The company said it expects free cash flow to break even in 2021. “ We believe that we no longer need to raise outside funding for our day to day operations, ” Netflix said in a letter to shareholders. It was also said that the company will consider the possibility of returning the surplus funds to shareholders through a buyback of shares.

” This is in stark contrast to the strategy of Disney and many of the new entrants in the streaming market, which are predicting that their services will be unprofitable over the next few years,” said Eric Haggstrom, an analyst at eMarketer.

Thanks to new content, Netflix gained 8.5 million new subscribers between October and December 2020. The company’s revenue in the fourth quarter was $ 6.6 billion, while earnings per share were $ 1.19, while analysts had predicted earnings of $ 1.39 per security.

With new subscribers, the number of paying users of the streaming platform reached 203.7 million. Curiously, 83% of new subscribers are not residents of the US and Canada, where Netflix is ​​most popular. A significant increase in the number of new users of the service was observed in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The source notes that in 2020, Netflix managed to attract the largest number of new subscribers compared to other streaming services. This has been fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced many people to spend more time at home.