Netflix is all ready to paint the town red, as it prepares to give Indians the gift of a lifetime. The company will provide free access to its services for an entire weekend to any Indian with an active internet connection. We still don’t know when the StreamFest will kick in, but according to a top company executive, it is a part of Netflix’s plans to extend its reach in the country.
Why India you ask? Because the western hemisphere is saturated with OTT platforms now, leaving very little room for growth for a platform as big as Netflix. India, on the other hand, has one of the biggest internet markets in the entire world, some of the cheapest data rates, with very few competitors. Thus, there’s huge potential in the country, which remains untapped to this day, and Netflix is ready to bet on it.
Now, those who have been on the fence about getting a Netflix subscription can make an educated decision. A test drive for Netflix, if you will. And as you might have already guessed, existing customers will not be getting this free weekend.
The company has always been into free trials. However, earlier this month, it decided to stop offering the first-month free complimentary access to new users in the US, noting that it is eyeing new marketing schemes. Netflix is hopeful that a weekend should be enough to drive new customers, and has decided to use India as the testing field for this little experiment.
Greg Peters, COO, and Chief Product Officer at Netflix said “we think that giving away everyone in India access to Netflix for free for a weekend could be a great way to expose a bunch of new people to the amazing stories that we have, the service and how it works … and hopefully get a bunch of those folks to sign up.”
The American tech giant has always had a taste for the Indian market. In fact, this is not the first time Netflix has chosen the country for a trial run. The company has a monthly mobile plan in India, offering all of its content at a smaller price tag.
The happy hamper comes soon after a slow down in user growth for the quarter ending in September. The company has already lowered its expectations for Q4, but still wants to make sure that it can grab as much of the market share as possible.
The company has already allocated $420 million to expand in the country, and produce local content. So far, this strategy has proven to be quite successful, with shows like Sacred Games, Bard of Blood, Delhi Crime and Leila becoming chartbusters and driving user growth in the country.
