INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightNetflixImage caption
Stranger Things has been one of Netflix's successes
Netflix has
said it expects its overseas sales to overtake those in its US home market for the first time in the next three months.The forecast came
after the streaming service reported the fastest revenue Subscriber growth in its history.Netflix now has 125 million subscribers, after
adding 7.4 million more between January and March.Nearly three quarters of its new subscribers came from outside its home market in the US
GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives said the results showed "the company's aggressive international expansion strategy" was bearing
fruit."[Is is] putting major fuel in the company's growth engine for the rest of 2018 and beyond," he added.'Faster than expected'Revenue
average cost of a Netflix membership.The results suggest Netflix's strategy of investing in original content such as The Crown and
Stranger Things to drive subscriptions has worked
The firm's executives admitted they were surprised by the company's rapid growth.David Wells, Netflix's chief financial officer, said
"the business had grown faster than we expected."In a letter to shareholders, the company said it plans to invest up to $8bn this year in
new TV series, films, documentaries and other programmes in several languages "to serve the diverse tastes of our growing global membership
base." 'Profound way'However Netflix faces increasing competition from rivals such as Amazon and Disney which are developing their own
online video offerings.Walt Disney will stop supplying new movies to Netflix starting next year and will instead start its own streaming
service for families.Yet analysts say the firm's dominance will also make it tough for rivals to catch up."Netflix has changed the
industry in a profound way and in doing so has given itself a significant lead, making it very difficult for the traditional media
companies, or even other big tech companies, to catch up," Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Kraft said.Netflix co-founder and chief executive
Reed Hastings admitted that the firm had just a fraction of the viewing hours of Youtube or TV but said whether its success continued was
"all up to us"."Whether or not our share of that grows or shrinks is really up to whether or not we produce great content, market that well,
serve it up beautifully, and if we do that well, earn more of consumers' time then we continue to grow and if we get lazy or slow we'll get
run over just like anybody else"
