Netflix was only ever present in the US till 2010, and even as recently as 2015, only had a presence in 50 countries. But now it is there in 190 countries, more than half of its 130 million subscribers are from outside the US, and in the second quarter of 2018, the revenues accruing from international streaming, for the first time exceeded domestic ones. Of course, this sort of growth in the digital era is not unheard of having been accomplished also by the likes of Google and Facebook. But Netflix’s growth is unique as they need to sign content deals on region-specific basis before any launch. Plus, it had rivals such as Amazon Prime and domestic players curating content in local languages. A key factor in their growth was that they didn’t try to enter all markets at once. It followed a three-phase policy, starting in 2010 with Canada which was a very similar market to the US. Then, in the second phase Netflix made substantial use of big data and its derived business analytics to gain an understanding of different markets, to expand to 50 countries. By the time of the third phase, the company had mastered the art of curating regional content, so was able to expand rapidly to the magic figure of 190 countries. Whichever market that Netflix has entered in, it has rapidly responded to local tasted and preferences. They have also developed strategic partnerships with players such as Telefonica in Spain and KDDI in Japan.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/10/how-netflix-expanded-to-190-countries-in-7-years

Uploaded Dare:17 October 2018