Netflix Is Crushing The International Market

We don’t usually do Financial chatter on here, but fintech is cool.  And let’s be honest, everyone loves Netflix.  And if you don’t personally, you at least know someone to bum a login from…However, let’s get to the money.  How much money this genius media company is now making.  Or potentially making.  Because stock pricing, is all about potential….

Netflix released earnings today and absolutely crushed their numbers.  They added nearly 2 million new subscribers domestically and around 5 million subscribers internationally in the fourth quarter this year.  5 MILLION INTERNATIONAL SUBSCRIBERS…Which explains all the new foreign language films.  Expectations for the fourth quarter fell far below that, coming in at 1.38 million and 3.78 million respectively.

Drilling down further, it looks like Netflix’s international growth is showing an even stronger performance even though it’s still investing aggressively in U.S.-based original content. While the company has started aggressively expanding internationally, it still has to reconcile its domestic strategy — creating strong original content — with audiences abroad. Those audiences may have different tastes or watching patterns, but the company said the early results of its efforts are positive, referencing one of its new shows.

The past year hasn’t been as rewarding, put over the longterm Netflix is a company innovating.  And innovation rewards itself over the long haul.  Just look at this 5 year trajectory.

Netflix set itself up for a huge fourth quarter by first, earlier in the year, revising down its third-quarter subscriber growth expectations. It then, after handily beating those expectations, turned around and raised the expectations for the fourth quarter for subscribers. That first step back in expectations worried investor, but then the subsequent beat raised the bar for what the company expected — a breakout fourth quarter.

Blah, blah, blah.  Netflix is the shit, and we all love it.  Maybe it won’t be as profitable, quarter to quarter, but I think they’re changing the world one way or another.

Here’s a copy of the Earnings Call, pretty boring, but it’s all there for ya!