Disney+ touted 50 million paid users in their recent earnings call and now Netflix is has something to brag about. The veteran streaming service saw 16 million new users join their platform.
Streaming is becoming a major winner during the Coronavirus outbreak. Netflix actually more than doubled their predicted growth. The company predicted they would have 7 million new users in the first quarter of 2020. They announced 15.8 million new users.
Netflix’s total subscribers was 182.9 million at the end of quarter 1.
“Membership growth has temporarily accelerated due to home confinement,” Netflix said in its quarterly shareholder letter Tuesday. “We expect viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate as home confinement ends, which we hope is soon.”
Analyst are predicting that Netflix will be one of the only media companies that won’t see a major hit during the Coronavirus shutdown.
“After record subscriber additions, Netflix is and will continue to be the media company least impacted by COVID-19,” said eMarketer analyst Eric Haggstrom. “Their business is a near perfect fit to a population that is suddenly housebound. Virus related lockdowns have reaccelerated Netflix’s subscriber growth around the world.”
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