Netflix Shares Soar 16% After Surpassing 203 Million Subscribers

Netflix said most of its growth previous year - 83% of new customers - came from outside the United States and Canada.

The earnings report also mentioned other competitors, including the soon-to-launch Paramount+ in 2021 (from ViacomCBS) and existing streaming services AppleTV+, WarnerMedia's HBO Max, and NBCUniversal's Peacock.

Netflix revealed yesterday that it had more than 200 million paying subscribers for the first time. With the pandemic keeping people home around the world, streaming services have benefited greatly.

Shares in Netflix soared 16.8% on Wednesday after announcing it has more than 203.6 million subscribers worldwide.

Wall St has record highs on stimulus hopes
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38 points, or 0.12%, to 31,150, the S&P 500 slipped 0.06% and the Nasdaq was up 0.35%. France's CAC 40 gained 0.4 per cent in early trading to 5,648.29, while Germany's DAX rose 0.6 per cent to 14,003.82.

Michael Nathanson of research company MoffettNathanson said that COVID-19 has been beneficial to the company. Growth there is still limited: Only 900,000 subscribers were added in the territories in the last quarter. As of now, it currently has around 86 million subscribers.

Like Netflix, Disney+ also raised its monthly fee by $1 to $7.99 effective March 2021. And while the service started out with previously-released shows and films, it has since added a plethora of original content; this includes High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, The Mandalorian and more recently, WandaVision.

The company has been pushing to tap new markets overseas, including in sub-Saharan Africa, where some industry forecasters have projected content streaming to expand at a rapid clip in the coming years. However quickly sufficient, media firms have been scrambling to promote their stuff on to Netflix: They noticed Netflix as a straightforward supply of practically free cash - if Reed Hastings and firm needed to pay them for outdated exhibits and flicks they have been already promoting different locations, then they'd be glad to do it.

Peacock and Apple TV+ also premiered as competition to Netflix a year ago, offering content that it may or may not include already. And with the pandemic still among us, and more shows and films set to come out, it'll be interesting to see how the year plays out for them.