The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

How To Frame Competition When You're Outgunned

When you face bigger rivals on every side, define the game by the two things only you can do well.

We ended Q1 with over 48 million global members, and topped $1 billion in quarterly streaming revenue. We had higher domestic net additions than in Q1 2013, growing international success, and a big hit with Season 2 of House of Cards.

International revenues currently amount to 25% of our total streaming revenue and we anticipate our international segment to eventually surpass our U.S. market, similar to other Internet firms. International contribution losses shrank by $22 million q/q, with losses more than halved on a y/y basis due to the strong growth in paid members. Our present international segment is on a path to achieve profitability this year. However, our substantial expansion into new European markets in the second half of 2014 will keep our expanded international segment at a net loss.

We compete for original series with many linear TV networks (CBS, FX, HBO, BBC, etc.) and several Internet firms (Amazon, Hulu, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, etc.). Our advantages against other Internet firms are our scale in video and our focus. Our advantages against linear TV networks are Internet on-demand consumption and targeted show marketing. A Morgan Stanley survey from March showed that 17% of respondents viewed Netflix as the service that offered the best original programming, second only to HBO, and ahead of Showtime and Starz. To have achieved this recognition in our second year of original content creation is exciting and we are optimistic about building on our initial success.

This edition is for members.

The daily letter is free. The archive — every prior edition, fully searchable — is for members. Sign in to start your free week.

SEC EDGAR Filing
SEC EDGAR · 8-K
NETFLIX INC · 8-K · filed 2014-04-21 · Accession 0001065280-14-000009
April 21, 2014
Public domain
View the primary source →