What’s Missing From Netflix’s Results

Imagine buying a house from someone who refused to show you the interior. The roof might be leaking, but the sellers don’t want you to know. That’s what it’s like buying shares in many of the biggest tech companies, which refuse to disclose key details about their business. More strikingly, many of these companies—such as Netflix and Apple—steadily reduce what they disclose as they mature. The only conclusion: They don’t want you to know what’s going wrong internally.

This thought comes to mind regarding Netflix’s second-quarter earnings report on Thursday, in which the video-streaming giant reported revenue growth of 16%, a little higher than it had projected. Netflix said the growth was “primarily a function of more members, higher subscription pricing and increased ad revenue.” But you’ll have to take the company’s word for it, as Netflix no longer discloses its subscriber numbers. It stopped reporting that metric, historically the most watched number, at the end of last year. That also means it stopped reporting average revenue per subscriber, and it has never reported ad revenue.