14 DAY TRIAL // Online media streaming company Netflix announced that it added around five million subscribers to its network in the last quarter, quite a few more than what it had told investors, surpassing a milestone that they probably did not have in mind either.
It seems that the company was expecting to add around 4 million subscribers in the first quarter of the year, but the number exceeded their predictions and they gained no less than 4.9 million new members, which means almost one million more than what they had forecast.
This was even more unexpected given that HBO had launched its HBO Now, which was considered a worthy competitor to Netflix, but just as CEO Reed Hastings declared in the official announcement, the two services are meant to complement each other.
“We think both will continue to be successful in the marketplace, as illustrated by the fact that HBO has continued to grow globally and domestically as we have rapidly grown over the past 5 years,” he says.
Netflix sees a bright future ahead
The CEO also stresses out that the company is set to prosper because of its lower costs, its original content, and the fact that it does not focus on live television.
The unanticipated explosion in the number of subscribers led to a substantial increase in its stock price, and the company has proved once more that it is in full expansion, as the new subscribers are expected to bring even greater profits in the near future.
Despite the fact that the profits were considerably smaller than the ones recorded previously, it seems that an increase of over 13% in share value was registered only hours after the company released a report addressed to its shareholders, where it provided the exact numbers and emphasized the rise in the number of consumers.
As for the reason behind this sudden increase, Netflix invoked the launch of the third season of “House of Cards” and the introduction of new shows, such as “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Bloodline,” as well as the improvement of the services they offer to their customers.