflix傳統郵件訂閱方式:一旦用戶登錄網站，註冊並提供信用卡信息，就可以按標題、演員、導演等搜索特定的電影，或者瀏覽動作、喜劇等類型。客戶可以在同時提供1部、2部或3部電影的方案中進行選擇，大多數客戶選擇的是最低水平的服務。2005年的價格分別為9.99美元，14.99美元和17.99美元。Netflix報告說，典型的客戶每月租2到11部電影。其建立了多個配送中心，目的是讓大多數客戶只需一天就能收到第一類郵件。周一下單的顧客很可能在周二下班回家後看到自己的DVD就在郵箱裡等著。
Netflix has a special "throttling" mode. When a customer logged on, they were invited to rate recently viewed movies and the website would suggest similar movies that the customer might enjoy renting. If these were older or more obscure, Netflix’s expenses were less.
Netflix有著特殊的「節流」模式。當客戶登錄時，他們會被邀請對最近觀看的電影進行評級，網站會根據個人口味為客戶推薦不同電影。如果這些電影年代更久遠或更不知名，費用就會更低。
A typical neighborhood store held only 3,000 to 5,000 titles and often ran out of copies of newly released hit movies. In contrast, Netflix boasted more than 100,000 unique titles and their bulk buying from movie studios enabled them to have a generous supply of new movies. The major competitive was Blockbuster whose market share was as high as 40 percent in 1998 and at its peak had 7,000 stores. However, Blockbuster failed in attempts to make an online ordering system that would be directly competitive with Netflix. It filed for bankruptcy in September 2010. Wal-Mart also tried to replicate Netflix's mail-order model, but failed due to too few distribution centers.
一個普通的社區商店只有3000到5000份光碟，且新發行的熱門電影經常售罄。相比之下，Netflix號稱擁有超10萬部影片，且不斷從製片方處大量購買，使他們能大量供應新電影。Netflix主要的競爭對手是百視達，其市場份額在1998年高達40%，在巔峰時期擁有7000家門店。然而，它在試圖開發一個與Netflix直接競爭的在線訂購系統時失敗了，於2010年9月申請破產。沃爾瑪也曾嘗試複製Netflix的郵購模式，但因分銷中心過少而失敗。
Netflix’s sole income was from monthly subscriptions. Before the streaming initiative began in earnest, in 2007, Netflix ended the year with 7.5 million subscribers and reported revenue of $1.205 billion, about $160 per customer per year. Before streaming, the firm’s gross margin was about 35 percent. The cost of acquiring new customers was $40.88 for each new subscriber in 2007. In subsequent years, Netflix became more efficient in the use of promotion and by 2011, the cost of acquisition had fallen to $18.00 per subscriber.
Netflix的唯一收入來自每月的訂閱。在正式推出流媒體服務之前，也就是2007年11月，Netflix年底擁有750萬用戶，收入為12.05億美元，相當於每個用戶每年160美元。在流媒體之前，該公司的毛利率約為35%。2007年，獲得新客戶的成本為每名新用戶40.88美元。在隨後的幾年裡，Netflix在推廣方面變得更加高效，到2011年，收購成本已經降至每名訂戶18美元。
Netflix first offered customers an opportunity to stream a limited selection of movies beginning in January, 2007 . By September 2011, Netflix reported 23.8 million subscribers, of whom 21.4 million were using streaming for at least some of their movie experience. This became a serious threat to cable TV providers as it was a large portion of the 83.2 million US households. In 2011, cable companies saw a drop-off in the number of families who continued to subscribe, although whether that was attributable to high unemployment and an uncertain economy or whether it was a direct result of penetration by Netflix and other streaming services could not be determined.
從2007年1月開始，Netflix首先為客戶提供了播放有限電影的機會。截止至2011年9月，Netflix擁有2380萬名用戶，其中2140萬用戶使用流媒體觀看部分電影，這對有線電視運營商來說是一個嚴重的威脅，因為有線電視用戶佔了8320萬美國人口。2011年有線電視公司發現繼續訂閱的家庭數量有所下降，但由於當時的高失業率和不確定的經濟形勢，這是否因 Netflix和其他流媒體服務的普及而導致，尚不能確定。
Although the studios had initially priced streaming through Netflix fairly low, they began to realize that Netflix’s unlimited streaming would undoubtedly diminish the amount of money they could earn from cable TV. As a result, the studios began to hold out for very high prices 21 . In the nine months ending September, 2011, Netflix spent $805 million on additions to the content streaming library, compared with $115 million in the year prior. Even this enormous permissions fee only covered some movies—by no means were all movies available for streaming through Netflix online. Netflix’s business model changed from the variable cost of purchasing additional DVDs as their number of subscribers grew, to very substantial period fixed costs for the right to stream content. Analysts estimated that a broader selection of first-run movies available for streaming might costs Netflix $2 billion or more 22 per year. With the cost of content ballooning, it was time for Netflix to stop giving streaming away for free.
儘管電影公司最初通過Netflix將流媒體的價格定得的很低，但他們開始意識到Netflix的無線流媒體無疑會減少他們從有線電視上賺到的錢，結果製片公司開始堅持以非常高的價格出售。在截至2011年9月的九個月裡，Netflix在增加內容流媒體庫方面花費了8.05億美元，上年同期為1.15億美元，即便是花費了如此大的版權許可費，也絕不可能使所有的電影都能通過Netflix在線流媒體播放。Netflix的商業模式從購買額外DVD的可變成本，轉變為大量的流媒體內容版權的長期固定成本。分析人士估計，更多可供流媒體觀看的首映電影可能會讓Netflix每年花費20億美元或更多。隨著內容成本的激增，Netflix是時候停止提供流媒體免費服務了。
Rather than proposing a price-raise for the enhanced service of disks-plus streaming, Netflix announced that the two services were to be split into separate charges for DVDs and streaming. Subscribers would see their monthly rate change from $9.99 down to $7.99. But to continue to view movies online, they would now have to add a separate streaming subscription, an additional $7.99 a month. Not surprisingly, consumers saw this as a sudden price increase from $9.99 to a total of $15.98 a month. This provoked a huge backlash from consumers.
Netflix並沒有提高光碟+流媒體服務的價格，而是宣布將這兩種服務分為DVD和流媒體服務。用戶將看到他們的月費從9.9美元下降到7.99美元，但是想要繼續在線觀看電影，他們必須額外支付每月7.99美元的流媒體訂閱費用。不出所料，消費者面對從每月9.99美元到每月15.98美元的突然上漲，表達了強烈反對。
It was reasonably confident that the worst damage had been done. The drop in the company’s stock price was probably an over-reaction by the stock market. As October 25th drew to a close, he checked the stock price one more time. The closing price of $77.37 was 35 percent down from the previous close.
我們有理由相信最嚴重的破壞已經造成，公司股價的下跌，可能是股票市場的過度反應。在10月25日接近收盤時，股票收盤價為77.37美元，比之前的收盤價下跌了35%。
For Netflix to continue as a company, it had to embrace the new online streaming technology. In retrospect, there had to be a better way to manage the price change. The firm had probably let too many customers stream too many movies at no additional charge for too long. Giving something away for free that was costing the company billions of dollars a year. But now the problem was how to turn the situation around.
Netflix要想繼續發展，就必須接受新的在線流媒體技術。其實有更好的方式來管理價格變化，該公司可能讓太多客戶在很長一段時間內觀免費觀看了太多電影，免費贈送一些東西會讓公司每年損失數10億美元。現在的問題是如何扭轉局面？
In developing a pricing structure, it would be simpler if the firm could be split into two: online streaming and a separate disk rental service. The rationale for this would be that the cost structures for the two were different. Online streaming required very high period fixed costs for content acquisition, whereas disk rental was a variable cost that depended on the number of subscribers, the number of disks they rented and hence the number of new disks that had to be bought.
在決定定價結構時，如果公司能一分為二事情就會簡單很多：在線流媒體和單獨的光碟租賃服務。這樣做的理由是兩家公司的成本結構不同。在線流媒體需要非常高的定期固定成本來獲取內容，而光碟租賃是可變成本，它取決於訂閱者的數量和租用的光碟數量，因此必須不斷購買新的光碟。
Going forward, analysts could see three possible pricing options for Netflix:
(1) Stick it out
By maintaining the two-price model at $7.99 a month each for disks by mail and streaming.
(2) Make a single, lower bundle price
This plan would continue unlimited disks and unlimited streaming but would offer a 「fair value」 price for the two services together. Instead of $7.99 + $7.99 = $15.98 a month, a slightly lower bundle price for the two services together, in the range of $11.99 to $13.99 a month. If seen by consumers as a good value, this would increase the number of 「both」 subscriptions.
(3) Abandon 「unlimited」 for streaming
Under this option, Netflix would move closer to a pay-per-view model charging a fee for each movie downloaded, the same as the pricing model of their online competitors. One variation of this would be to allow subscribers to watch, say, two movies a week within their subscription, but then pay-per-view for additional movies.
展望未來，我們認為Netflix可行的三種定價選擇包括以下三種：
（1）維持現有定價策略
繼續以每月7.99美元的價格提供郵寄光碟和流媒體服務。
（2）制定一個單一且更低的捆綁價格
該計劃將以一個合理的價格無限制提供光碟和流媒體服務。與7.99美元加7.99美元等於15.98美元的月租費相比，這兩項服務的捆綁價格降低為每月11.99美元至13.99美元，如果消費者認為合理，這將增加兩者訂閱的數量。
（3）放棄流媒體的無限制使用服務
在這個選項下，Netflix將向按次收費模式靠攏，對被下載的每部電影收取費用，與在線競爭者的定價模式相同。另一種方法是允許訂閱用戶在訂閱期間每周觀看兩部電影，然後對額外的項目按次付費。
Credit to: Doctor David·Robinson, from UC Berkeley