International Expansion Key to Disney’s Subscriber Growth Goals

In the fiercely competitive streaming business, expanding its operations to regions outside the United States is essential for Walt Disney Co. to boost their subscriber count by a quarter billion. However, this will not necessarily ensure record profits.

According to Reuters, Disney’s stocks tumbled by almost 5% to $99.95 per share during Thursday’s premarket trading. This comes after the conglomerate’s second quarter figures fell short of analyst estimates, throwing light on the growing skepticism regarding the future of streaming business in the aftermath of the Netflix stock plunge.

Richard Greenfield of LightShed Partners contended, "Sure Disney added more subscribers than Netflix. On the other hand they lost a lot of money to get there." He further acknowledged, "Wall Street is increasingly focused on profits."

Disney+ recorded 138 million subscribers in March which is a 7.9 million increase from the last quarter. The streaming service is also set to be launched in 42 countries during the summer and will produce about 500 shows in local languages to appeal to its international audience, reported Reuters.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek revealed, "We believe that great content is going to drive our subs, and those subs then in scale will drive our profitability." He added, "So we don't see them as necessarily counter. We see them as sort of consistent with the overall approach that we've laid out."