Netflix’s subscriber growth has increasingly shifted to international markets in recent years.
Netflix’s subscriber growth has shifted away from home, adding more subscribers than ever in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Between October and December of 2018, the streaming service surpassed its growth targets by adding 11.4 million subscribers, closing down on a total of 148.5 million, including those on a free trial.
However, interestingly, its boost came from international subscribers, as it aded little over 9 million subscribers internationally and just 2.1 million on its home turf.
The key to success
According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), Netflix’s success can be attributed to two strategic moves — a three-stage expansion process into new markets and the ways it worked with those markets — which other companies looking to expand globally can use too.
And the fact that it did not try to enter all markets at once, rather, it carefully selected its initial adjacent markets in terms of geography and psychic distance, or perceived differences between markets.
When it comes to Netflix’s next stage of growth, and how it will respond to new challengers, the sequel appears likely to be as captivating as the original.
