Netflix: Subscribers outside the US account for half of its revenue

Streaming service Netflix has announced its quarterly figures that the turnover from international subscribers is now equal to that in the US. The company says it added more new members than expected in the quarter.

The company writes that in the last quarter, the first of 2018, a total of 7.4 million new customers were added. This would make the increase a record for the first quarter. Of the new subscribers, just under 2 million are from the US, while nearly 5.5 million customers have been added internationally. The number of international members has been growing faster than the number in the US for some time now. The worldwide number of Netflix subscribers now stands at 125 million, with about 55 percent of the members belonging to the international segment.

The expectation for the past quarter was an increase of 6.35 million customers and the expectation for the coming quarter is slightly lower at 6.2 million. The company notes that its international productions are also viewed outside the home country, for example, the Spanish-language series La Casa de Papel is the most watched non-English-language series on Netflix to date. As previously announced, the company plans to invest between $7.5 and $8 billion in new content this year.

Netflix’s revenue for the quarter totaled $3.7 billion, which is 40 percent higher than the year before. Net profit was $290 million.