Decoding Netflix’s ‘bold’ new Rs 199 made for India mobile-only subscription plan

“Our missed forecast was across all regions, but slightly more so in regions with price increases,” Netflix co-founder and chief executive Reed Hastings wrote in his letter to shareholders reporting US-based video streaming giant’s recent quarterly financial earnings. Netflix didn’t d nearly as many new subscribers during Q2 2019 as it h projected it would – only 2.7 million people signed up and paid for service, as opposed to expected 5 million. 

For a company that’s based on subscriber growth, you can say that’s quite a slump.  

Netflix may have lost subscribers this quarter in US – which is a first for company in years – but it witnessed significant growth in global markets – particularly in India. Which is where it’s looking to expand w – something that company has also been very vocal about. It will be banking heavily on its expertise, it’s exhaustive catalogue of originals - India originals. Thirteen new films and nine new original series are alrey in pipeline. But it’s doing something else to ensure, it’s reaching out to even more people. Something different. Something anti-Netflix. 

Enter  Rs 199 me for India mobile-only subscription plan 

Last we heard, Hastings “h plans for cheaper prices in India.” But that’s t to say, Netflix wasn’t considering a cheaper option for India. Hastings has also (almost always) maintained that Netflix would think about or things – including possibly a shift in price strategy – as Internet matures and more people come online.   

re are over 300 million mobile broband users in India and each one of m is a potential subscriber. Indians are w apparently spending 30 per cent of ir phone time - and over 70 per cent - of ir mobile data - on entertainment, according to a FICCI-EY 2019 report. And Netflix wants to be ir primary source of entertainment. But it can’t do that without an affordable subscription plan. A basic Netflix subscription costs around Rs 500 (per month) in India, whereas Amazon offers video, audio and shopping plus fast deliveries at Rs 999 a year. 

Netflix started testing a new Rs 250 mobile-only subscription plan in India around March-April. On Wednesday, July 24, company officially rolled it out for all. “ beauty of Netflix is that it doesn’t have a top-down approach. Everything is hyposis and test driven in sense that we try more than 400 different tests a year. We h our hyposis that we can dress and speak to a new of Netflix member here in India through this plan, we tested it and I think we’re all very happy with what we saw,” Ajay Arora who is director for product invation at Netflix tells me.  

new me for India mobile-only plan will support one concurrent stream and will allows users to view content in standard definition (480p) quality across mobile and tablets (one mobile/one tablet at a time). Downlos and smart downlos will be allowed, but users can’t cast or mirror content on larger screens like smart TVs – Netflix believes, those looking to do that should opt for its basic subscription plan. 

important takeaway though is that it’s its most affordable plan in whole world, although Netflix is open to bringing it to or markets basis of feedback in future. “It wasn’t a pricing angle thing (at all). Kwing that India is a key market, ( goal was) how do we broen it? How do we broen access to Netflix? That’s backdrop. n we looked at Indian consumer’s behavior and we found that Indian consumer is very mobile-centric – you have so much mobile watching, so many mobile sign ups. It was never really a price thing, but about how we build a product or feature that talks to a new audience that we weren’t attracting before,” Arora explains. 

But real surprise was, Netflix didn’t launch it at Rs 250/month. It got “bolder” and launched it for even less – Rs 199/month. “This is one of cases where results were better than what we h expected – in terms of engment. We were happy that it really did broen audience and based on what we saw, we said, let’s be bold and take it down to Rs 199 and increase audience even furr.” 

India – next big thing 

India is clearly next frontier for Netflix and its recent expansion spree in country is proof of that. Something that arch rival Amazon is doing as well. Both companies approach localization differently though. While Amazon has been quite aggressive, Netflix is taking each day as it comes.   

Netflix has partnered Airtel, Videocon d2h and Vodafone in India to make its content easily accessible across direct-to-home and mobile platforms. And it is actively working to invate on payments. 

“Localization is a bro category. If you come to Netflix, can you pay with a local currency? Are you introduced to Netflix through local partnerships? Can you find locally relevant content? As we go through whole concept of localization, sometimes we can focus on only one aspect, is when you open app, is app langu done yet and for many of se Indian langus, y’re t yet but it’s very much part of our journey. When will we have localized user experience, that’s part of journey, we’re t just re yet.” 

same is true about building a dedicated R&D center here. “We have a pretty sizeable India team w and y’re amazing eyes and ears. y send feedback to product development team. In fact, so many insights and ideas from India have translated into big features, from smart downlos to how we optimize experience for entry-level phones. I think we’re doing that alrey but wher we’ll have a development team here, maybe one day, we just don’t kw yet,” Arora says.  

As Netflix works to become “more accessible to more consumers,” and ensuring “viewing experience is great across all devices,” we’ll see more and more anuncements coming.  

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