10 years to conquer the world: This has been the international expansion of Netflix, which is now going to Africa

Netflix has entered this 2021 (at the moment only with the tip of the foot) in the video game business . Or rather in the format, because it seems that for now it will only use them as an attraction model. But, in addition to this, Netflix has implemented in the last two months several actions that are aimed at finally installing it in what may be the last frontier in terms of content consumption . We are talking about Africa.

With an even limited penetration capacity for their homes with internet connection and even more profitability due to rent availability issues, Africa is the great continent that all large companies wait for it to mature so as not to be able to sell all their services.

Google’s attempts to bring the internet to every corner of the continent are laudable and necessary, but we must not lose sight of the fact that we are talking about a potential population of 1,200 million consumers .

In this context, Netflix has launched two important novelties for the region this fall: its first African original series , filmed and produced in Nigeria ( King of Boys , based on a previous movie) , and the l launch of a plan completely free for mobile in Kenya , which offers e up to 25% of its original catalog.

The choice of countries is not trivial. Nigeria and Kenya are two of the countries with the highest nominal GDP in Africa among those with large markets and are also focal points in their respective regions.

And it is that, Since Netflix began to leave the United States, its international deployment strategy has always been very careful , based on two pillars: creation of local content but that could succeed globally (The Money Heist or The Squid Game are two clear examples), and first set foot in countries that could be lighthouses of your regions.

How Netflix has conquered the world

Netflix with its 210 million subscribers is today a global product . Only in mainland China, Syria and North Korea and Crimea are not available. And it is due to the impositions of their governments.

The first major expansion of Netflix took place now 10 years ago , in 2011, when it expanded to 43 Latin American countries, including Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Brazil.

In 2012, it would touch Europe, entering first through the British Isles with the United Kingdom and Ireland. A few months later, it would be the turn of the Nordic countries. In 2013, Holland; Central Europe and France in 2014.

In 2015 , it was time to cover new continents: Australia, New Zealand, Japan … And in September of that year, finished covering Europe with Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Finally, in 2016, it finished expanding to all the adjacent territories in which it already had a presence. There were a total of 130 markets that led it to be definitely a global service .

A global content (and business) strategy

Since then, Netflix has not only provided its service in these countries, it has also seeded them with its local content . It currently has audiovisual production centers in Los Angeles. Albuquerque, Toronto, Vancouver, London and Madrid.

Its growth is framed by within its own business model : the need to grow as much as possible so that its huge investments in original content (16,000 million euros in 2020) are profitable.

Netflix did not try to enter all markets at once. Rather, it carefully selected the markets to enter. For example, its first international expansion, in 2010, went to Canada , which is geographically close and shares many similarities with the United States. In this way, Netflix was able to develop its internationalization capabilities in places where “cultural challenges were less acute”, said in 2018 the professor at Trinity College Dublin Louis Brennan .

In this sense, the first phase of its globalization process it was consistent with the traditional expansion model. But from the experience and learning it gained in that process, Netflix developed the capabilities to expand into a diverse set of markets in just a few years: the second phase of the process.

In this second phase, which meant a faster and more extensive international expansion (that of 2011), Netflix expanded its presence to some 50 countries , taking advantage of the lessons learned in the first phase to operate in a greater variety of markets. Given that this phase involved expansion to more distant markets, it was supported by investments in content oriented to the preferences of those geographies, as well as technological investments in big data and analytics.

The third phase, during which a much faster entry rate took Netflix to 190 countries (in 2016), used everything it had learned from the first two waves. He had gained experience in people’s favorite content, the marketing they respond to, and how the business should be organized. Netflix focused on adding more languages ​​ (including for subtitles), optimizing its customization algorithms for a global library of content, and expanding its support for a number of device associations, operations and payments. Six months after entering Poland and Turkey in 2016, for example, Netflix added local languages ​​to its user interface, subtitles, and dubbing. Today, of course, both countries have content with the Netflix seal produced in their territories, as is now the case of Nigeria, where it has chosen the universe of well-known films to enter.

Aware that in some parts of the world, especially in emerging and developing economies, the mobile is the main means of Internet access , Netflix also began to place greater emphasis on improving its mobile experience, something that has increased with the new Kenyan case, where it has given that free plan accessible only for mobiles.

But his most important bet has undoubtedly been that of content. Its objective is that the content it produces in each territory attracts not only a local audience, but also a broader one. In this way, Netflix can reap the benefits of investing in local content around the world . And there is plenty of evidence that he is succeeding to the point that Disney Plus, HBO or Prime Video have followed in his wake.