India to drive next major growth for Netflix

Netflix’s current global subscriber base is somewhat around 120 million members, but surprisingly the next 100 million will be from India. Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix said this at the Mobile World Congress.

“India will be a major driver for Netflix’s future growth with the company already benefitting from low internet costs and the expansion of 4G in the country,” he said. “It has been very fortunate for us that the launch of Reliance’s Jio 4G LTE network in the country in 2016 had increased competition and reduced data prices.”

According to a report, Netflix will be a “giant exporter of Indian content”, with its recent Indian original movie Love Per Square Foot performing well in markets like the UK and US. Netflix, a report cited that at the end of last year it had 117.6 million streaming members – 54.75 million in the US and 62.83 across its international markets.

Netflix opened an office in Mumbai six months ago and is investing in developing shows there for India and export around the world. Six shows have already been announced with a few more in the pipeline. Netflix first went live in India in January 2016 as part of a 130-country global expansion drive, which also saw it rollout in markets like Russia, South Korea and Nigeria.

Netflix had initially only offered Hollywood content and supported international credit cards in India, but now it accepts local payments, has added a lot of international content, and aims to “give Indian film makers a voice to the world”.

Tags: Netflix, Reed Hastings CEO Netflix, Mobile World Congress, netflix global subscribers, Jio 4G LTE, reliance jio, giant exporter of Indian content, varindia, international credit cards