The forced pandemic of most people at home has benefited Netflix, which launched in 2021 with 203,7 million subscribers worldwide, increasing its number in 2020 more than any other year since its launch in 2007. new field of streaming.
And this impressive increase occurred last year despite increased competition (Disney +, Apple, HBO, etc.) and rising subscription prices. 83% of new subscribers in 2020 came from outside the US and Canada, with 41% from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
In the last quarter of last year alone (October-December), its customer base grew by 8,5 million people, compared to Wall Street analysts' forecast of 6,1 million, thanks to its new popular series (Queen Gambia, Bridgetton and Crown new season) or George Clooney's new film "The Midnight Sun".
For the first quarter of 2021, Netflix hopes to increase its customer base by six million.
No more borrowing
Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 reached $ 6,64 billion, compared to $ 5,47 billion in the last quarter of 2019. The increasingly popular - and in Greece - US subscription channel predicted that it would no longer need to borrow billions of dollars his productions in films and series in various languages and countries of the world. The news gave a big boost of about 13% to its shares in the US stock market.
In less than a decade, Netflix had borrowed about $ 15 billion to "counter" Hollywood studios, which - with the help of the coronavirus - has now succeeded.
The company announced that it expects to balance its cash flows by 2021 and will no longer depend on borrowing for its day-to-day operations.
Netflix has informed its shareholders that it will even consider repaying some of its extra cash, and intends to maintain its $ 10 billion to $ 15 billion bank debt level, unlike Disney and other competitors. should be heavily charged in the coming years to establish themselves in the international streaming market.
Disney, for its part, announced that in December 2020 it had already registered - in less than a year - 86,8 million subscribers for the Disney + service. Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings acknowledged, according to Reuters, that "what Disney did is super-impressive and empowers us to increase our subscribers by further increasing our content production budget."