In the fourth quarter of 2024, Netflix generated total revenue of over 10.2 billion U.S. dollars, up from about 8.8 billion dollars in the corresponding quarter of 2023. The company's annual revenue in 2024 amounted to around 39 billion U.S. dollars, continuing the impressive year-on-year growth Netflix has enjoyed over the last decade. Netflix’s global position Netflix’s revenue has been heavily impacted by its ever-growing global subscriber base. The leading Netflix market is Europe, Middle East, and Africa, surpassing the U.S. and Canada in terms of subscriber count. Netflix has also significantly increased its licensed and produced content assets since 2016. Despite concerns among investors that the company’s content spend was negatively affecting cash flow, Netflix’s plans to amortize its content assets long-term along with generating revenue from other sources such as licensing and merchandise should ensure the company’s future profitability. Netflix’s original content Netflix is also fortunate in that many of its original shows have been a hit with consumers across the globe. Shows such as “Orange is the New Black,” “Black Mirror,” and “House of Cards” won the hearts of subscribers long ago, but newer content such as English-language shows “Bridgerton,” “Wednesday,” and “Stranger Things,” as well as local TV shows such as “Squid Game” have also been favorably reviewed and proved popular among users.

In 2024, the total revenue of the video streaming platform Netflix amounted to approximately 39 billion U.S. dollars, having grown from 5.5 billion U.S. dollars a decade ago. The American media company's net income in 2023 stood at 8.7 billion U.S. dollars, with a total of 14,000 employees working at the company worldwide. The fiscal year end of the company is December 31. Netflix annual revenue – additional information Netflix has been very successful in the last few years. The company not only leads the subscription streaming market in the U.S., but is effectively expanding its service outside North America. Along with gaining numerous subscribers worldwide, Netflix has managed to produce and distribute high-profile original shows, such as "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black," challenging traditional TV networks like HBO and CBS. In 2023, Netflix’s original programs received 103 Emmy Awards nominations, around double the number of nominations received seven years previously. These are just a few indicators of Netflix’s success, which can be measured in a number of ways. Firstly, as seen in the statistic, Netflix’s annual revenue has consistently increased over the years, reaching the highest figure to date in 2023 – 33.7 billion U.S. dollars. This figure is around 10 times higher than Netflix’s annual revenue a decade ago. Netflix's originals The time that consumers dedicate to watching Netflix content is another way of indicating success. One of Netflix’s strategies has been to release TV series in bulk, so consumers are able to binge watch their favorite shows. Indeed, Netflix accounts for the highest share of most in-demand originals among global video streaming services. As a result, Netflix's streaming content obligations have increased from 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2010 to over 20 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

Netflix's global subscriber base has reached an impressive milestone, surpassing 300 million paid subscribers worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2024. This marks a significant increase of nearly 20 million subscribers compared to the previous quarter, solidifying Netflix's position as a dominant force in the streaming industry. Adapting to customer losses Netflix's growth has not always been consistent. During the first half of 2022, the streaming giant lost over one million customers. In response to these losses, Netflix introduced an ad-supported tier in November of that same year. This strategic move has paid off, with the lower-cost plan attracting 70 million monthly active users globally by November 2024, demonstrating Netflix's ability to adapt to changing market conditions and consumer preferences. Global expansion Netflix continues to focus on international markets, with a forecast suggesting that the Asia Pacific region is expected to see the most substantial growth in the upcoming years, potentially reaching around 70.1 million subscribers by 2029. To correspond to the needs of the non-American target group, the company has heavily invested in international content in recent years, with Korean, Spanish, and Japanese being the most watched non-English content languages on the platform.

In 2023, Netflix spent around 2.66 billion U.S. dollars on marketing activities. This figure increased by over five percent compared to the previous year, when Netflix's marketing expenses amounted to 2.53 billion dollars.

Netflix in numbers

Netflix is one of the most influential SVOD streaming services and entertainment companies worldwide. Initially started as a DVD-by-mail rental service in 1997, the California-based business has since become an undisputed champion in the world of video streaming. In late 2021, Netflix’s revenue surpassed a record 7.7 billion U.S. dollars globally, which is even more impressive considering that viewers can watch unlimited video content from its catalog for a set monthly fee. But as these fees are gradually rising in many parts of the world and competition from platforms such as Disney+ or Amazon Prime is getting tighter every year, the number of Netflix subscribers dipped for the first time in early 2022.

Marketing the Netflix way

Netflix is not only a global trendsetter when it comes to online video streaming, but the company also continues to set new bars for marketing. One of the most vital contributors to Netflix’s multimedia marketing success is its use of social media. The streaming giant can be found across all major social platforms, and in addition to promoting its content with a blend of humor and relatable pop culture references, Netflix also boosts audience engagement by posting polls and challenges. On a more personalized level, Netflix successfully employs user data and browsing behavior for e-mail marketing purposes. The company only notifies its subscribers of upcoming releases that are relevant to them without spamming their inboxes daily.

Netflix is distinctly more popular with younger consumers in the United States than with older generations. According to the findings of a recent survey, around 75 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 subscribed to Netflix as of mid-2021, compared to just 44 percent of those aged 65 or above.

Netflix predicts further subscriber loss

Netflix is the most popular subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service worldwide. Millions of viewers from various demographics access the platform each day, but despite its availability in over 190 countries and its ever-expanding content catalog, Netflix reported a subscriber loss of around 200 thousand in the first quarter of 2022. It was the first time in over a decade that the streamer experienced a drop in user numbers, but according to the company, this downward trend might very well continue in the second quarter of the year. According to company reports, Netflix expects to lose an additional two million subscribers by mid-2022.

Cracking down on password sharing

Credential sharing has become an essential part of the video-on-demand (VOD) experience. Companies can stand out in today’s crowded streaming space by offering viewers to create multiple profiles and split subscription costs with other people in their household – which might be particularly appealing to younger audiences. Netflix is one of the first services to have provided multiple subscription options at various price tiers, but even so, the company has also acknowledged that millions of people share their login data without paying for additional accounts. In 2021, Netflix was estimated to have lost over 1.07 billion U.S. dollars in revenue due to password sharing. In 2022, the company reacted by announcing to charge additional sub-account fees for people streaming content outside the primary account holder’s household.

Data on the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market in the United States has revealed that revenue from this format reached around 37.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, over 20 percent higher than the figure recorded the previous year. SVOD services like Netflix have proved incredibly popular among U.S. consumers and have meant that traditional providers have taken a big hit when it comes to subscriber numbers.

Data on the global subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market showed that revenue more than quadrupled between 2017 and 2023, growing from 25 billion U.S. dollars to 107 billion U.S. dollars. Further rapid growth is predicted to continue in the future, and by the year 2029, the revenue is expected to surpass 127 billion U.S. dollars.

Industry’s revenue growth to slow down in the future However, the growth is expected to slow down to around 19 percent in the following six years until 2029. The increasing number of platforms made available in the past few years has led the customers to alter their consumption behavior to reduce subscription costs. Recent data from the United States suggests that more and more SVOD consumers opt for cheaper, ad-supported plans. At the same time, subscription cycling – the habit of subscribing to a streaming service to watch only one specific piece of content– has likewise gained popularity among users.

SVOD subscriptions expected to grow further Implementing ad-supported tiers is just one strategy of the industry to make sure that their revenues continue to grow. The combined monthly cost consumers must pay for the leading SVOD services without advertisements in the U.S. has been growing to over 99 U.S. dollars. Despite increasing costs and phenomena like subscription cycling, the overall number of SVOD subscribers is not expected to decline in the future. On the contrary, latest estimates suggest that the biggest players in the industry, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, will all be able to multiply their customer base.

According to the most recent data, 83 percent of consumers in the United States were using a subscription video-on-demand service in 2023, an increase of over 10 percentage points in five years. It is no secret that one of the most popular platforms (and certainly the one with the most U.S. subscribers) is Netflix. The number of Netflix streaming subscribers in the United States and Canada passed the 70 million mark for the first time in early 2020.

Netflix as the most used video streaming service in the U.S. To say Netflix has the monopoly on the U.S. streaming market would be an understatement, and with a wealth of original content appearing all the time, Netflix’s appeal is built to last. Data shows that Netflix has more viewers than Hulu and Amazon in the U.S., leaving services such as Disney+, Apple TV+, and ESPN+ trailing far behind. How to satisfy subscribers? However, the threat of new competitors could cause Netflix's subscriber base to dwindle if video consumers decide to go elsewhere. Upcoming services ranging from the long anticipated Disney+ to Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO Max and Discovery+ will likely draw some customers away from Netflix by virtue of what they can offer, and as new services enter the market, they will likely reclaim their own. Additionally, recent price increases in light of an upcoming recession led to losses in Netflix's subscriber numbers in the first half of 2022.

Netflix continues to dominate the UK streaming landscape, with 17.1 million households subscribing to the service in the fourth quarter of 2024. This marks a significant increase from 16.7 million subscribers in the same period of the previous year, demonstrating the platform's enduring popularity despite fierce competition in the video-on-demand landscape. Netflix's competitors While Netflix remains the leading subscription video-on-demand service in the UK in terms of customer numbers, Amazon Prime Video boasts the largest content library among major SVOD platforms, with over 42.6 thousand hours of content available as of May 2024. However, when it comes to market share based on user interest, Netflix still holds the top spot, edging out providers such as Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV+. Demographic preferences Interestingly, streaming preferences vary across age groups. Among viewers aged 65 and above, Amazon Prime Video is the preferred choice in the UK for 36 percent, while Netflix captures one-third of this demographic. This contrasts with the overall market dominance of Netflix, suggesting that older audiences may have different content preferences. The generational divide in streaming habits is further illustrated by data from Flanders in Belgium, where millennials show a slightly higher Netflix usage rate compared to Gen Z, both significantly outpacing older age groups.

In 2023, Amazon Web Services (AWS) generated 90.8 billion US dollars with its cloud services. From 2013 until today, the annual revenue of AWS cloud computing and hosting solutions continually increased.

Amazon - additional information Amazon.com went online in 1995, initially as a book store, and achieved almost immediate success. In 1998 the store expanded to include a music and video store and different other products, such as apparel and consumer electronics in the following years. The company is the undisputed leader of the e-retail market in the United States, ranking ahead of walmart.com and apple.com in terms of revenue.

Amazon Web Services In 2006, AWS launched as a cloud computing platform to provide online services. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Amazon S3, which provide large virtual computing capacity, are the most well-known of these services. The company has dozens of locations in 25 different regions across the world and is continually expanding its global infrastructure to ensure low latency through proximity to the user.

From these data centers, Amazon is offering more than 200 fully featured services to its global customer base. Video streaming service Netflix is one of AWS’s largest customers, using Amazon’s services to store their content on servers throughout the world. Among its more than one million active users, AWS also lists other well-known organizations from various industries, such as Disney, the UK Ministry of Justice, Kellog’s, Guardian News and Media, and the European Space Agency.

Netflix is currently facing the challenge of retaining subscribers worldwide, with data from the second quarter of 2023 revealing that Germany and Spain experienced the highest churn rates at nine percent. Australia followed closely, while France had a relatively low cancellation rate at just two percent. Impact of the new business model The subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market has experienced a significant increase in the past decade, driven by major players, like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. However, the anticipated slowdown in revenue growth, coupled with the increasing popularity of ad-supported content and subscription cycling, underscores the evolving dynamics of consumer preferences within the streaming industry. Netflix's introduction of a basic plan served with commercials in late 2022 had a significant impact on subscriber behavior in the U.S., with the ad-supported tier accounting for 30 percent of sign-ups in September 2023. Growth despite challenges Netflix's global position remains strong. With over 269 million paid subscribers worldwide, the company's revenue continues to grow, reaching nearly 9.4 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2024. While challenges persist, such as the increasing popularity of other streaming services and the impact of price increases on subscriber numbers, Netflix's plan to generate revenue from sources, like licensing, ads, and merchandise, positions the company for future profitability.

Industry data revealed that Slovakia had the most extensive Netflix media library worldwide as of July 2024, with over 8,500 titles available on the platform. Interestingly, the top 10 ranking was spearheaded by European countries. Where do you get the most bang for your Netflix buck? In February 2024, Liechtenstein and Switzerland were the countries with the most expensive Netflix subscription rates. Viewers had to pay around 21.19 U.S. dollars per month for a standard subscription. Subscribers in these countries could choose from between around 6,500 and 6,900 titles. On the other end of the spectrum, Pakistan, Egypt, and Nigeria are some of the countries with the cheapest Netflix subscription costs at around 2.90 to 4.65 U.S. dollars per month. Popular content on Netflix While viewing preferences can differ across countries and regions, some titles have proven particularly popular with international audiences. As of mid-2024, "Red Notice" and "Don't Look Up" were the most popular English-language movies on Netflix, with over 230 million views in its first 91 days available on the platform. Meanwhile, "Troll" ranks first among the top non-English language Netflix movies of all time. The monster film has amassed 103 million views on Netflix, making it the most successful Norwegian-language film on the platform to date.

In 2023, the total home video market in the Netherlands generated a revenue of nearly 1.06 billion euros, up from 1.03 billion euros reported in the previous year. Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) recorded the highest revenues. Netflix and YouTube were the most watched video streaming services in the country in 2024, with domestic providers becoming increasingly popular as well. The gap between TVOD and SVOD in the Netherlands Noticeable in the figures shown here is the large difference between SVOD services such as Netflix and domestic player Videoland versus TVOD. Transactional video-on-demand stands for services like iTunes or Rakuten TV, where customers can, for example, purchase or rent individual movies or series. These services do exist in the Netherlands. Videoland offers this as a feature on its SVOD platform and cinema operator Pathe has TVOD platform Pathe Thuis, where it offers individual purchases for newly released movies. What sets TVOD in the Netherlands apart from SVOD, however, is that Pathe Thuis and television broadcasters KPN and Ziggo do not invest directly in original content. This is where Netflix especially comes in, as Netflix originals were in high demand in the Netherlands in early 2019. The rise of Disney+ in the Netherlands There are more than 50 VOD platforms available in the Netherlands and one of the fastest growing services is Disney+. In 2020, the daily active users of the Disney+ app in the Netherlands was higher than those of Amazon Prime or Pathe Thuis. While no data supports this, it is suspected that the service’s catalog as well as Disney originals such as “The Mandalorian” and "Wandavision" are the main drivers for the popularity of Disney+ in the Netherlands.

Data revealed that Pakistan was the least expensive place in the world to get Netflix as of October 2023, with a monthly subscription for the standard plan costing 2.90 U.S. dollars. Egypt and Nigeria followed, with monthly prices for a Netflix subscription amounting to 3.88 and 4.65 U.S. dollars respectively. Netflix’s plans and costs In addition to the standard package, Netflix provides four different plans in its home country, the United States. The premium version is the most expensive plan, but customers can watch content on four different devices, while the standard supports two devices and the basic plan just one device. In order to offset income and subscriber losses, the streaming giant launched a fourth tier in November 2022: basic with ads. This plan, which is partly financed through advertising, can be acquired for a monthly fee of less than five U.S. dollars. Netflix’s measures in times of crisis Facing constant and growing competition, as well as an economic downturn, Netflix is making changes in an effort to maintain its dominant position within the video streaming industry. While the service has recently started to crack down on account sharing in major countries, it announced in February 2023 to cut prices in over 100 territories, including especially Central and South American, African, and Asian countries. The latter affects around 10 million Netflix customers, and should boost subscriber additions and combat churn in these markets.

In the second quarter of 2024, revenues of Amazon Web Services (AWS) rose to 19 percent, the highest since Q2 of 2022. AWS is one of Amazon’s strongest revenue segments, generating 90 billion U.S. dollars in 2023 net sales, up from 80 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides on-demand cloud platforms and APIs through a pay-as-you-go-model to customers. AWS launched in 2002 providing general services and tools and produced its first cloud products in 2006. Today, more than 175 different cloud services for a variety of technologies and industries are released already. AWS ranks as one of the most popular public cloud infrastructure and platform services running applications worldwide in 2020, ahead of Microsoft Azure and Google cloud services. Cloud computing Cloud computing is essentially the delivery of online computing services to customers. As enterprises continually migrate their applications and data to the cloud instead of storing it on local machines, it becomes possible to access resources from different locations. Some of the key services of the AWS ecosystem for cloud applications include storage, database, security tools, and management tools. AWS is among the most popular cloud providers Some of the largest globally operating enterprises use AWS for their cloud services, including Netflix, BBC, and Baidu. Accordingly, AWS is one of the leading cloud providers in the global cloud market. Due to its continuously expanding portfolio of services and deepening of expertise, the company continues to be not only an important cloud service provider but also a business partner.

In 2024, Google's parent company reported an annual revenue increase of 14 percent. In 2023, video content and streaming platform Netflix increased its annual revenue by seven percent. Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) generated a 16 percent year-on-year revenue increase during the same period. Additionally, Amazon had a year-over-year revenue increase of 12 percent for its fiscal year of 2023.

Consumer spending on digital home entertainment in the United States amounted to over 41 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. SVOD spending grew by around 6.5 billion U.S. dollars between 2022 and 2023, reflecting the consistent and growing demand for content available on platforms using this model.

According to the most recent data, U.S. viewers aged 15 years and older spent on average almost three hours watching TV per day in 2023. Adults aged 65 and above spent the most time watching television at over four hours, whilst 15 to 19-year-olds watched TV for less than two hours each day. The dynamic TV landscape The way people consume video entertainment platforms has significantly changed in the past decade, with a forecast suggesting that the time spent watching traditional TV in the U.S. will probably decline in the years ahead, while digital video will gain in popularity. Younger age groups in particular tend to cut the cord and subscribe to video streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. TV advertising in a transition period Similarly, the TV advertising market made a development away from traditional linear TV towards online media. While the ad spending on traditional TV in the U.S. generally increased until the end of the 2010s, this value is projected to decline to below 60 billion U.S. dollars in the next few years. By contrast, investments in connected TV advertising are expected to steadily grow, despite the amount being just over half of the traditional TV ad spend by 2025.