Number of paying Netflix users rises by almost 10 million
Netflix added 9.6 million paying users in the first quarter of 2019. As usual, those new customers mainly come from outside the United States. According to the company, this global figure is the highest growth ever in a quarter.
Netflix reports in a quarterly earnings report that 1.74 million of these paying new customers come from the United States and the remaining 7.86 million from other regions. According to the company, this is a record and a growth of 16 percent compared to the first quarter of 2018.
The streaming service expects to attract 5 million new paying customers for the coming second quarter, of which 4.7 million live outside the US. This means that Netflix will reach a total of 14.6 million new paying customers in the first half of 2019, an increase of 7 percent compared to the same period in 2018.
In discussing its quarterly results, Netflix mentions the fact that it is in the process of a number of price increases in the US, Brazil, Mexico and parts of Europe. According to the company, these price increases have so far not affected the number of new customers in the US. Netflix only speaks of “limited short-term effects as members agree to the price increase.”
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also briefly discusses the increasingly fierce competition. He describes the recently announced video streaming services from Apple and Disney as “world-class consumer brands” and says his company is “excited to compete.” According to Hastings, content creators and consumers are especially benefiting from this situation where “many companies are trying to deliver a great video experience to the public.” He says he does not expect these new players to have a material impact on Netflix’s growth, partly because the content would be quite different. CEO did not comment on Disney+ and Apple TV+ pricing levels
Netflix’s revenue last year amounted to $4.52 billion, an increase of 22 percent compared to the first quarter of 2018. Profits came in at $344 million, compared to $290 million a year earlier. got stuck.