Netflix has reported yet another blockbuster quarter, adding 10.1 million new paid subscribers in Q2, 2020. The company topped the 10 million mark for the second successive quarter after adding 15.8 million subscribers in the first three months of this year. The streaming giant also has more than 2 million subscribers in India.
Netflix also reported massive increases both in revenues and profit during the period. Net earnings grew to $720 million (~Rs. 5,400 crores) from $207 million (~Rs. 1,550 crores) during the same period last year. Revenues, meanwhile, increased to $6.15 billion (~Rs. 46,200 crores) from $4.92 billion (~Rs. 36,900 crores) a year ago.
The massive windfall comes in the midst of the pandemic-induced global lockdowns that have increased demand for online entertainment. While most businesses are suffering because of the health crises, online services like e-commerce portals, messaging apps and streaming services, have seen astronomical increases in their subscriber numbers.
Netflix, however, has a relatively negative outlook for the rest of the year. In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, the company said that the gains over the past few months were pulled forward from the third and fourth quarters, which might lead to slower growth during the remainder of this year. “In Q1 and Q2, we saw significant pull-forward of our underlying adoption leading to huge growth in the first half of this year. As a result, we expect less growth for the second half of 2020 compared to the prior year”, the letter said.
Netflix also announced that it is promoting its content chief, Ted Sarandos, as its co-CEO. He will be sharing the position with the company’s co-founder and current CEO, Reed Hastings. “This change makes formal what was already informal — that Ted and I share the leadership of Netflix”, Hastings said in a statement.
