Netflix earns $2,761 million in 2020 and reaches 200 mln subscribers

Netflix closed 2020 with net profits of $2,761 million, 48% more than the previous year. According to its announcement on Tuesday, the company exceeded 200 million subscribers to its platform for the first time.

With people spending more time at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, the streaming giant increased paying users by 37 million during the year, including 8.5 million net subscribers in the fourth quarter.

Thus, Netflix had a total of 203.7 million subscriptions at the end of 2020, the highest figure in its history, driven partially by strong growth in the international market.

Despite the substantial increase in competition, this rise has occurred with large players’ entry to the market. Disney is also reaping great success with its digital platform.

Netflix had a turnover of almost 25,000 million dollars in the year as a whole, compared to 20,100 million in 2019 and the last quarter it entered 6,644 million compared to 5,467 million a year earlier.

Between October and December, the Californian company had a net profit of 542 million dollars, lower than the 587 million it registered in that period of 2019, and somewhat below market expectations.

However, investors welcomed the company’s announcements with open arms. Their shares soared after its results were released at the close of the market.

After the end of the trading session, Netflix titles gained more than 12% in electronic operations, after ending the day with a rise of 0.76%.

The company announced that it has more than 500 titles currently in post-production or ready to launch on its service, with a plan to offer at least one new original film a week through 2021.

Besides, Netflix announced that it would no longer need external financing for its day-to-day operations. It is considering a share buyback program to provide profits to its shareholders, something it has not done since 2011.

Netflix improved on including minorities among its employees

Netflix has gotten better at including minorities in its workforce over the past three years, outperforming its Silicon Valley peers.

On the other hand, in 2020, women made up 47% of its workforce, up from 40% in 2017. The company said it made similarly sized advancements to include female employees in leadership and technical positions. However, women still represent less than 35% of technical positions.

According to the company, at the end of 2020, 8% of its employees were black. The proportion has more than doubled at the end of 2017.