The Online Entertainment Rental Industry is new and growing rapidly. Online DVD rentals are very popular and book loaning is closely following this trend. This paper explores the Internet business strategies of two industry leaders: Netflix.com (Netflix) and Booksfree.com (Booksfree). Netflix is the founder of online DVD rentals. Booksfree is currently the only known online book loaning company. These two companies currently dominate the Online Entertainment Rental Industry and are studied in this paper. The lack of late fees or due dates has, without a doubt, quickly made these services highly desirable.
Netflix offers over 13,500 DVD movie titles for its subscribers to choose from. Selections include classics to new releases, including many independent, foreign and documentary films.
Booksfree is a pure Internet business, as is Netflix. Booksfree offers a virtual library in excess of 30,000 paperback titles. They have taken a market that already exists, and enhanced it to provide their customers with cheap access to books from the comfort home. Selections include current and former bestsellers as well as other popular titles from novelists who make their books available in mass-market paperbacks. Additionally, the retail portion of Booksfree offers over 600,000 titles available at competitive discounts.
Products and Services
Netflix offers DVDs only. Services include background information on DVD releases; including critic reviews, member ratings and reviews, and personalized movie recommendations. Also Netflix¡¯s proprietary Cinematch technology personalizes recommendations based on a member's tastes and preferences and allows Netflix to promote smaller, high-quality films to customers who otherwise might not hear about them.
Booksfree offers the mass-market paperback novel, which is the most popular recyclable product to process efficiently. Book categories range from Romance to Biographies and everything in between. A