Netflix (discussed above), the largest online DVD rental service in the U.S., offers a flat-fee DVD movie rental service that, by 2007, was serving over 6 million subscribers from its collection of 75,000 titles.32 Subscribers can use the website's browse function to search for movies by genre, and use an extensive movie recommendation system based on other users' ratings to add to their ordered list for delivery via mail. At its initial launch, the Netflix business model was based on a pay-per-rental service, but this initial pricing model did not succeed, and the company almost failed. It was clear to management Netflix had to rejig its business model and, between September and October 1999, it reinvented itself with a subscription model (the ‘Marque Program’). It ended its pay-per-rental model entirely, and evolved the monthly fee program to allow subscribers to rent any number of DVDs per month (although only a limited number at any one time). The model was supported by a system of regional distribution centers which ensured next day delivery to over 90% of subscribers. Clearly, it took a while to be able to ascertain the right price points and the manner of pricing that was most acceptable to the customer base for its new service; but as Netflix management figured out viewer convenience, wants and willingness to pay, it adjusted its business model accordingly. This ability to perceive and adapt saved Netflix and laid the foundation for its growth and development: by 2006 it had reached almost $1 billion in revenues.

Barriers to imitating business models
This section attempts to distil those factors that affect the ease or otherwise of imitating business models. At a superficial level all business models might seem easy to imitate – certainly the basic idea and the business logic behind a new model is unlikely itself to enjoy intellectual property protection.