Netflix paying subscribers surpass 200 million with record-setting year

Cinemas may be struggling, but Netflix had a record-breaking year. The streaming service has amassed 200 million paying subscribers, adding a record 37 million over the course of 2020. For comparison, Netflix’s subscriber base grew by 28 million users in 2019.

This rapid growth means that Netflix went from 111 million paying members in 2018 to over 200 million last year. Revenue per user grew as well, from $9.88 on average in 2018 to $11.2 now.

Most of the new subscribers (83%) came from outside of the US and Canada. About half of the newcomers are from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while the Asia-Pacific region became the second-largest contributor to user growth.

With all that, annual revenue rose to $25 billion, a 24% increase compared to 2019, while operating profit is up by a whopping 76% to $4.6 billion. Netflix revised its forecast for the operating margin for the full year 2021 – it now expects a 20% margin, 2 percentage points higher than last year.

COVID-19 lockdowns caused a surge in subscribers during the first quarter of 2020, when 15.8 million users signed up. You can see quite a peak in the chart below. For Q1 of this year, the company is predicting a modest $6.0 million increase in membership.

The latest season of The Crown was a hit and new fans watched older seasons as well. To date, over 100 million households have watched the series. The Queen’s Gambit drew in 62 million households and is responsible for a huge increase in chessboard sales.

Movies did great too, The Midnight Sky was watched by 72 million households during the first four weeks since its premiere. Holidate was watched by 68 million households, The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two by 61 million and We Can Be Heroes by 53 million (during the first four weeks).

Local shows drew in an audience as well, e.g. Germany’s Barbarians was viewed by 37 million households, Korean horror show Sweet Home by 22 million. Apparently, French-language series Lupin is set to become the next big hit with a forecast that 70 million households will watch it over the first four weeks.

Netflix currently has over 500 titles in post production and plans to release a new original movie every week of 2021.

Check out the Source link for the full press release with more financial details, more on how shows and movies performed and other information.

Source (PDF)