https://qz.com/1245933/twenty-years-ago-netflix-com-launched-the-movie-business-has-never-been-the-same/

Moviegoers once devoted substantial chunks of their Friday evenings to perusing the aisles of video stores. You’d go in with one movie in mind, but the latest releases had been picked over. Still, you leave with two or three—and Twizzlers and microwave popcorn—because why not? You went all the way there and had the weekend to watch.

That was before April 14, 1998, when a small startup in Scotts Valley, California, launched a website called Netflix.com. Instead of physically going to the video store, you could browse the virtual aisles on Netflix, rent a movie for a few bucks apiece plus shipping through its e-commerce platform, and, within two to three business days, a red envelope with a DVD would arrive in your mailbox. After seven days, return it via the mail in the same packaging.