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Video-on-demand firm Netflix has reached 30 million streaming customers worldwide, following its most recent European expansion this month.
The US-based firm now offers its service in 51 countries: the US and Canada; 43 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean; the UK and Ireland; and – as of last week – Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. However, 25 million of Netflix’s 30 million streaming customers are in the US.
The firm passed the 10 million customer in 2009 and a year later reached 20 million, thanks to the adoption of the Netflix video service in the US and Canada.
However, the 30 million global milestone follows its third-quarter earnings announcement this week, which saw Netflix’s share price drop by more than 17% hours after the firm cut its domestic subscriber forecast for 2012.
CEO Reed Hastings said the firm “mis-predicted” at the start of the year when it estimated it would add seven million US streaming customers in 2012. He cut this prediction to five million, with a guidance of 26.4-27.1 million streaming subs in the US for Q4.
“While we are not growing membership as fast as in 2010, we think that over time nearly all US households will be broadband households, nearly all video will be internet video, and that as our content and member experience continue to improve faster than competitors’, our long-term domestic market opportunity remains two to three times that of linear HBO,” said Hastings and chief financial officer David Wells in a letter to shareholders.
