The streaming platform now has 221.8 million subscribers, slightly less than the 222 million it expected.
Netflix ended 2021 with global successes like Squid Game or Casa de Papel, but the audience records do not hide the slowdown in the growth of new subscribers, which worries investors. The streaming platform now has 221.8 million subscribers, slightly less than the 222 million it expected, according to its Q4 earnings release released Thursday. Above all, it only forecasts 2.5 million new subscribers for the current quarter, compared to the 4 million gained from January to March 2021. You have to go back to 2010 to find such a low figure for a first quarter, when Netflix only had 13.9 million subscribers.
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The sanction was immediate on Wall Street: the action of the Californian group lost up to 20% during electronic trading after the close of trading. “(Subscriber) retention and audiences remain strong but new subscriber growth has not returned to pre-pandemic levels”, admits Netflix. “We believe this is due to various factors including the Covid which continues to weigh on the economy and macroeconomic difficulties in different parts of the world including Latin America”.
Many strong competitors
From October to December, the group achieved 7.7 billion dollars in revenue and accumulated 8.28 million new subscribers, a performance in line with market expectations. The platform benefited from the global success of the South Korean series Squid Game, which had been viewed by more than 142 million subscribers by mid-October, a month after its release, or some two-thirds of users. A record. She was also able to count on the new and final season of the Spanish series Money Heist. For 2022, on the other hand, it will be necessary to wait until March for large-scale releases like season 2 of Bridgerton, the second most popular on the service.
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And since 2019, Netflix has had plenty of big competitors, from Disney+ to HBO Max. In 2018, it collected nearly 50% of the revenue collected by video streaming platforms. By 2023, the eMarketer firm predicts that its share will have fallen to 28%. The group also regularly reminds that it considers YouTube and video games to be equally important threats. It also launched its own mobile games at the end of last year. “The company’s recent inroads into e-commerce and video games show that it is looking to diversify its revenue”, commented Paul Verna of eMarketer.
As a dominant player in streaming – its name is synonymous with technology – the platform also faces huge expectations. “Over the past five years, Netflix has doubled its penetration among households, but it still has a lot of room for subscriber records for pay channels (about 800 million)”, underlines Robert Cantwell, founder of the Upholdings investment fund.
The service does not seek to moderate its ambitions. “Even in this uncertain world and in the face of increased competition, we are optimistic about our long-term growth prospects as streaming gradually replaces linear forms of entertainment (traditional television) around the world”, Netflix said in its statement. He also recalled his success at the Emmy Awards, equivalent to the Oscars of American television, with The Crown and the queens game or with the movie The Power of the Dog.