Netflix Inc on Tuesday reported a surge in new customers as audiences stayed in their homes to help fight COVID-19 and binged on series such as Tiger King, but the company predicted a weaker second half of the year if quarantine orders are lifted.
The world’s largest streaming service gained 15.8 million paying customers in the first three months of the year, bringing its global total to 182.9 million at the end of last month.
That nearly doubled the average Wall Street expectation of nearly 8 million, FactSet data showed.
However, Netflix warned that it expected fewer new customers from July to December compared with a year earlier. Many people who would have joined then are likely to have already signed up, executives said.
“We expect viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate as home confinement ends,” Netflix said in a letter to shareholders.
Netflix also issued a bullish forecast that it would add 7.5 million new customers for the current quarter, which ends in June, although the company said that it was “mostly guesswork” given uncertainty over when stay-at-home orders might be lifted. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected 3.8 million.
For the just-ended quarter, Netflix’s earnings per share fell short of analyst expectations. The company posted diluted earnings per share of US$1.57, below the US$1.65 consensus, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Total revenue rose to US$5.77 billion from US$4.52 billion. Analysts on average had expected US$5.76 billion.
Appreciation of the US dollar, due partially to the pandemic, dragged on international revenue, the company said.
As streaming video has grown in the US, the market has become more competitive with the debut of Walt Disney Co’s Disney+ and upcoming rivals. That has pushed Netflix to look for growth overseas.
The company’s biggest expansion from January through last month came from Europe, where it added 4.4 million new customers.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
For the second year in a row, a Brazilian movie has wowed international audiences and critics, securing multiple Oscar nominations and drawing fresh interest in the Latin American giant’s film industry. Experts say the success of The Secret Agent, which has won four Oscar nominations, a year after I Am Still Here won Brazil its first Oscar, is no fluke, with a bit of a push from the country’s political climate. “This is neither a coincidence nor a miracle. It is the result of a lot of work, consistent policies, and, of course, talent,” Ilda Santiago, director of the Rio International Film
RSS