As streaming competitors such as Disney and Amazon are cutting back on expenses, Netflix has taken the opportunity to increase its market expansion efforts.
Netflix's market expansion strategy is to increase the production of localized content in Southeast Asia, attempting to replicate the success of the previously popular Korean original drama "Squid Game" in order to expand its user base in Southeast Asia.
Netflix will make efforts to expand the Southeast Asian market
Recently, Minyoung Kim, Vice President of Content at Netflix Asia (excluding India), stated at a company event in Jakarta that Netflix is increasing the number of programs available for viewing in Southeast Asia and producing more localized content to attract more Southeast Asian audiences.
The Asia Pacific region is currently the smallest market for Netflix. In 2023, the Asia Pacific market only accounted for 11% of Netflix's total revenue. But at the same time, the Asia Pacific region is densely populated and has a large number of young people, which means there is huge market space.
Previously, Netflix had already opened up the Japanese and Korean markets through its "localization" strategy: the original Korean drama "Squid Game" and the locally adapted Japanese anime "One Piece" not only achieved great success in Japan and South Korea, but also became popular worldwide.
At present, Naifei plans to follow this model in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines: in Thailand, Naifei plans to release 10 original works this year, up from 6 in 2023; At the same time, the number of original film and television works by Netflix in Indonesia will also increase, and the production budget will also increase.
Kim said, "We have a responsibility to ensure that these stories not only find audiences in our own country, but also outside the local market, so that audiences from all over the world can discover the stories they like."
Will the success of Squid Game be replicated?
According to Media Partners Asia, localized content is particularly important in Asia, as approximately 80% of paid video users in Asia are attracted by this type of localized content.
Although Netflix entered some Southeast Asian markets as early as 2016, it was not until recently that Netflix began releasing local original dramas and movies in the region. Last year, both the Thai thriller "Hungry Game" and the Indonesian drama "Cigarette Girl" released by Netflix were globally popular, which is a rare success for local Southeast Asian film and television works.
Now, Netflix hopes to continue expanding this success.
The Indonesian supernatural science fiction series "Nightmares and Daydreams" produced by Netflix will be released this month, and the Indonesian action film "The Shadow Strays" will also be released soon. In addition, Netflix is also producing Indonesia's first large-scale zombie horror drama "Abadi Nan Jaya" (tentative title), which is expected to be released in 2025.
It is worth mentioning that while Netflix is striving to expand its market and pursue faster user growth, its competitors have adopted the opposite strategy and are "withdrawing" from the battlefield of user competition.
In order to ensure profitability, Walt Disney has recently suspended original content creation and raised the membership subscription price threshold; Amazon has also been reducing its streaming business expenses recently. Earlier this year, Amazon announced that its media and live streaming platforms would lay off hundreds of people.