Some good news for Netflix, with subscriber gains in the third quarter, including 3.4 percent of all users in the US. That’s a huge gain for Netflix and puts it on the fast track to its goal that half of its users will subscribe in 2019.
It’s not clear how Netflix will gain all that users in the coming months, or how it is preparing to turn those subscribers into paying customers. A spokesperson gave the following statement in the company’s investor call today:
“Netflix continues to gain users. Third-quarter subscriber growth was a solid 4.3% driven by growth in Netflix’s existing and new markets. The company expects to reach the halfway point in 2019, and will report specific results in a separate press release. For the quarter, we ended the quarter with 1 million customers and the number of paid members, the majority of whom were within the US, grew by 381,000. This growth is in line with our growth goal, as we anticipate reaching around 50 percent of our memberships within the next two to three years and reaching half of paying subscribers in 2019. The continued growth of our original content and high-quality streaming has helped drive the increase in customers.”
Netflix stock closed at $155.37 on Friday, down 15.02 percent to $122.05.
Update, 5/12/19: After the closing market, Netflix announced that it now expects to have 1 million members worldwide in three months and 1.5 million in six months.