Netflix has revealed its first quarter results for 2016, with the streaming giant seeing its total membership grow to more than 81 million members worldwide.
However despite its numbers going in the right direction, the streaming player's shares dropped some 10% with the release of the results, with commentators in the US citing several reasons as to why this may have occurred.
This quarter was tipped to be a big one for Netflix, with the service revealing at CES that it was going live in 130 new countries around the globe and while the business saw an uplift in international subscribers between Q4 2015 and Q1 2016, it may not have been as high as was predicted.
Between quarters Netflix's international subscriber base went from 30 million to 34.5 million and despite the negative impact of currency, Netflix's international revenue increased 57% year-on-year.
Netflix explained that is it is finding acceptance all over the world, outlining that currently however its service is only available in English with international credit cards being the main method of accepted payment. However in its results, Netflix outlined it is looking to expand that to include content in local languages, as well as different payment options and local customer support.
In the US, Netflix added 2.23 million members, against 2.28 million a year ago and its US revenue rose 18% year-on-year. It says this is a reflection of the 14% uplift in average paid memberships.
Over the next quarter, Netflix expects to add 2.5 million new members, with half a million coming from the US market and 2 million from international markets.
This is less than Q2 of last year, with Netflix indicating that this is due to a tough comparison against the Australia/ New Zealand launch.
Netflix launched in Australia in March last year and Netflix explained that the ANZ growth spike in Q2 2015 resulted in international Q2 net adds doubling year-on-year, growing from 1.12 million to 2.37 million. Adding that while ANZ is still growing, it's less than the launch spike of last year.
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