International expansion of Netflix
[8] By the end of that year, Netflix was streaming in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
[13] On January 6, 2016 at Consumer Electronics Show, Netflix announced a major international expansion into 130 new territories (including most countries in Africa); with this expansion, the company promoted that its service would now be available nearly "worldwide", with the only notable exclusions including Mainland China, and regions subject to U.S. sanctions, such as China, North Korea, Russia and Syria.
The company also announced a partnership with LG to market pre-paid services in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
At the time the subscription cost $7.99 a month, a rate that CEO Reed Hastings called, "the lowest, most aggressive price we've ever had anywhere in the world.
Data conducted in 2012 by Josh Loewen for Canadian Business Online found that in the United States there were 10,625 unique titles in Netflix's library, whereas in Canada there were only 2,647.
[17] Regardless of streaming selection, it took the company less than a year to reach one million subscribers,[19] approximately three percent of Canada's population.
[20] On July 5, 2011, Netflix announced its plans to launch its streaming service in Latin America,[21] its largest expansion to date.
[22] Beginning in September 2011, the company began its expansion to 43 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean, offering content in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
[24] Rounding out the first five countries to launch streaming service in Latin America were Argentina, which followed on the 7th, Chile on the 8th, Colombia on the 9th, and Mexico on the 12th.
While in Latin America, Netflix had no streaming competitors as it did in Canada, the digital divide (a lack of high broadband internet penetration) hindered rapid growth.
Whereas in Canada new subscribers had been exposed to streaming content by other companies, the concept was newer to a wide Latin American audience, making some skeptical of the prospect.
Additionally, despite the hindrances to growth in Latin America, Netflix continued in pursuit of content expansion, signing a deal with Fox in May 2012 (for a July 15 start) to make its popular content (e.g., How I Met Your Mother, Glee, Bones, The X-Files, Wall Street) available in the region.
In September of that year, the company decided to switch to two separate plans and websites, one for streaming and one for DVD, and hiked their prices accordingly.
The change to its business model was accompanied by a loss of approximately one million American users and a plunging stock price.
The company quickly lost all the money it made in the quarter it announced growth to Latin America, was forced to apologize, and rethink its changing model.
The Netherlands was the only country that Netflix expanded to in 2013, though, as the company decided to slow expansion to control subscription costs.
[33] Kelly Merryman, the company's Vice President of Content Acquisition, revealed that shows that performed well on BitTorrent networks and other pirate sites were more likely to be offered as part of the expansion.
[28] Prior to its international expansion in 2010, Netflix's subscriber base grew on average by 2.4 million people a year.
Following its arrival in Canada, Latin America, and eventually Europe, its subscriber base has grown on average by 7 million people a year,[37] making international expansion key to Netflix's continued growth in the global marketplace.
[39] On June 6, 2015, Reed Hastings announced, in an interview with the Portuguese newspaper Expresso, that Netflix would enter the Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish markets in October, and that it would install its Southern Europe support center (which will cover the previous three markets plus France) in Lisbon, Portugal.
While the company admitted that some of its original productions (such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny) were meant to appeal to a potential Chinese audience, Hastings stated that the company was in the process of building relationships with local partners that it could form a joint venture with.
[47] Netflix is no longer serving customers in Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Vladimir Putin.
[51][52] In February 2020 the company released its first report of when it has complied with government requested content takedowns in their countries, a total of 9 times since its launch.
