Netflix loses another million subscribers, although less than expected
Netflix lost 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year. Although the streaming giant has to hand in paying customers, the damage is less serious than expected. In Q3, the company expects to add roughly one million new subscribers.
The year 2022 has been tough for Netflix so far as subscriber numbers fell for the first time in a decade last quarter. In response to that drop, the streaming service expected to lose another two million paying customers, but that has been limited to just under a million fewer subscribers, according to the Netflix’s recent quarterly results. More than 220 million people worldwide still have a Netflix subscription and that should increase again to more than 221 million customers in the next quarter.
Especially the results from the Asia-Pacific and South American markets were very good according to Netflix. In the former market, the number of subscribers increased by more than a million, and in the latter region it was mainly the average turnover per membership that increased.
This may partly have to do with recent experiments by Netflix. The company has been experimenting with new subscription models since the beginning of this year to boost the numbers. In some countries in South America, a sub-account system was introduced in March, which may already be bearing fruit in the region. Netflix writes: “We are optimistic about our early results and our ability to move consumers in Latin America to the ‘paid sharing’ model.”
The quarterly figures show that turnover from the South American market increased by 19 percent compared to last year, while the number of subscribers there remained the same. Since this week, a trial has also started in which households have to pay extra if an account is shared for longer than two weeks. This test also takes place in Latin America.
In the end, despite the declining number of subscribers, Netflix still has a turnover increase of almost 9 percent. In Q2 of 2022, the streaming service earned just under 8 billion dollars, equivalent to 7.8 billion euros. Net profit fell by about 150 million euros compared to the previous quarter, but at roughly 1.4 billion euros it is still higher than in the same quarter last year. According to the company, the results would have been even better had the strong dollar exchange rate not had an adverse effect on other exchange rates.
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