Video-streaming service Netflix recently confirmed that despite the pandemic, it was able to sign up 10 million new subscribers.
Some analysts have noted that the pandemic helped Netflix gain millions of subscribers in recent months. With the majority of the world in lockdown, they have more time to watch what the platform is offering. However, some of the company’s top executives are concerned that growth might be slowing down.
Growth despite the pandemic
Unlike many industries that have suffered the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, Netflix reported exponential growth. The company recently revealed that more than 10 million new subscribers joined its platform in the third quarter alone. This beats the company’s original estimate of just around 7.5 million new subscribers.
The video-streaming company said that 28 million new subscribers joined its platform in the first six months of the year. In comparison, the same number of subscribers joined the platform in the whole of 2019.
What I thought The Baby-Sitters Club was going to be like vs. what The Baby-Sitters Club is actually like pic.twitter.com/yJ4VtR7DG2
— Netflix (@netflix) July 16, 2020
Market experts agree that this is a remarkable achievement for the company. However, some of the company’s top executives are rather skeptical about their growth.
In a letter to the shareholders, the company’s top executive wrote:
“As a result, we expect less growth for the second half of 2020 compared to the prior year.”
The company is now facing an existential threat of how to keep its growth up, considering this recent surge. For one, the coronavirus pandemic accelerated its growth. On the other hand, the pandemic may also hurt its overall growth in the long run.
New contents to drive interest
One of the biggest drivers of growth for Netflix is new content. The company offers exclusive content that is not available on other platforms. For a long time, this is one of the main drivers of growth for the company.
However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, production companies are grounded to a halt. It is still unknown whether Netflix can deliver new content within a considerable future.
In general, the coronavirus pandemic has been a double-edged sword for the company. It did result in quite a surge in new user subscriptions, but it also affected its content creation division. With the absence of a cure for the virus, the pandemic could run well past the rest of the year.
Netflix is just one of the few companies that benefited from the lockdown brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. However, it has also opened up a lot of long-term problems for the company.
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