As befits the creator of nail-biting gore-fest Squid Game, Netflix understands how to serve up a cliffhanger.
The streaming giant said on Tuesday that it had picked up 19mn new subscribers in the latest quarter — nearly the population of New York state, and twice what analysts expected. Henceforth, Netflix will no longer report that metric on a regular basis. But there are clues that, like its hit Korean survival thriller, this year’s rapid growth will have a sequel.
Netflix differs from the biggest tech companies in a few appealing ways. First, it only really does one thing. Where Amazon blends ecommerce, media and satellites, and Facebook parent Meta Platforms is sinking billions into virtual reality devices, Netflix has more or less stuck to its knitting. A foray into video games could be big but isn’t yet, and is at least adjacent to the core business of filling screens with eye candy.