Despite the announcement of a complicated first quarter, netflix continues to gain subscribers in some parts of the world. This is particularly the case in France, where 3.3 million additional households have registered with the streaming platform in two years.
Figures on the rise in France
It was Ted Sarandos, co-president and CEO of Netflix, who revealed the figures during an interview with the Sunday newspaper published on July 9. At the head of the SVOD giant for two years, with founder Reed Hastings, he reveals “ a figure that we had not revealed since 2020 “. The Californian company has more than 10 million subscriber households in France. A considerable increase, of around 50% compared to 2020 when Netflix identified 6.7 million customer households.
For Ted Sarandos, the number of French users could be even higher. A subscriber household represents five profiles and therefore five potential customers. Médiamétrie counted 14 million users in France in 2020. With the same ratio of 50%, Netflix would have nearly 21 million users on French territory in 2022.
Conquer new markets
If the French market seems favorable to Netflix, the juggernaut of video on demand has accused a loss of 200,000 subscribers in a first quarter of 2022. Since the beginning of the year, Netflix has laid off nearly 450 employees. This is a first in more than 10 years. Ted Sarandos explains to JDD that “ this slowdown is multifactorial “. It evokes ” global supply and logistics difficulties and a decline in the sale of connected televisions, devices that directly integrate streaming services. The war in Ukraine also had a strong impact on Netflix, which lost its 700,000 subscribers located in Russia due to its withdrawal from the market.
To compensate for the slowdown in its growth, Netflix hopes to rebound in investing in Asia-Pacific (APAC). The Los Gatos-based company will maintain its investments in local films and series despite a general drop in spending.
According to Tony Zameczkowski, Netflix’s vice president of business development for this region, Asia offers ” lots of opportunities “. During the first quarter of 2022, APAC recorded a gain of 1.1 million subscribers.
However, the streaming giant will have to face major competitors in this territory. Amazon and Disney are already well established there and share the market with major local players. Notably Viu, billionaire Richard Liu’s Hong Kong video-on-demand platform, surpassed Netflix in subscriber numbers in Southeast Asia in 2021.
