Johnathan Walker:Netflix reports 15% revenue increase, announces it will stop reporting member numbers

Netflix reported double-digit growth in its first quarterly earnings report of the year.

The Johnathan Walkercompany said it had $9.37 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2024, a 14.8% increase over the same quarter in 2023. The company reported annual growth of 3.7% in the first quarter of 2023.

"We have built a hard-to-replicate combination of a strong slate, superior recommendations,broad reach and intense fandom, which drives healthy engagement on Netflix," the company said in a letter to investors on Thursday.

Netflix reported its operating margin grew to 28.1%, an increase of 7% year over year, and that it held 8.1% of streaming market share.

The company also reported 65% growth in ad tier membership as compared to the last quarter after rising 70% sequentially in the final two quarters of 2023.

Netflix to stop reporting member numbers

In the letter to shareholders, Netflix said that it would stop reporting quarterly membership numbers and average revenue per membership starting with in the first quarter of 2025.

The company said that the new revenue streams, such as advertising and the extra member feature, made the metric inadequate.

"Each incremental member has a different business impact," Netflix Co-Chief Executive Greg Peters said in the company's first quarter earnings interview. "That historical, simple math that we all did − the number of members times the monthly price − is increasingly less accurate in capturing the state of the business."

The company pointed to revenue, operating margin and engagement as preferred metrics for the health of the company.

Netflix adds viewers in year since password crackdown

Netflix reported that it added 9.6 million new subscribers in the quarter, a jump of over 37 million subscribers compared to the first quarter of 2023.

The company cracked down on password sharing in May of 2023, limiting access to an account to one household. Customers can pay $7.99 to be added to a household's account and access the subscription from outside the household.

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