As Netflix looks to the future, the company's leaders are looking abroad.

The streaming giant said today that it now has 81.5 million subscribers around the world. Of those, 42 percent are outside the US. "We're very focused on global competition," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in a video call today to discuss the company's first quarter earnings. "We're coming towards 50-50 international-domestic revenue, so we're focused on content that we can have around the world."

Netflix accelerated its global takeover strategy in a big way in January when it made its streaming service available in 130 new countries (China being the glaring exception).

In the past year, Netflix has also ramped up its production to ensure that its original TV shows and movies appeal not only to Americans, but also to those streaming from around the world. Netflix series Narcos and Club de Cuervos, for example, feature Spanish speakers. And the company's upcoming series Marseille will feature French speakers, including Gerard Dépardieu. "We want to be a great global distributor and producer of content," Hastings said.

And yet Netflix certainly has room to continue growing. "When you look at Facebook and YouTube—which are ad supported—viewing and consumption is generally 80 percent international and 20 percent domestic," Hastings said. "We have a lot of international growth to go before we can aspire to that."

How the company finds its way internationally will be exactly what Wall Street watches closely. In fact, Netflix may face its own challenges in getting to the kind of mass international audience that Facebook and YouTube have been able to obtain. For one, even with Netflix's new foreign languages shows and films, the service right now is still predominantly in English with English language content. And, perhaps even more importantly, Netflix requires those abroad to use an international credit card, which may be limiting to some potential subscribers without one.