It is reported to be the first time Netflix has praised a competitor in a letter to shareholders, which makes it quite significant.
Netflix has acknowledged TikTok as major competition to the streaming platform for the first time.
In a letter to shareholders, Netflix named Disney and WarnerMedia as competition in the market but reserved praise only for the Chinese-owned video app. “TikTok’s growth is astounding,” the letter stated, “showing the fluidity of internet entertainment.”
TikTok, which lets people create and share short videos, has become a global hit, with more than 2bn downloads. It was the most downloaded app in the Apple App Store in both 2018 and 2019. Last month, TikTok hired Disney’s head of streaming, Kevin Mayer, as its new CEO.
Over time, Netflix’s idea of its competition has expanded to include pretty much anything that takes place on screens: YouTube, Facebook, and even video games.
Netflix expects to add 2.5m subscribers in Q3. The strong subscriber growth in Q2 helped boost Netflix’s revenue, which rose 25% year-over-year to $6.15bn and beat analysts’ estimate at $6.08bn.
