Asia-Pacific emerges as weak spot in Netflix streaming figures

afr.com:

Netflix’s revenues in Asia-Pacific countries are falling, putting the region at odds with the company’s overall outlook, with the streaming giant recording a large increase in the number of subscribers in the United States after it put in place measures to prevent the sharing of accounts.

The company, in a quarterly update on Wednesday, reported that it added 5.9 million subscribers after accounting for departing users and net income of $US$1.5 billion ($2.2 billion) for the three months to June 30. While subscribers grew strongly – up eight per cent – the market was disappointed with lower sales growth, just 2. 7per cent to $US8.2 billion.

Netflix’s growth in the Asia Pacific region has stalled. Noh Juhan

While the company does not provide country-by-country revenue and subscriber numbers, it does break out figures by region. The Asia Pacific region, including Australia, has become the worst market for Netflix, with negative 13 per cent growth – or seven per cent, when foreign currency effects were accounted for – with average revenue per membership below that recorded in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.

Those figures show revenues of $US919 million in the region for the three months to June 30, down from $US934 million one quarter earlier. The number of paid memberships had increased, from 39.5 million to 40.6 million, those figures showed, while average revenue had slipped from $US8.03 to $US7.66. One year ago, it was $US8.83 per subscriber.

The overall growth in subscribers, however, made the period Netflix’s second-best quarter since the COVID-19 pandemic and were well ahead of expectations from brokers of 2.07 million new subscribers. It is a significant turnaround from last year, when Netflix lost almost