Netflix is ​​approaching 100 million subscribers despite disappointing membership growth

Netflix has released its quarterly results for the first quarter of this year. This shows that the number of subscribers has grown less than expected, but the company expects to make up for this in the second quarter. The total number of subscribers is approaching 100 million.

Netflix writes that it expects to achieve this number in the second quarter of this year. The current number of subscribers is about 98.8 million. That means there was a growth of 5 million new subscribers in the first quarter. According to Netflix, the growth is lower than in the same quarter a year ago, when it added about 6.7 million subscribers. The company says this was to be expected, partly because new material has been moved to the second quarter.

For example, the streaming service says that moving the fifth season of its own series House of Cards has had a negative effect on the membership growth. The move is expected to improve performance in the second quarter as the number of new members doubles compared to the same quarter a year ago, when 1.7 million new subscribers were added. Internationally, the number of new subscriptions taken out fell by 22 percent.

The recent introduction of the new rating system, which uses a thumbs up or down instead of stars, has doubled the number of ratings. In addition, Netflix says it plans to introduce video previews of content in the coming years, which should replace the static images.

Netflix posted a profit of $178 million in the first quarter from $28 million a year earlier. International customers contributed this time, as they contributed $43 million. In the previous quarters, Netflix reported only negative numbers in the international segment. Revenue for the quarter was $2.6 billion.