Netflix increases 2.4 million users and reverses a semester of subscriber losses

Netflix scores a comeback. The streaming giant added 2.4 million users worldwide in the third quarter, so far averting a semester in which it lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade. “We believe that we are on a path of accelerated growth,” the company has told its shareholders. The key, the company explains, is to “satisfy members.” This satisfaction came during the summer with some of the most popular titles for the platform, including the action movie The Gray Man, seen in 118 million homes; the fourth season of stranger things and the series Monster, about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. This has become a worldwide sensation and competed with the new installment of The Lord of the ringsfrom Amazon, and the prequel to Game of Thronesfrom HBO.

The company presented results on Tuesday. He planned to recover a million users this quarter with the arrival of summer, a strong season for premieres on the platform. The prediction fell short. Netflix added new users in all regions, covering 190 countries. In Asia, 1.4 million people subscribed during the period. The momentum in this region is due to the success of the Korean series of courts, Woo, an extraordinary lawyerwhich topped streams in 28 non-English speaking countries and amassed more than 400 million hours of streams.

Latin America saw the number of subscribers grow by 300,000 new clients. In the United States and Canada, its area of ​​greatest influence, the rise was 100,000. Still, the figures achieved did not exceed those of last year, where they got 4.4 million new customers.

Netflix admits that the competition is still pushing. “They are investing heavily to add subscribers and watch hours, but building a successful streaming business streaming it’s hard. We think everyone is losing money in 2022, with a combined loss of over $10 billion, while Netflix has an annual profit of between $5 billion and $6 billion,” he explains. The company claims to have 8% of the screen share, more than double that of Amazon and even above Disney, according to rating measurement companies such as the Broadcasters Audience Research Board, from the United Kingdom, and Nielsen.

Netflix’s results come a week after the company announced the launch of a subscription between 20 and 40% cheaper than normal, with ads. The model will allow to see some contents of the catalog with up to five minutes of commercial breaks. The offer will be available in 12 countries, representing 75% of the global market and some 140,000 million dollars of advertising budget. In Mexico and Canada the service will be available on November 1. The 3 are joined by Germany, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. In Spain it will arrive on November 10.

The company has assured shareholders that they do not expect this new scheme to have any contribution to fourth-quarter results, which have historically been the weakest for the Reed Hastings-led company. “Our goal is to give potential new members more options and not to have our subscribers change plans. Members who do not want any change will be able to continue with their same rate”, explains the company, which has indicated that advertising agencies have given “extremely positive” opinions to the new model. Netflix has also launched a tool that allows you to monetize shared accounts by creating sub-accounts for friends or family members on user profiles.

The company has also announced that it will continue to explore the route of video games as a way to increase engagement within the app. This is one year after the platform began to incorporate them. With 35 titles, Netflix has reported that it is preparing 55 more, which are in development. Some of these will be based on series and movies and allow subscribers to expand the offer to grow in hours of game consumption or reproductions.