Netflix is celebrating its 10th anniversary, streaming content with style. The company just had its best quarter in terms of users gained, at more than 7 million. The shift in focus on getting more of the global audience seems to be paying off, with around 5.1 million of the newly added users living outside the US.
The profits were also up by an impressive 55 percent, at $66.7 million with revenues of $2.5 billion, which were themselves up by 36 percent. Overall, it ended up with 94 million subscribers, with 47 percent of them coming from abroad from the 190 countries Netflix is available in.
We don’t really believe in hockey-stick businesses, like suddenly we will turn significantly profitable at 200 million members. We think it is much smarter to grow into that bit by bit. -Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix.
Netflix = High Quality Content?
It helps that the service is also associated with high-quality content. The fact that “Stranger Things” was the most-searched series of the year, reflects that, according to the company. Last year, the company produced 600 hours worth of original content, a figure it plans to increase to 1000 this year. That will require an investment of $6 billion this year, a billion more than the previous year.
Its old specialty of dropping entire seasons at once is also forcing others like the BBC to offer content in a similar manner.
The focus is now on developing content more specific to these newly-acquired markets. In the coming quarter, it hopes to acquire some 5.2 million new users, most of them from abroad. Profits will likely rise to $165 million.
With competition getting stronger overseas with iFlix and other similar on-demand streaming services, it still seems as though Netflix is the only one best-equipped to be a market leader.
