Amid global pandemic, Netflix now worth more than Disney

While businesses across the globe are hit hard by fallout from coronavirus outbreak, Netflix hits an all-time high in the US stock market, becoming more valuable than rival entertainment giant Disney.

Shares in the company moved 5 percent higher in early trading on Wall Street on Thursday to a new record high of $448 per share, taking its market value to $196 billion, as sweeping stay-at-home orders drove demand for online streaming services, reports The Guardian.

Disney, on the other hand, has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, and is now valued below $184 billion, down from nearly $258 billion at the end of 2019, Forbes reported.

Two of the heaviest hitters in entertainment, Disney and Netflix have opposite approaches.

Disney is much more varied, as reliant on tourism and merchandise sales as it is on the content it puts out. While that diversity has traditionally been its strength, it has become a liability as the pandemic forces Disney to shut down theme parks and delay film releases.

Netflix, which is entirely dependent on paid subscriptions for revenue, is seeing a spike in new subscriptions amid the coronavirus lockdown across the world, while its cashflow is being freed to help accumulate revenue as it had to halt production, according to the Forbes report.

While that pause in production may be good for Netflix's bottom line now, it could result in significantly less new content in the fall than planned. Even so, Netflix may still be better off than its competitors, as they have much more content in the pipeline than anyone else right now, the Forbes report added.