Netflix Hits 60 Million Subscribers Worldwide

Netflix has announced it reached 60 million global subscribers earlier this year, adding an extra four million from late 2014. Two million came from the US, two millions from overseas, showing the demand worldwide for the video streaming service.

40 million customers come from the US, making the bulk of its service focused on the American audience. It has been acquiring more content from cable channels in the hope of adding even more customers, even though several analysts claim the US market is nearing saturation point in terms of subscribers.

The overseas market is looking a lot more juicy for Netflix. 20 million customers are already subscribed, but if Netflix is able to bring more US TV shows and movies to its global platform, it should entice even more customers alongside local TV shows it has acquired.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings spoke about the issues with licensing and how the video streaming service wants to create Netflix Global. This would apparently lower the amount of piracy in Europe and Asia, from customers incapable of viewing US shows abroad without paying an extortionate amount or signing up to a different cable provider.

It might be some time before it is able to offer this global platform, but until then Netflix will focus on growing out its service to 200 countries. It is currently in less than 40, and in some only the basic TV shows and films are available.

Investors seemed very impressed with Netflix’s report, with stock shooting up to $538 per share, the highest in the company’s history. Profit dropped to $23 million from $53 million in the previous quarter, due to new investments in overseas content as we said before.

HBO recently launched its own streaming service called HBO Now, allowing internet customers to pay $14.99 to watch Game of Thrones, True Detective and a whole host of other TV programmes Netflix is probably never going to get its hands on.

This could be problematic for Netflix, but its own original programming appears to be winning a lot of customers. House of Cards continues to be a raging success, and other shows like Orange is the New Black and Marco Polo will return later this year.