Netflix doubles Q2 profits

The on-demand internet streaming media provider Netflix has announced that this year’s second quarter earnings have more than doubledfrom the same period in 2013.

Profits for Q2 were $72 million (approximately £42 million), buoyed by increasing global interest in its offerings. It now has 50 million users in over 40 countries.

In a letter to shareholders, chief executive officer Reed Hastings and chief finance officer David Wells said that for the third quarter they expect to add 1.3 million new users, further boosting its revenue.

“In September, we’ll be launching Netflix in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg,” they explained.

“This launch into markets with over 60 million broadband households will significantly increase our European presence and raise our current international addressable market to over 180 million broadband households.”

The company has found a niche in the market, which is proving to be a huge success and could transform the way people watch movies and TV shows forever.

For example, it has pioneered mainstream critically and commercially successful programmes like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, which have been web-first.

Netflix was founded in 1997 and floated on the stock market five years later with an initial public offering of 5.5 million shares of common stock. The price per share was $15. It has gone from strength to strength since.

“Our international contribution loss of $15.3 million has been rapidly approaching contribution profitability as we see improvements across all existing markets,” Mr Hastings and Mr Wells elaborated further in their letter.

“Our broad success from Argentina to Finland has convinced us to further invest aggressively in global expansion. Our European expansion this quarter will add new expenses to the segment, so we expect a consolidated contribution loss of $42 million for the international segment in Q3.”