Netflix may have lost a few customers in the wake of last year’s Quickster debacle, but it still has very ambitious goals for subscriber growth: The video service wants to eventually be two to three times as big as HBO, which would equal between 60 million and 90 million domestic subscribers, according to a presentation published by CEO Reed Hastings this week. The slide deck, titled “Netflix Business Opportunity,” is meant to explain the company’s business to potential new hires – but it also provides interesting insights into Netflix’s goals as well as its take on competitors and the changing video marketplace.
Hastings remarked in the presentation that HBO currently has about 30 million U.S. subscribers but that Netflix has a number of competitive advantages over the cable network. It’s unbundled, so users don’t need to buy it in conjunction with an expensive cable package; it offers a wider selection of content, including kids shows and anime; and it comes with a personalized UI that works on multiple devices. “Netflix USA should grow to 2-3x of HBO,” he concluded.
The presentation includes a number of other interesting tidbits:
It’s worth noting that this is the second edition of this particular presentation, if only to point out one interesting omission: The previous version, posted by Hastings two years ago, predicted that DVD shipments will continue to grow for a few more years, after which they’ll slowly decline. This time around, DVDs aren’t even mentioned.
Check out the entire presentation below:
Netflix Business Opportunity View more presentations from Reed HastingsRelated research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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