Netflix Raises Prices Following Exceptional Subscriber Growth
“Netflix” is preparing to increase prices for some of its customers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France after achieving its best subscriber growth rate in years. This reflects the company’s confidence in sustaining its performance despite intense competition in the streaming service industry.
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The world’s largest paid streaming service announced on Wednesday that it added 8.76 million new customers in the third quarter of this year, surpassing analysts’ expectations by a significant margin. This raised the total number of subscribers to 247.2 million. The company attributes this success to its compelling content and a successful campaign against password sharing.
Despite investors’ concerns that higher prices could lead to the loss of customers who shared accounts, the company’s campaign has attracted more new customers without a significant increase in cancellations. As a result, “Netflix” is on track to add more than 20 million new customers this year, a significant increase compared to the previous year, which saw fewer than 9 million new customers added.
Netflix’s stock price increased by 11% to $382.90 in after-hours trading after announcing its results. The stock price has risen by more than 17% this year until the end of the regular trading session on Wednesday, outperforming the S&P 500, which saw a 12% increase during the same period.
The price increase follows the success of the paid sharing system, which allows subscribers to add friends or family to benefit from their subscription. Starting today, “Netflix” will raise the prices of its most expensive plans in the United States by $3 to $23, and its basic plan by $2 to $12, while keeping the prices of the other plans unchanged. The company will follow a similar approach in the United Kingdom and France.
It’s worth noting that Europe, the Middle East, and Africa witnessed the largest increase in “Netflix” subscribers in the third quarter, with the company adding nearly 4 million customers in that region. The cost of the service for subscribers has not changed significantly compared to the previous year.
In this quarter
“Netflix” expects to achieve revenues of $8.69 billion and earnings of $2.15 per share, both slightly lower than Wall Street’s expectations. The company anticipates a similar number of subscribers for the current quarter as in the previous quarter, with a small increase or decrease of a few million.
One of the company’s key initiatives to boost growth after a period of slowdown is a strict crackdown on password sharing. The company also introduced an ad-supported version of its streaming service in 12 markets, with approximately 30% of new customers in those markets choosing the ad-supported option in the last quarter.
On the other hand, “Netflix” reported third-quarter results that exceeded Wall Street’s estimates, with earnings reaching $3.73 per share, surpassing expectations of $3.56, while revenues increased by 7.8% to $8.54 billion, slightly exceeding expectations.
Netflix Raises Prices Following Exceptional Subscriber Growth