Netflix exceeded even the lofty expectations of Wall Street in the fourth quarter, with the Silicon Valley content company reporting a 34 percent spike in year-to-year revenue to $596 million.
Netflix also reported a 55 percent jump in net income to $47 million.
And if that wasn't enough, company officials announced that they had passed the 20 million subscriber count and could have as many as 22.8 million in the U.S. by the close of the first quarter.
Netflix officials attribute the subscriber growth to demand for their inexpensvie streaming services.
"Our pure streaming plan has a great deal of consumer appeal," company officials wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to investors. "More than one third of new subscribers are signging up for the pure streaming plan, and we expect that percentage to grow over time. The balance of new subscribers primarily takes our $9.99 one-DVD combination plan. Very few of our existing subscribers are downgrading to the pure streaming plan."
