Netflix has officially surpassed 65 million members. Despite not quite hitting its projected revenue for the last quarter, the streaming service announced to shareholders Wednesday that it added a record-setting 3.3 million subscribers in Q2, with a majority of new users located overseas.
No new markets were added during Q2, but Netflix saw strong growth in existing ones. Internationally, 2.4 million people subscribed, with 0.9 million joining in the U.S. As Netflix aims to be available in as many as 200 countries in the next two years, the streaming giant told investors it will continue to add foreign-language content. Spanish-language dramedy Club de Cuervos, set to debut on August 7, will be the first non-English-language Netflix original series, but it will likely be just the first of many, including a French series called Marseille. Netflix revealed that international revenue grew by 48 percent year-over-year.
As for its content creation efforts, Netflix wasn’t afraid to toot its own horn — as well it should. The Sunday following the release of Orange Is the New Black Season 3 was a momentous day for binge-watching. Going up against the season finale of Game of Thrones Season 5, as well as Game 5 of the NBA playoffs, Netflix members set a record for hours watched in a day, led by OITNB, according to the company. “Great progress” (as the streamer put it) in expanding original content.
And Netflix has no plans of slowing down there.
Moving forward, the streamer plans to continue carving out original content (yay!) and is prepared to lay down major investments there. In the letter, the company shared that it looks to spend around $5 billion on content in 2016 and anticipates that original content’s share of the amount will grow, both as a dollar amount and as a percentage. These projects will take the form of original series, documentaries, feature films, and stand-up. Given that the company has reportedly seen nearly 90 percent of its users engage with original content, Netflix’s strategy in the coming year sounds like a good one.
