Netflix’s Q2 2024 report stated that it now has 50.3M subscribers in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, making it the company’s third largest subscriber base globally, surpassing Latin America's 49.3M. According to Ampere Analysis, since launched in APAC in 2016, Netflix has achieved consistent growth within the region, in contrast to North America and Western Europe, where growth has been slower with occasional subscriber decline.
The company attributed several factors to Netflix's success in APAC. The region remains in a comparatively early stage of streaming sector development, with lower penetration rates for streaming services overall. Indeed, despite its growth, Netflix holds a 15% market share across all subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services in APAC (excluding China), which is still its lowest across all regions, indicating a potentially large untapped opportunity for growth.
Localization has played a key role in Netflix's strategy in APAC. In markets such as Japan and South Korea, Netflix has tailored its content offerings, with local titles now comprising 17% and 13% of its total catalog respectively - while India and Indonesia are also among Netflix’s top 10 most localized markets. Moreover, some Asian content has proved popular more widely - South Korean content, in particular, has gained phenomenal global popularity, accounting for 18% of the viewing time among Netflix's top 100 most viewed titles in H2 2023 (according to Netflix’s own viewing data release). This strengthens Netflix’s commitment to acquire and produce Korean content, with a planned $2.5bn Korean content investment stated from 2024 to 2028.
Meanwhile, in India, Netflix added nearly 1M subscriptions in Q2 2024, making it the company's second largest market for growth after the U.S. The company's efforts to adapt its pricing strategy to a lower threshold of entry and to introduce country appropriate payment methods have begun to bring positive results. In this sense, Netflix’s Average Revenue per Subscriber (ARPU) is now stable around $2.30 per month in the country. Moreover, Netflix’s Originals such as “Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar,” “Amar Singh Chamkila” and licensed classic Indian films “Kabhi Khoshi Kabhi Gham” and “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” have collectively increased Netflix’s popularity among Indian consumers.
Netflix’s growth in India also comes at a time where the India’s SVOD market is undergoing structural changes, with the looming merger between Disney+ Hotstar and Reliance Jio. Netflix, therefore, needs to use this time to build a stronger foothold in what is likely to become an even more challenging market.
Netflix's content strategy has also gained traction in other regional markets, such as Taiwan. Ampere’s Popularity score shows that Taiwanese titles such as crime & thriller film “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon,” and TV series “Watch The World Between Us” performed well both in APAC and globally. In addition, several Netflix Taiwanese Originals - crime & thriller series “The Victims’ Game,” “Light The Night” and romance drama “At The Moment” - were also among Netflix’s global top 500 most popular titles in Q1 2024 - a notable increase from before.
Overall, Netflix's growth in APAC reflects a strategic shift toward more specific and targeted emerging markets. Ampere forecasts Netflix to grow its APAC subscriber base to 70M by 2029, accounting for over 20% of its total subscriptions. APAC will also contribute 35% of Netflix's projected 48.6M net subscriber additions over the next five years, the greatest increase of any of the global regions.