Infographic: Duel of the Video Streaming Services: Amazon Prime Has 3.7 million More Users than Netflix - Industry Grows, Yet Generates High Greenhouse Gas Emissions Due to Poor Infrastructure
Last year, 14.6 million Germans had a subscription to Amazon's Prime Video streaming service. Netflix, on the other hand, had 10.9 million, as shown in a new infographic fromKryptoszene.de. The business as a whole is on the upswing, although progress in infrastructure development will be desired to reduce the impact on the environment.

As the infographic shows, 27% of German citizens have been using streaming services more frequently since the outbreak of the pandemic. In contrast, the proportion of those using streaming services less frequently is a mere 6%. All in all, 44% of Germans have a film or streaming subscription.

The amount of greenhouse gas emitted per hour of video streaming is largely dependent on the technology used to transmit data to users. Transmission via fibre optics produces just 2 grams of CO2 per hour of video streamed. However, the expansion of fibre optics in Germany has lagged behind in an international comparison. 4 grams of CO2 are produced per hour streamed via copper cables, and the situation is even worse in the case of LTE (13 grams) and UMTS (90 grams).

A look at the stock exchange floor shows that streaming services have indeed been among the winners of the hour. Netflix's market capitalisation has improved by around 35% in the last 12 months, with competitors achieving similar gains. The upsurge in the case of Roku has been notably strong, with share price gains of 236.3%.

"Amazon is ahead of Netflix in terms of active streaming subscriptions," observes Kryptoszene analyst Raphael Lulay. "The e-commerce giant also has the advantage that its streaming services are included in Amazon Prime.