Number of paying new Netflix subscribers grows by 34 percent

The number of paying subscribers to Netflix increased by 8.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, from 6.62 million subscribers a year earlier. In total, Netflix had 139 million paying subscribers at the end of the quarter.

Of the 8.8 million new customers, 1.5 million come from the US and 7.3 million from countries outside the United States, according to the quarterly figures. In 2018 as a whole, Netflix added 29 million customers, compared to 22 million in 2017. For the first quarter of 2019, Netflix expects to receive 8.9 million new customers. It is striking that the company expects 1.6 million viewers from the US and again 7.3 million from other countries.

The increase in the number of US customers would be striking because Netflix announced last week that it would increase prices in the US. In Canada and Argentina, Netflix increased its prices in the fourth quarter of 2018 and in Japan in the third quarter of that year. Netflix did not disclose any price increases in other markets. However, the company said it would adjust prices in response to significant currency movements.

In the US, the video service now takes up 10 percent of viewers’ television time. Netflix claims to have many competitors and see Fortnite, for example, as a more important competitor than HBO. The company also reported that it saw the number of viewers peak in October when YouTube had some downtime.

Netflix’s quarterly revenue grew 27 percent to $4.19 billion. Profits fell from $186 million to $134 million.