Netflix Inc. today reported a 13% increase in sales and a 17% increase in total paid subscriptions, along with plans for further European expansion later this year.
For the second quarter ended June 30, Netflix, No. 9 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, reported:
• Sales grew by 12.8% to $889.2 million from $788.6 million in the second quarter of 2011.
• Net income of $6.2 million compared with net income of $68.2 million for the same period last year.
• The number of total paid unique subscribers increased 17.4% to approximately 28.3 million from 24.1 million.
Increasingly, more consumers are obtaining movies and TV shows from Netflix via online streaming, and fewer receiving DVDs in the mail. “The number of [U.S.] DVD subscriptions declined this quarter to 9.2 million, in line with our expectations,” CEO Reed Hastings says in a letter to investors. Netflix claimed about 10 million domestic DVD subscriptions in the first quarter of 2012. Hasting says that some 6.7 million of those DVD subscribers in Q2 also subscribe to Netflix’s streaming service.
Netflix also reported:
• 22.7 million paid U.S. streaming subscribers, up 3.2% from 22.0 million in Q1.
• 3.0 million non-U.S. paid streaming subscribers, up 25% from 2.4 million in Q1.
Netflix also says that 10 months after launching in Latin America, the entertainment content service has 1 million members in that region. Netflix has some 1 million members in the United Kingdom and Ireland after launching there about six months ago. Netflix says it plans to launch in another European market in Q4, which will result in a loss for that quarter.
“Q3 has begun strongly for us, and we expect to be profitable again in Q3,” Hastings says.