The Netflix logo is shown in this illustration photograph in Encinitas, California October 14, 2014. Netflix Inc shares were down 3.1 percent at $435.28 after the announcement. The streaming video company will announced its quarterly result
IN PHOTO: The Netflix logo is shown in this illustration photograph in Encinitas, California October 14, 2014. Netflix Inc shares were down 3.1 percent at $435.28 after the announcement. The streaming video company will announced its quarterly results later on October 15. Picture taken October 14, 2014. Reuters/Mike Blake

NetFlix is currently dealing with movie pirates being its biggest competition. The company says it has more to worry about than its major rival HBO, which will offer a cable-free, standalone streaming service. Netflix admitted that it is facing major battle against one specific pirate platform: Popcorn Time.

Popcorn Time is a software that aims to make watching pirated movies as easy as it is to stream something on Netflix and is dubbed as “the Netflix for pirates.” It can easily be downloaded, which makes movies and television shows easily accessible and free as well. Instead of the typical video streaming, Popcorn Time is torrent-based. The software temporarily downloads the movies to a user's computer then eventually, the downloaded bits can be shared with other users.

Bloomberg reports that pirate platform is very popular in the Netherlands, which happens to be the second-largest market for the app with 1.3 million downloads. The given figure is roughly around 8 percent of the country’s population. The report says that Netflix remains to be more popular to most countries despite the presence of illegal downloading apps. However, Popcorn Time appears to be widely used in the U.S. with 1.4 million downloads as of September of last year.

Earlier this week, the company has released a letter to its shareholders, which includes reports and figures on how the company is performing in the past quarters. The letter also reveals Netflix’s forecasts in the coming years. Netflix also expects that all entertainment video will be Internet video in the future. The company also forecasts the big market growth in the United States. Netflix aims to improve its content and its services. It will also be working on bigger marketing strategies to attain its goal of becoming a household brand across U.S.

Netflix has also reported its success in the international arena. Its market in Canada, Latin America, the UK, Ireland,the Nordic countries and the Netherlands have contributed well to the profits of the company. Additionally, the company confirmed its grand launch in Australia, New Zealand and will be announcing other major countries in the days to come.

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