Netflix was probably one of the only companies who didn’t have a wretched 2016. The streaming media company recorded record profits and subscriber figures in the year, and this week, the company outed its final numbers for the previous annum.
“We added 7.05 million net new members globally in the quarter, against our forecast of 5.20 million and last year’s Q4 performance of 5.59 million. This was the largest quarter of net additions in our history and was driven by strong acquisition trends in both our US and International segments,” the company states in a letter to investors.
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That beat its own estimates of around 5.2-million handsomely.
Even more interestingly, 5.1-million of those subscribers live beyond US borders.
In total, international subscriptions stand at over 44-million, while Netflix in total serves 93.8-million. And if that isn’t impressive enough for you, the company also generated US$8.3-billion in global streaming revenue. That’s a 35% increase year-on-year.
Netflix’s global user base now stands at 93-million, with just under half beyond US borders
“Since our global expansion is proceeding well, we intend to grow our global operating margin for many years ahead,” the company adds in its shareholder letter.
“We are in no rush to push margins up too quickly, as we want to ensure we are investing aggressively enough to continue to lead internet TV around the world.”
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Speaking of TV, Netflix also accredits the buff in earnings to its “high quality content”.
“It’s amazing to think that we launched original programming on Netflix in 2013 and in just four years, our original series accounted for five of the top 10 most searched TV shows of 2016 globally,” the company adds.
Stranger Things, Marvel’s Luke Cage and Black Mirror are three notable original shows in its repertoire.
While the US market is largely saturated, Netflix is now available in 130 other countries. But it has yet to venture into China for a number of different reasons. Nevertheless, the company will invest over US$6 billion on content. New shows planned then?
Have a look at Netflix’s full Q4 2016 earnings report here.
