The Korean series is one of the most successful productions of the streaming service Netflix.
(Photo: Reuters)
Los Angeles Thanks to series hits such as “Money Heist”, “Sex Education” and “Squid Game”, the streaming market leader Netflix posted increased user growth again in the summer. In the third quarter, the number of subscribers worldwide rose by 4.4 million to just under 214 million, as the company announced on Tuesday after the US market closed in Los Gatos, California. Netflix clearly exceeded its own forecast of 3.5 million new customers and was also above the expectations of most experts.
The financial results were also impressive. Net profit rose in the three months to the end of September compared to the previous year by over 80 percent to 1.45 billion dollars (1.25 billion euros). Revenues grew 16 percent to $ 7.5 billion.
After the pandemic paralyzed production and user growth in the previous quarters, Netflix is promising its strongest offering of films and series to date at the end of the year. The streaming giant expects around 8.5 million new customers in the final quarter, while analysts are expecting 8.3 million according to Refinitiv data.
Especially with the South Korean series “Squid Game”, which only started on September 17th, Netflix currently has a big trump card. Last week the company announced that the macabre and brutal survival drama had replaced the British series “Bridgerton” as the most successful Netflix production to date. Now the streaming service announced that “Squid Game” had already been viewed from “incredible” 142 million user accounts four weeks after it was launched, making it “our biggest TV show ever”.
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Given this success and new seasons of other popular series such as “Witcher” and “Tiger King” to be released in the fourth quarter, Netflix could well recover from the mixed year so far. After the corona pandemic in 2020 led to a veritable rush of subscribers, growth slowed sharply in the first two quarters of 2021 due to the lack of new film and series hits. With only around 5.5 million customers, Netflix posted its weakest influx since 2013 in the first half of the year.
Netflix shares in the red
At the end of the year, Netflix wants to really crank it up again. In addition to its series premieres, the streaming service also has several blockbuster films such as “Don’t look up” with Hollywood superstars such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in the pipeline.
Although the quarterly report exceeded the predictions of Wall Street analysts, investors reacted cautiously. The share even turned slightly into the red after the hours. However, the price had also risen sharply recently, so that the opportunity for profit-taking is favorable.
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