Netflix Inc.’s share price up, plans expansion in six European countries, including Germany and France to get more customers

Netflix Inc., which is currently the biggest Internet subscription service in the world, plans to launch its online video service in Germany until the end of 2014. The company revealed that it has shifted its focus to set foot in six European countries, including Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg. This is considered as the largest expansion of Netflix Inc. in about three years.

The move is part of the strategy of Mr. Reed Hastings, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the company, and includes expansion into Western Europe in an attempt to consolidate its positions and dominate over its competitors such as Prime Instant Video of Amazon.com Inc. and HBO of Time Warner Inc.

Mr. David Wells, who is the Chief Financial Officer of Netflix, said the company is focused on reaching at least 120 million new customers outside the U.S. As reported by Bloomberg, Mr. Wells said that the company has become more confident in its “ability to compete in a very competitive marketplace”. Netflix CFO also added: “There’s plenty of expansion markets that we feel like Netflix would be a viable product in.”

According to the companys statement, more detailed information concerning the pricing, programming and supported devices is to be provided by Netflix “at a later date”. Such a massive expansion would provide the company with access to a great number of potential subscribers in continental Europe. The announcement comes only a few weeks after Netflix Inc. revealed that it has reached a customer base of more than 48 million people.

On April 21st, the company came up with a statement, sharing that it finished the first quarter of the current financial year with a total of 48.4 million customers, 35.7 million of which are located in the U.S. The executives have set a goal of getting about 1.36 million new users in the current quarter, including 940 000 internationally.

Netflix Inc. was 1.97% up to close at 371.67 dollars per share yesterday, marking a one-year change of +55.15%. According to the information published on CNN Money, the 30 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Netflix Inc. have a median target of 407.50, with a high estimate of 525.00 and a low estimate of 215.00. The median estimate represents a +9.64% increase from the last price of 371.67.