The success at the beginning of the corona pandemic in spring dwarfs the current growth in Netflix customers. Investors promptly punish the latest quarterly figures. The US streaming service has to assert itself in a competitive industry.
Netflix is feeling the competition from other streaming services. The company gained fewer new customers in the third quarter than experts expected: In the months of July to September, 2.2 million paying subscribers were added, the group announced after the US market closed. According to Refinitiv data, analysts had expected an average of 3.4 million new customers.
Revenue rose nearly 23 percent year-on-year to $ 6.44 billion, while net income rose nearly 19 percent to $ 790 million. Here, too, the company fell short of expectations.
Interest in Netflix initially increased sharply during the corona pandemic. Series hits like "Tiger King" in combination with the increased demand for streaming caused a huge rush. But now the user growth also slowed compared to the same period last year, when 6.8 million new customers were added.
The company itself also attributed the disappointing figures to the fact that there had already been an increase of more than ten million customers in the previous quarter. But Hollywood studios such as Disney and Warnermedia are also increasingly vying for video service customers. Even with sports programs, more and more competitors are competing against Netflix. Netflix shares lost almost six percent after the hours. In the course of the year it had gained around 62 percent.
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