Netflix's International Expansion

Following the launches of Apple TV+ and Disney+ this fall, Netflix’s subscriber growth was even more closely watched than usual when the company announced its fourth quarter earnings earlier this week. And while international growth didn’t disappoint, Netflix’s domestic growth appeared to suffer from the intensified competition.

Netflix added just 420,000 paid subscribers on its home turf between October and December, way short of its own guidance of 600,000. International growth exceeded expectations however, coming in at 8.3 million new subscribers vs. 7 million expected.

As the following chart shows, Netflix’s subscriber growth over the past five years has largely been driven by its international expansion. Since the end of 2015, Netflix gained 96.3 million paid subscribers, 78.6 of which came from outside the United States.