Just a few days after Netflix surprised the world with the announcement of its international expansion, the video streaming company had more good news to share. Netflix reported very positive results for the fourth quarter of 2015, beating analysts’ expectations in nearly every respect. Revenue increased by 23 percent compared to last year’s December quarter, bringing the total for 2015 to $6.78 billion. At $306 million, net income for the year came in short of last year’s total, but analysts had expected the decline to be even bigger, given the company’s ongoing investments in original content and international growth. Most importantly though, Netflix added more than 17 million subscribers over the past 12 months and now streams content to almost 75 million people around the world.
As expected, Netflix’ subscriber base grew much quicker outside the United States than it did within. With 5.6 million added subscribers (1.56 million domestically and 4.04 million internationally) between October and December, the fourth quarter was the best ever for the company in terms of subscriber growth. Considering that Netflix just became available in 130 additional countries (at least theoretically), it can be expected that international subscriber growth won’t slow down in the near future. Netflix itself projected that it will add another 6 million customers in the first quarter of 2016.
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Netflix has set the bar high and created a compelling model for subscription revenue businesses around the globe. With their recent, massive global expansion, they've put a lot of distance between them and all competitors. What other sunscription revenue businesses do you admire? Tell us in the comments below.