Netflix has announced that it has more than 50 million total subscribers in 40 countries worldwide, including those enjoying free trial accounts. The announcement came as part of the company's second quarter earnings report.
Net income was $71 million, or $1.15 a share. This means the company earned more than double the profit it did in the second quarter of 2013, when it reported net income of $29.5 million and earnings per share of $0.49. Revenue also increased to $1.34 billion from $1.07 billion.
This rise in subscribers despite a recent hike in the subscription fee underscores Netflix's rapidly growing popularity. Back in May, the company increased the monthly price from $7.99 to $8.99 for new subscribers.
The company said that the hike was not having any significant impact on subscriptions. In fact, Netflix added more subscribers this quarter than expected — 1.69 million compared to the forecast of 1.46 million.
The streaming service now has 36.24 million subscribers in the US and 13.8 million international subscribers. That's an increase of 25 percent and 77 percent, respectively, on a year-on-year basis.
Netflix hopes that the number of international subscribers will increase as it moves to new territories. The company announced plans to launch its service to a number of European markets in September, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.
“Ninety-five percent of people who live on the planet live outside the United States, and generally for global Internet businesses about 80 percent of the usage is outside the U.S.”, said Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix. “We want to bring our services to as many nations as possible”.
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