Netflix is still growing its subscriber base – here's how a local approach is helping
Netflix had a tough year in 2022. Big rivals such as Disney and Amazon Prime were circling, and viewers seemed to be rethinking their streaming habits amid rising prices in a turbulent global economy.
Netflix lost subscribers, and its share value plummeted.
Since then though, the company appears to have enjoyed a very swift reboot.
According to its latest letter to shareholders, it added 8.8 million new subscribers in the third quarter of 2023, on top of the 5.9 million it gained in the three months before that. The total number of subscribers worldwide is now 247.2 million.
So how has Netflix managed to turn things around?
One vital element was the crackdown on people sharing accounts across different households.
By restricting the use of a single password to family members living in the same household, Netflix has successfully converted some of the password borrowers into bona fide members.
Another key move was resorting to that trusted old means of media revenue – advertising. Netflix's launch of a membership option in which subscribers pay a lower monthly fee to watch content that includes occasional adverts has proven popular.
Around 30% of new members now sign up to it – an encouraging rate for Netflix executives who are planning to scale it up.
But as well as these two fairly recent initiatives, what really allows Netflix to thrive in such a competitive market place is its solid understanding of the global nature of the streaming industry, which I describe in my recent book.
The company's international approach is reflected in the fact that more than 70% of its subscribers come from outside of the US. It produces or co-produces shows in more than 50 countries, and has invested heavily in content from
