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The growing interest in online DVD rentals has catapulted a tiny East Bay startup into the spotlight.
Now, the trick for Newark's RentMyDVD.com will be to capitalize on this opportunity before the inevitable curtain falls. If Internet history is any guide, the current 20-plus operators of online DVD rental services will eventually be shaken out to just two or three players.
RentMyDVD would like to be one of them.
"There's a lot of the movie-renting population that has needs that are not being met," said Hyong Bum Kim, a former McKinsey consultant who's the company's newly recruited CEO. "We can carry everything under the sun here."
Whether that will be enough or not is anyone's guess at this, point. As one of the first post-Web-bubble success stories, online rentals are quickly making a dent in the fastgrowing DVD rental market, which itself is one of the fastest-growing consumer entertainment segments in history.
According to the DVD Entertainment Group, approximately 25 million DVD players were sitting in American households by the end of 2001, a 97 percent increase from the previous year. For the first time, more DVD players were shipped last year than VCRs. According to Adams Media Research, more than 67 million DVD players will be sitting in homes by 2006,...