Netflix boom continues as service notches up over 81m subscribers
Netflix’s ascent to streaming dominance has shown no signs of abating in its newly released subscriber numbers, which show the online streaming service counted 81m subscribers in the latest quarter.
This followed a major territorial expansion to 130 new countries enabling it to add additional 6.74m subscribers over the period, increasing its non-US customer base to 42 per cent.
Despite this pronounced growth Netflix is predicting tougher times may lie ahead with forward guidance indicating just 2m new overseas customers in the coming quarter versus the 3.45m which analysts had been expecting.
In a statement Netflix observed: “Our international forecast for fewer net adds than prior year is due to a tough comparison against the Australia/New Zealand launch.
"The ANZ growth spike in Q2 last year resulted in international Q2 net adds more than doubling year over year (from 1.12 million to 2.37 million). While ANZ is growing steadily this Q2, it is less than the launch spike last year."
Growth thus far has been generated primarily from overseas expansion as its home market of the US becomes saturated. As such it expects to add just 500,000 additional subscribers from the country over the next three months despite adding 2.23m from there over the previous quarter.