With increased competition from Amazon Prime Video, Netflix is now looking at ways to further the user experience on its streaming platform. The company is starting off with the simplification of its subscription process, which presently supports only credit cards. It has, thus, restricted the growth of its platform in a country where there is an immense demand for content.
But, Netflix now seems to be taking necessary measures to incite growth. Citing two sources privy to the matter, Mashable reports that the company is planning to integrate digital wallet, UPI, and internet banking payment options into their on-demand video streaming platform. It has explored all these options but plans to start off by adding a mobile wallet as the alternative payment option.
The source further mentions that Netflix officials have already conducted meetings with several Indian digital payments majors. Each of these companies have presented their technology offerings but Paytm seems to have bagged the opportunity. The video streaming is now involved in final talks with the Alibaba-backed payments platform.
Talking about the same, one of the sources said,
Mobile wallet providers are giving us very savvy presentations but I’m very skeptical because the amount of money users have on those platforms is usually very low, and recurring billing becomes a problem.
But, Paytm has solved this problem with the launch of its recurring billing feature just earlier today. The company plans on providing entrepreneurs and developers with software kits and tools to integrate the Paytm wallet into their services with ease. The feature will be highly beneficial for companies, such as Netflix, operating on a digital subscription-based model. It will allow the company to auto-deduct the required amount from the user’s wallet after one-time authorization.
On the other hand, Netflix has currently decided to place the other two options “on deep freeze for now.” But, it is said to be exploring the introduction of mobile carrier billing option in partnership with Vodafone. There is, however, presently no confirmation over the addition of either of the alternative in addition to credit cards. Also, we are unaware of the scheduled launch of the said integration of the video streaming website.
Further, this development from Netflix comes on the heels and falls in line with the announcement of its recent expansion plans. The video streaming giant considers India as one of the most significant markets for their service and now plans to set up a headquarter in Mumbai. It will be will mark the company’s fourth office in Asia, after Tokyo, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is also looking to aggressively invest in content development, such as its first original series Sacred Games and its exclusive partnership with Shahrukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment.
In addition, Netflix will double the number of television series and movie titles globally on its platform to about 880 by the year 2018. It will continue to be focused on the premium segment as opposed to lower offerings by its primary competitors Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar in terms of subscription pricing. It has recently also tied up with DTH services to push its application and content to these services and make them available on Indian TV sets.
