Netflix announced on Tuesday (19) its financial report for the third quarter of 2021. According to the results, the number of new subscribers in the period was 4.4 million, exceeding analysts’ expectations. Despite the slowdown in the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, the company posted net income of $1.4 billion — an 83 percent increase over the previous year.
Analysts had already predicted a recovery (or at least the uptrend) in the number of subscribers compared to the second quarter, when the company had only 1.54 million new users. However, the company managed to go beyond what was expected. Revenue from July to September was $7.48 billion —16.30% higher than the same period in 2020.
Netflix released Squid Game (or Round 6 in Brazil) in September, ending the third quarter triumphantly. The South Korean drama surpassed Bridgerton and became the streaming company’s biggest all-time release, being watched by 142 million accounts in a month.
No for nothing, CEO Reed Hastings appeared in the company’s earnings presentation with a series sweatshirt — this and more products, he said, are on their way to retail right now. According to Bloomberg, Round 6 is worth about $900 million to the company.
In South Korea, Netflix was sued due to the high band consumption caused by the success of Squid Game.
The acceleration is expected to be seen with greater impact at the end of the year with the return of other hit series such as The Witcher and Cobra Kai. For the last quarter, Netflix expects an addition of 8.5 million subscribers, reaching 222 million in total. As for revenue, Netflix estimates $7.7 billion, and net income of $365 million.
In the second half, Netflix had to deal with the loss of 430,000 subscribers in the United States and Canada —a region that has the service’s largest user base. However, its popularity increased in other markets, including Latin America, which registered 760,000 new registrations at the time.
Taking advantage of the shock, the beginning of the third tri marked the price increase of Netflix in Brazil, with a readjustment of up to 22%. The lawsuit even generated controversy initially, but it is relatively little to frighten the company, which strengthens itself into original content, not available on competing services.
