Nice uptick in user engagement in India, says Netflix

Content streaming platform Netflix, which reduced its subscription prices in India late last year, is witnessing an uptick in user engagement in the country, as it doubles down on creating more localised content.

In a first-quarter (Q1) earnings call with analysts, Netflix said it has seen nice growth in the country after it announced in December that its mobile-only plan was available at Rs 149 per month, and the entry-level plan at Rs 199 per month.

"The product fit incorporates subscription prices as well as the willingness and ability to pay. So we have seen a nice uptick in engagement in India. We are definitely taking it in the right direction," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said late on Tuesday.

According to Netflix COO Greg Peters, the subscribers in India are largely behaving similar to the subscribers they have added over the last 12 months.

"So not a fundamental difference. And really, this was a bet in terms of long-term revenue maximisation, which is sort of how we think about the top level, the valuatory model we have for these things," Peters told analysts.

He said that Ted's team "is doing some incredible work on Indian content, and we saw the slate there".

"And we're really excited about a bunch of titles that were coming down and thought there was an opportunity to broaden the audience that got to see those titles," he announced.

Netflix said it is making good progress in APAC "where we are seeing nice growth in a variety of markets including Japan, India, Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan".

The Asia Pacific (APAC) region added 1.09 million paid Netflix members in the region in Q1 2022.

According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, the company is working on how to monetise sharing of its content.

"There are over 100 million households that already are choosing to view Netflix. They love the service. We just got to get paid to some degree for them," he said.