Forget revenues and subscribers, Netflix is generating something much bigger through its international content
While the internet is abuzz with the tangible revenue numbers of Netflix through their super-hit show Squid Games, it seems like people are missing out on the other intangible and priceless leverage that Netflix is building — its ability to influence and cross promote differential cultures at scale and across demographies.
Let me take a step back first.
For all you people born in Indian metros in late 80s and early 90s, just think for a moment on how much impact did MTV, the James Bond movies and so on had on your life? Give a thought to how many of you or those around you started wearing baggy jeans after listening to and watching those American rap artists. How many of you started relating to America as a country where freedom of expression, security, law and order, the chance to make it big financially — all was easily available. You had never been there, yet you somehow knew of that place.
Well that was the power of Hollywood — the torchbearer of America’s largest export- its culture. It allowed America to develop what is called ‘soft power’ which according to its proponent Joseph Rye is defined as the ability to attract and co-opt rather than by coercion, using force or giving money as a means of persuasion.
One might argue that India’s Bollywood or Yoga too act on the same lines and promote our culture and in-turn soft power. This is very true but the scale and intensity varies a lot when compared to Hollywood. The sheer scale and massive budgets of Hollywood simply allowed America to blitz and embed its culture across countries. It was as if Hollywood and America had the monopoly or the sole means and power to communicate their ideas and culture.
Netflix though is changing the game or let’s say trying to level the playing field. It was in 2011 that Netflix went international and launched in 43 Latin American and Caribbean countries and as of today, non-US subscribers stand at 65% (from 189 different countries) and account for 56% of total revenue. In total numbers, as of October 2021, they have 213.6 million paid subscribers worldwide out of which 74 million are from the US and Canada.
While initially their content was more of licensed American movies and sitcoms, in 2015 they realized that growth and retention of their growing international subscriber base required a lot of local content to be produced, which would be in line with the local cultures, traditions and preferences. What they didn’t probably account for was the global impact of shows that were from non- American countries.
For example -
- Sacred Games from India: Out of every 3 viewers of the show, 2 were international.
- Squid Games from South Korea — The show was №1 in 90 countries within 10 hours of its launch. 142 million Netflix accounts watched the show in its first month — 67% of all accounts around the world.
- Money Heist from Spain — This show is one of the top rated shows on Netflix and its Season 4 has been streamed by 65 million accounts across the world.
This is just a sample set and points to the fact that Netflix has slowly become a cross-promoter of different cultures across it worldwide user base as opposed to just the American culture being propogated by Hollywood. Now apart from Joey’s ‘How you doin?’, people are also familiar with ‘Que pasa cabaron’ and the embedded drug culture in Mexico.
Infact, this trend is bound to increase as Netflix pushes this ‘Glocalization’ content strategy — it has invested in original programming in 40 countries and has produced original scripted shows in 20 foreign languages. It has also built production facilities across countries such as India, Italy, Colombia, Turkey and so on.
The next question that naturally comes to mind is the efficacy and longevity of this phenomena. Will shows from different countries actually have a long lasting impact and will they alter the perception of the said country among people from other countries? The answer seems to be complex and very subjective. Culture as a phenomena takes time to shape, it is not a one off-activity.
The efficacy will therefore be a function of multiple factors, some of them being — number of shows from a particular country, number of hits from that particular set, how strongly, accurately and emphatically they portray cultural values and so on.
But two points are certain:
- Netflix has definitely provided some sort of level playing field to countries which earlier did not have the financial power to showcase their culture. Although it is being driven by economics, certain set of countries do seem to be benefitting. For example, Netflix has spent more than $1 billion on South Korean shows alone, which by far is the the highest for any country.
- Even where the number of shows produced and resultant hits are relatively less — they in a way educate the audience about that particular country, acts as a gateway to a far-of culture. Every country has their own Narcos and Sacred Games, with sizeable audiences — who are sub-consciously learning something or the other about a faraway land.
Glocal seems to be the new local!!
