The share price of Netflix plunged by more than 8% to $100 per share in after-hours trading in New York last night after announcing it expected to add two million new subscribers outside of the United States during its second quarter which ended on March 31st.

That is significantly lower than the 3.5m most analysts had been expecting and coming at the same time as the launch of the competing Amazon Prime Video streaming service in the Netflix’s home US market has caused significant market jitters for the California company.

It expects price increases to have a "modest impact" on business. From the end of this month, a large number of Irish Netflix customers on the €7.99 per month tariff will be faced with an option; either pay €9.99 per month for continued HD service or remain on the current fee but only receive Standard Definition content.

Netflix, which now has 81m subscribers in 130 countries says one of the reasons for lower than expected international growth is that many of the movies and TV shows it streams are not yet available in new regions, such as Brazil.

The company says that it is "continuing discussions" to enter the Chinese market - it has been exploring expansion into the region for some time, Netflix added that "whatever we do" in the Chinese market will only have a modest financial effect in the short term.