Diversification and Partnerships with Telcos to Drive Netflix Growth in Africa

Netflix Inc, says it is going to scale up its ‘Made by Africans, Watched by the World campaign’, through diversification which would attract more subscribers on the continent.

The global streaming entertainment service offering movies and TV series commercial-free, with unlimited viewing on any internet-connected screen for an affordable, no-commitment monthly fee, says it will continue partnering with telecom operators to make it easier for potential subscribers to make payments.

Dorothy Ghettuba, Netflix head of Africa originals speaking to Reuters Africa Wednesday said, “Given the low credit card penetration across the continent… we have partnered with local telcos… for their customers to be able to add Netflix subscriptions to their bills.”

Netflix already has partnerships with Vodacom and Telkom South Africa

With an established market in South Africa and Nigeria, Netflix now looking towards the Kenyan market, Ghettuba said.

“The business is excited about Africa and is putting every effort behind it,” said Ghettuba.

According to Netflix’s Q3 2020 Earnings, “We continue to invest heavily in local language content because we believe that great stories are universal: they can come from anywhere and be loved everywhere.” 

“We understand that awareness of Netflix in these new markets is mixed and that there are cultural differences and some variances in content tastes around the world. There are also challenges with the broadband and payment infrastructures in certain countries.

But we also believe in the growing ubiquity of the internet and rapid technological progress and that great, high-quality storytelling has universal appeal that transcends borders.”

Global user growth slows down

During the quarter, its growth slowed down significantly in the September quarter. 

Netflix added only 2.2 million subscribers during the quarter as compared to 6.8 million subscribers in the same period last year.

“As the world hopefully recovers in 2021, we would expect that our growth will revert back to levels similar to pre-Covid. In turn, we expect paid net adds are likely to be down year over year in the first half of 2021,” the company said in the shareholder letter.

RELATED

• Walt Disney Restructures to Focus on Streaming Services 
• MultiChoice Pumped Ksh.57B into Kenyan Economy In Five Years