Netflix made almost double its net profit from last year in the second quarter, but that result, released on Tuesday, fell short of expectations from a market worried that the streaming giant would slowly lose its lead over its many competitors.
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The platform ended the quarter with more than 209 million paying subscribers, and garnered 7.3 billion dollars (+ 19%) in sales for a net profit of 1.35 billion. Its title lost 1.5% on Wall Street in electronic trading after the close of the stock market. The group was pleased to be
"ahead of its forecasts"
in terms of subscriber growth, and recalled that the craze for video on demand during the pandemic was preventing normal comparisons.
But that does not change the conclusions of analysts:
"Netflix seems to have reached the saturation of its market in the United States"
, asserts Eric Haggstrom of eMarketer.
He acknowledges that the company has been
"able to raise prices and increase revenues despite increased competition from cheaper services"
, but notes that
"Netflix has lost significant market share to Disney
.
"
In 2020, Netflix benefited greatly from the lockdowns linked to the health crisis and its status as a well-established streaming pioneer.
Competition and diversification
But the competition has become fierce with old ones like Amazon Prime Video, and especially the recent Disney +, Apple TV +, HBO Max or even Peacock from NBCUniversal.
Not to mention all the entertainment platforms that monopolize the attention of consumers, from video games to social networks.
Netflix has also undertaken to diversify, with an online store of derivative products and the recruitment this month of a manager in charge of video games.
"New sources of income such as derivatives and potential future experiments such as theatrical releases, podcasts and video games could bring growth, but success in these areas is far from assured,"
said Eric. Haggstrom.
