USA Today Profiles Netflix CEO Reed Hastings

USA Today profiled Netflix CEO Reed Hastings ('Charismatic' founder keeps Netflix adapting), and took a rare look inside the secretive company.

The meeting highlight was a traffic report from the previous Sunday's Oscars telecast. Customers swarmed the site throughout the show, adding a combined 33,449 movies to the wish lists they build in their online accounts.

Finally, Hastings asked employees for surveillance reports on nearby Blockbuster closings. An employee shouted the location of one with the enthusiasm of a hunter bringing home a trophy.

The meeting ended, and workers filed past a huge bottle of sparkling wine, festooned with the tag: "To be opened when we surpass five million subscribers."

A new feature, still on the drawing board:

Employees demonstrated software that would let customers access the site from cellphones, searching for DVD titles and adding them to wish lists. Hastings warmed to the idea, but asked how it would work on different cellphone screen sizes. The meeting ended on a high note. Hastings called the ideas presented "unbelievably cool."