- Netflix just announced a ₹199 ‘mobile-only’ monthly plan for users in India.
- It wants to add more than 100 million subscribers just from India.
Earlier, Next Big Brand had reported that Netflix was planning to launch more affordable plans in India to gain new users. Well, this has finally happened. Knowing that its services are more on the premium side, Netflix has now launched plans that allow users to view content via their smartphones. These services will be offered for 199 INR, which puts it in a similar price bracket as its competitors like Amazon Prime and Hotstar. Prior to this, Netflix only offered plans that ranged from 500-800 INR, which made it far more expensive than other streaming giants. As a result, it lost out on many customers.
We believe this plan will be an effective way to introduce a larger section of the audience to Netflix to expand the business where average return per user (ARPU) is low,” Netflix stated earlier this week.
Of course, India is a huge market and no brand wants to lose out on the potential of capturing it. This is why Netflix is coming out with cheaper services, over and above what it already offers. This new service will allow viewers to stream shows on a single smartphone for 199 INR per month. While this is still the highest amount when compared with the same services offered by others, it may inspire more curious customers to explore this OTT platform. Netflix offers its own original content as well as many popular shows and it is likely that consumers experiencing FOMO over the same might just end up joining this platform through their smartphones.
With popular OTT platforms like Hotstar and Amazon Prime offering their content at 999 INR per year, Netflix has always been the more premium platform, with its lowest rate being 500 INR per month. This is probably why it has not enjoyed the same kind of consumer base as its rivals, in spite of offering a large variety of content. In terms of monthly plans, Hotstar offers content streaming for 199 INR per month and Amazon Prime offers this service for 129 INR per month. Newer players in this industry like ALTBalaji and Zee5 also offer their services for close to 100 INR per month. So, it is quite understandable why Netflix does not have a huge market share like all these other brands.
Netflix wants to add more than 100 million subscribers just from India. However, currently, it is unclear whether the lower pricing will help them to the extent that they are hoping it will, as it is still the highest priced product amongst the competition. As India is a market that is very price-sensitive, this move definitely makes sense and will get them more viewers.
Netflix India earns twenty times more money per user than Hotstar
