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Netflix and Amazon Are Struggling To Win Over the World's Second-Largest Internet Market (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the next-billion-users dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: As Netflix and Amazon search for new users abroad, they are increasingly looking to India as a big market. Once crippled by poor internet infrastructure and low household income, the world's second-largest internet market has exhibited tremendous potential in the recent years. It's proving, however, to be a tough nut to crack for the American streaming leaders.

Leading the pack in the nation is Hotstar. Owned by Star India, which is controlled by Twenty-First Century Fox, Hotstar had about 70 percent of the on-demand local streaming services market earlier this year, according to estimates by research firm Jana. The three-and-a-half-year-old service has 150 million monthly active users, CEO Ajit Mohan told CNBC in an interview. Netflix, by contrast, has fewer than one million subscribers in the country, according to industry estimates. Once considered a luxury, an increasingly growing number of Indians are giving online streaming services a try. Companies have taken notice: More than 35 streaming services have launched or expanded their businesses in India in the last three and a half years, with many more planning to enter Bollywood soon. [...] Analysts say sporting events and local content are proving crucial in bringing new users to video platforms and then keeping them online, two areas where international giants are struggling. Hotstar, which offers much of its content to users at no charge (instead relying on ads to make revenue), charges $3 for its premium offering. In contrast, Netflix charges Indians about $8 a month.

Sports streaming in particular is helping local firms gain new users, the report said. You might remember Hotstar, which entered the US and Canada markets, set a new global concurrent record in late April, and now it turns out SonyLiv is getting more concurrent viewers to the FIFA World Cup in India than Fox Sports is generating on its digital platform in the US.

5 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Look at what sells now by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    0. Understand what is selling now and sold over decades.
    1. Find the experts who can create the same content, scripts, movies, series, plots, musicals, comedies, thrillers, political dramas.
    Offer local experts with good ideas for their own market money to create content.
    When an idea sells, offer more money for the next great idea.
    2. Find the actors who are photogenic and who can make the above plots, ideas sell.
    Glamour and prettiness with the ability to act.
    3. Profit.

    Local people with good ideas who can sell content. Never bring a brands US SJW politics into other markets.
    Try and risk new people with new ideas but make sure they can fully write up their all content.
    Look for people with a past profit making track record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and ask them to write up their ideas.
    Merit, marketing, the ability to write, actors who look good and who know who to act. Bring them together and great new local content.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:Look at what sells now by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      That plan doesn't make sense. They are selling an all you can stream service. And, there are probably only 1 orr 2 winners in India. So, spending on being 2nd, not 3rd, or 1st, not 2nd is worth far more than the additional revenue that it brings in.

      Which is to say, shotgun money (since both have nigh-infinite cash) at anything that sounds interested, and then use metrics to renew shows or not.

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    2. Re:Look at what sells now by del_diablo · · Score: 1

      But it does make a lot of sense.
      The entire obstacle of Netflix or Amazon is that people need to invest into a streaming device, a audio/video setup, find out about Netflix/Amazon, and then sign a subscription.
      From what I remember in Scandinavia, as Netflix penetrated the marked, it was of big importance to have shows that already went on TV, and also have access to popular shows that where hard to find on DVD at the local consumer electrical retailer. So there was some 90s Disney cartoon series, X-Files, Star Gate, and a lot more on Netflix. And they needed those shows to get people to sign up. And once they had signed on, watched a few, gotten comfortable with the platform, they would keep on going and watch more stuff.

      What anon AHuxley is saying, is that you need something to sell the entry subscription. For India that would historically have been a gaudy dance drama action series. A "Bollywood Drama".
      Once Indian audience enter the inside of Netflix, they might watch westerns, some cinema movies, tv series, but they want more of the stuff they think they want. So they don't want to watch poor shows like Iron Fist, when their native TV stuff is better at that genre.

    3. Re:Look at what sells now by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      Netflix didn't do that at the start, they licensed a bunch of existing content. I don't know if they intended to make their own shows from the start, it seems like they decided they needed to do that because the incumbent content owners started making their own streaming platforms and wouldn't license to Netflix as much anymore.

  2. USA FTW anyway by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    >> Netflix and Amazon are butthurt that some company owned by Fox is killing them in India

    So what - it's two American companies competing with a third American company. No matter what, the USA seems to be winning.