Netflix shares sink on worries about subscriber numbers

Netflix has been investing in original content such as Marco Polo and House of Cards

Netflix shares fell more than 9% in after-hours trading on Wall Street after the video streaming company predicted slower subscriber growth.

The company said it expected to add about 500,000 customers in the US and two million internationally during the current trading quarter ending in June.

Analysts had forecast the company to add 586,000 users in the US and 3.5 million globally.

In January, Netflix started a global push into 130 additional countries.

The company hoped to counter slowing user growth in the US where the market is more developed. Netflix reported having 81.5 million users in the first quarter of 2016.

Netflix posted a profit of $28m (£19.6m) for the period between January and March, up from $24m during the same time a year before.

The company hopes to raise subscription revenue with a new pricing system in the US.

"We are rolling this out slowly over the year, rather than mostly in May, so we can learn as we go," the company said in a statement.

The new system will charge $7.99 per month to use Netflix on one device, $9.99 for two-screen usage, or $11.99 for four.

Earlier on Monday, competitor Amazon announced a new monthly subscription for its video-streaming service.