Quarterly figures Netflix wants to get more involved in vertical videos
Netflix is primarily thinking about the TV format. However, the streaming market leader does not want to leave vertical videos on smartphones entirely to rivals such as Tiktok or Instagram.
21.01.2026, 04:52
SDA
Co-CEO Greg Peters pointed out that the service has already been testing a feed with vertical clips from its films and series for months. Excerpts from video podcasts could be added in the future. The format is to become part of a renewal of Netflix's smartphone app this year.
The vertical feed is intended to help users discover Netflix shows they want to watch. Currently, excerpts from Netflix series are often distributed in vertical format on Tiktok, for example - but the service would prefer this to take place on its own platform.
More than 325 million users
Netflix cracked the 325 million customer mark in the last quarter. An exact figure was not given - but the current update on the number of users is the first in a year. In 2024, Netflix closed the year with 301.6 million paying customers. As there is often more than one person living in a household and the Netflix account is shared, the industry giant sees itself on the way to one billion viewers.
In the past quarter, Netflix increased its turnover by 17.6 percent year-on-year to just over twelve billion dollars. The bottom line was a profit of 2.42 billion dollars - around 29 percent more than a year earlier.
Expensive takeover plans
Netflix is currently trying to take over the studio and streaming business of Hollywood veteran Warner Brothers. Netflix announced when presenting its quarterly figures that it would suspend share buybacks for the deal, which is worth around 83 billion dollars. US companies often support their share prices with share buybacks.
Netflix shares fell by around five percent in after-hours trading. Since the Warner takeover plans became known, the stock had already lost around 30 percent in value. As a result, Netflix decided not to include a share component in the deal and now intends to pay the purchase price in cash.
The streaming giant is in a bidding war with Hollywood group Paramount, which wants to take over Warner Bros. Discovery in its entirety for 108.4 billion dollars, including TV channels such as CNN. Warner management decided in favor of the Netflix bid, Paramount then turned directly to its shareholders. The outcome of the bidding war is still open.
Charm offensive in the cinema industry
Meanwhile, Netflix is continuing its charm offensive with cinema operators, who are skeptical about the Warner takeover plans. Over the years, the company has repeatedly considered building up its own movie theater business, but has not been able to do so due to other priorities, Peters and the other co-chief executive Ted Sarandos emphasized in a conference call with analysts. However, with Warner Bros. they will get a movie theater business that is already doing well and strengthen it.
Netflix had shown little enthusiasm for cinema in the past. When asked about this, managers always replied that it was more important for the company to release films for hundreds of millions of streaming customers than to bring them to the big screen. Sarandos has now emphasized that his earlier comments date back to a time when Netflix was not yet active in the movie theater business.
