Even if Netflix is profitable, and makes money on streaming. Considering it's market cap of $160B with today's rise of ~6% and compared to others like Disney at $192B, and AT&T at $140B, and Viacom at $14B. It seems Netflix is viewed at some tech premium that existed in the early part of the decade. Considering now almost every competitor has their own streaming service, there isn't any tech advantage. Maybe a data advantage in that they know what works and what doesn't, but a lot of that is also public knowledge kind of. But, this seems overvalued right now.
In my opinion, Netflix got 2 things right:
1) Streaming model with hits. (Becoming HBO)
2) Streaming internationally. (Where hits in one region can become global hits like Squid Game)
And now they are trying to "Become TV" with all the wide spectrum of content that Cable TV offers. This means continuing spend, while competition will exist. And basically involves revenue growth in the form of advertising, which is the traditional model of TV. They are not going to grow revenue as fast in terms of subscribers because they are almost completely penetrated in the US, and international subscribers will have lower revenues associated with cheaper offerings. In other words, they really don't have a special lever of growth ahead that distinguishes them from the competition. And Amazon and Apple are continuing to spend money, and hire talent in their offerings.
I think the point is that their competitors are in streaming now but won't be in the long term because it is costing them too much money. When that happens they will go back to licensing their content to Netflix.
And now they are trying to "Become TV" with all the wide spectrum of content that Cable TV offers. This means continuing spend, while competition will exist. And basically involves revenue growth in the form of advertising, which is the traditional model of TV. They are not going to grow revenue as fast in terms of subscribers because they are almost completely penetrated in the US, and international subscribers will have lower revenues associated with cheaper offerings. In other words, they really don't have a special lever of growth ahead that distinguishes them from the competition. And Amazon and Apple are continuing to spend money, and hire talent in their offerings.