TV streaming giant Netflix founder and CEO Hastings Reed Hastings has told "Globes" that his company will be investing $8 billion in content in 2018 as competition heats up. "We were the pioneers in this field and now all the big names like Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are creating content and chasing after us and the big media companies like Disney are coming in, so our strategy has to be focused."
He added, "We only need to make a few things but we need to make them really well. We must simply make movies and TV series on a global scale. We will make reality TV shows and talk shows but we won't make news, sport and music. We also don't have plans to raise prices or introduce advertising."
Netflix revenue in the first quarter of 2018 reached $3.7 billion, 40% up from the corresponding quarter of 2017, with half of revenue from the US and half from the rest of the world. Net profit was $290 million or $0.64 per share. International revenue rose 70% in the quarter.
Hasting said that Netflix has no plans to enter the Chinese market. "They don't want us there like they don't want Facebook. Apple and Disney di have streaming services in China but both of them closed down. I don't think that it's about this or that movie but because the government there decided that it doesn't want foreign media services operating in the country."
The writer was a guest of Netflix in the US.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 25, 2018
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018