THE FASHION DISPATCH

Fashion and Luxury and the Netflix challenge

150 150 SUSANNA NICOLETTI
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The fashion and luxury industry have to start a path of change and evolution.
A big challenge for a system that should drive change constantly and it has fallen victim of its own fears and of a trend of self conservation, instead.

Do you remember Blockbuster? Probably many of the Gen Z and most of the Millennials don’t.
Blockbuster was a must. A place to go and be in the waiting list for the new movie releases in VHD.
In 2004 Blockbuster had almost 95,000 employees and around 9,000 stores. Revenues were around 6 billion $
Blockbuster was founded in 1985 thanks to a very innovative idea of its founder David Cook, a senior in the software business in the oil and gas industry.
In 20 years Blockbuster reached the peak of its business but…

The company underestimated the upcoming digital opportunities and in 2000 refused to buy Netflix for only 50 million $. And the then Blockbuster CEO made an effort not to smile when he heard the figure.

In 2002 Netflix went public reaching a market capitalization of 6.5 billion$.

A lost occasion. Short term view. Pride and prejudice. Sense of entitlement.

Blockbuster filed for bankrupt in 2010. Netflix is presently valued 130 billion $.

Same fate for most of the fashion industry?