As we all expected, Netflix has performed very well during the ongoing Covid-19, reaching millions of subscribers.
Despite the economy reopening globally, many people are still working from home , which has given them much more free time to watch content on video streaming platforms .
In the first quarter of 2020 alone, Netflix managed to attract 15.8 million new subscribers, and now, as it nears the end of the second quarter, that number has grown to 26 million new premium users. It took all of 2019 to reach that number, or close to it, since the total subscriber count at the end of 2019 was 28 million users, making this progress even more impressive.
Sure, it's hard to say whether it will continue to grow rapidly through the rest of 2020. As more people return to work and their free time dwindles, Netflix could see a significant drop in users. Indeed, that's exactly what the company's leadership expects for the third quarter of 2020.
Netflix estimates it will add just 2.5 million new subscribers to its roster in the coming months, a fairly conservative estimate, but perhaps realistic. The streaming video platform believes that strong first-half results will dampen demand for the second half of 2020. In essence, almost everyone who could have signed up for the service due to the Covid-19 lockdown has probably already done so.
Of course, it wasn't all rosy for the company last quarter. revenue fell short of expectations despite overall year-over-year growth, and the impact of Covid-19 on its original content production schedule cannot be ignored. The pandemic has proven so disruptive that Netflix expects many of its upcoming shows to see release dates in late 2021.
However, we can't wait to see how performs in the coming months. If it can get back to normal in terms of content production, it could be on track to break records in the new year.
