Netflix’s ad-supported plan has notched a new level of monthly active users.
The ad-supported plan that the streaming giant offers in a dozen countries around the world has hit a whopping 70 million MAUs, according to Netflix.
The company announced the new MAU figure on Tuesday, two years after it debuted the ad-supported tier on its streaming platform.
A hand holding a tv remote with a ''Netflix button'' is seen in front of a tv screen with the logo of Netflix. (Photo by Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
It marks a massive jump from the 40 million MAUs that Netflix reported for the plan in May. In early November of last year, the ad-supported tier MAUs was 15 million.
Netflix said over 50% of new Netflix sign-ups "are for the ads plan in ad-supported countries."
The streaming giant on Tuesday provided information about other developments in advertising business.
It plans to bring its "in-house" ad technology, currently available in Canada, to other countries around the world "throughout 2025," Netflix said.
The Netflix logo is displayed at Netflix offices on July 19, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Netflix said its programmatic guaranteed ad buying will become available to Europe, Australia, Japan and Korea next year. Four countries – U.S. Brazil, Canada and Mexico – already have it, according to the company.
It also highlighted new partnerships with FanDuel, Verizon and others for the pair of NFL games it will show on its platform next month on Christmas Day. Those games, for which all ad inventory has sold out, will respectively pit the Kansas City Chiefs against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens against the Houston Texans.
This news comes after Netflix said in mid-October it was "making good progress" on growing its advertising business.
"We’re on track to reach what we believe to be critical ad subscriber scale for advertisers in all of our ads countries in 2025, creating a strong base from which we can further increase our ad membership in 2026 and beyond," the streaming giant said in its third-quarter shareholder letter.
BRAZIL - 2023/12/05: In this photo illustration, the Netflix logo is displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Ad-supported plan subscriptions, which cost less than all of its other tiers, grew 35% between the second and third quarter, Netflix reported in mid-October.
Talking about its advertising business as a whole, the company noted that it "takes time to build a new revenue stream" and reiterated that it doesn’t "expect ads to be a primary driver of our revenue growth in 2025."
In its most recent reported quarter, Netflix said it generated $9.825 billion in revenue overall. Its net income, meanwhile, was $2.364 billion.