Diffusion of Innovation

                                                                  Diffusion of Innovation

What is the Diffusion of Innovation it is a theory that forages and it tries to explain how, why, and at what rate new technology and ideas spread into society. The theory was created by Everett Rodgers who was a professor of communication studies and he became popular when he published his book about Diffusion of Innovations in 1962. The theory starts out when someone invents a new piece of then you have the early adopters who are the first people to start using the new piece of technology, who are usually part of a business that incorporates the technology into their workspace. Next is the early majority and that is when your everyday joe starts to use the technology, then soon after them, you have the late majority who are people in society who haven't yet adopted the new tech into their life either because they couldn't afford it or they didn't have a reason to buy it. Then last but not least you have the laggards who are the people left over from the late majority who haven't yet adopted the new piece of technology into their daily lives. 

One of many possible examples of this is Netflix which was created by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph which revolutionized the entertainment business and how we consume media. In 1997 Hastings and Randolph started shipping DVDs by mail and it quickly blew up, Netflix adopted with the times as new technology became available Hasting and Randolph incorporated it into their business in 1998 Netflix had a website and then the following year Netflix started their subscription service. Fun fact in 2000 Blockbuster refused an offer to buy Netflix because they believe that the system was doomed to fail, well we all know how that turned out. Eventually, Netflix turned into what it is today, and now many other companies who are part of the entertainment business and now even companies outside of the entertainment business use some version of a subscription service. Netflix made entertainment way easier to obtain and watch it brought it to your fingertips at one low price which is why Netflix became as big as it is. What is negative about Netflix is that it put a lot of video rental stores out of business which caused a lot of people to lose their jobs. Even as successful as Netflix is at the end of the day it is a company that is bleeding money at an alarming rate which is why they keep bumping up their subscription prices, they are spending more money than they are making. I don't think Netflix is going anywhere anytime soon but if they don't get their act together their future may not be that bright after all.