Netflix's India Push

The global entertainment major has completed five interesting years in India, focussed on its premium positioning. What lies ahead?

- Krishna Gopalan And Abhik Sen

Monika Shergill, Vice President, Content, Netflix India (top); and Abhishek Nag, Director, Business Development, Netflix India

DELHI CRIME An award-winning series

LUDO A dark comedy

Small is beautiful. That is one of the dominant truths in product positioning in India.

From shampoo sachets at ₹1 in the 1980s to pocket-friendly sachets of practically every consumable over the years to the more modern cryptocurrency investments starting at just ₹100, bite-sized products and services have powerful spend value in this country with relatively low per capita income. So, when global streaming giant Netflix introduced a bite-sized plan in July 2019—a mobile-only plan for ₹199 a month— three years into its India entry, experts and consumers alike nodded their heads in delighted approval.

“The reception [to the ₹199 plan] was amazing,” says Abhishek Nag, Director, Business Development, Netflix India, over a Zoom call, his casual, maroon round-neck tee reflecting the informality of the company’s work ethos. Nag points out that this subscription-plan-tied-to-a-device was a global first, compared to its usual plans based on streaming quality and the number of concurrent streams. The mobile-only plan was subsequently rolled out in countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Recently, the plan was rolled out to 78 new countries in Asia and Africa.