The online subscription service Netflix is planning to launch in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg in September, the California-based company said on Monday in its quarterly earnings report.
Netflix has over 50 million members in 40 countries, the company said, citing their improved content including the original series Orange is the New Black.
The company added 570,000 domestic streaming members in the second quarter, bringing the US total membership to over 36 million. International customers increased by 1.12 million to 13.8 million, the statement said.
“Our broad success from Argentina to Finland has convinced us to further invest aggressively in global expansion,” Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings and Chief Financial Officer David Wells said in the statement. They said the European expansion would add expenses and likely result in a “consolidated contribution loss” of $42 million for the international segment in the third quarter.
The company said it expected to add 2.36 million international members in the third quarter.
Netflix posted a net income of $71 million, or $1.15 per share, in the second quarter, a more than 50 per cent increase compared to the same period a year earlier, the online subscription service said.
Revenue rose to $1.34 billion compared to $1.06 billion in the second quarter of 2013, the California-based company said in the statement.
Netflix originally announced the expansion in May without setting a date for the launch.
The US company, founded in 2007 as a DVD-by-mail service, serves users in the US, Canada, and much of Latin America as well as the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
It recently won praise for its original programming which include the award-winning original series House of Cards.