Netflix launches Rs 199 ($2.80) mobile-only monthly plan in India
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
India is a highly price sensitive country, with absolutely no customer loyalty in most industry sectors. Nothing can beat free (which is where Hotstar is stuck, competing with YouTube).
It will be a tough act for Netflix to make anything from this plan. For this particular price point, restricted to mobile and a single screen at a time, what matters to this audience segment would be more Indian content. Netflix lags on that aspect quite a bit. It has some good Indian language originals, but India is a huge country with 22 official languages (and several hundreds more of unofficial languages), and these originals with a mix of Hindi and English may not appeal to a very wide audience. At the very least, it should voice dub shows in other languages. A better approach would be to use the diverse talent of content creators across languages and states, and provide those with a voice dub in other languages.
India as a country produces more than 1000 movies every year. While most are not worth watching (for movie buffs), there are several gems if one looks at all the languages and picks the best among those.
Netflix should focus strongly on licensing content produced by others and get recent releases if it wants to keep up in the Indian market. Amazon Prime is very quick in getting recently released Indian language movies on its platform. Hotstar may be similar too.
Edit and addendum:
Actually, on further thought, this plan doesn't make much sense at all by itself. Many people in India share Netflix accounts with friends or family and share the costs too. Such people would be much better off with the highest plan for Rs.800 a month while having five profiles, four simultaneous screens (shared with three other people), flexibility to watch on any device (not just mobile), using 4K quality if desired, etc. Sharing that with three others (four in total) brings the cost to Rs.200 per person, which is just one rupee more than this mobile plan for Rs.199.
It's going to be even tougher for Netflix to make money through this plan without more partnerships and incentives. Maybe this plan could push people to move to higher tiers and account sharing. I can only think of this as acting as a teaser and getting the foot in the door. Only time will tell. This plan is not meant to have many more subscribers than the other tiers.
The UX for both are bad in different ways. Amazon's wastes a lot of space but Netflix autoplay trailers annoys me to no end.
Perhaps the quality varies at lower resolutions but, at 1080 and 4K, I haven't noticed a difference.
THIS.. i had to rant about this with 100 words :) https://medium.com/@totaldude87/netflix-please-stop-autoplay...
“Look, users browse twice as much and engage with content” which in reality is “users scroll past as fast as they can or try to press pause”
I think Amazon has Netflix beat on UX. To search Netflix without using third party tools is a real nightmare. The user interface seems user-hostile, like it's designed to conceal from the user the true breadth of Netflix's library (I earnestly believe it was.) It wasn't always this bad, in the early days of netflix's streaming business the search wasn't bad, and back when they were a DVD service (which is when I first subscribed) the search functionality was pretty decent even.
But with Amazon video, you've got the search features built into the amazon prime apps, which admittedly usually sucks, but you've also got the option of searching on amazon.com itself, or on IMDB (which has been owned by Amazon since the late 90s.) Searching on IMDB is what I do. When doing advanced searches you can specify that you're only interested in movies that are free on amazon prime in your region.
E.g.: Feature Action movies that are free on Amazon Prime in the US, and are in the IMDB Top 1000: https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&genres...
(Perhaps IMDB advanced search for prime videos is bad UX for casual users (although it was my non-technical mother who brought my attention to it, so I'd push back against that notion) but at the very least it's an option. While I've seen third party websites offering a good proper advanced search of Netflix's catalogue, as far as I know if you stick to Netflix operated search interfaces you're basically stuck up shit creek.)
When I do watch things on the TV from a distance, it's important for the content preview images to be large enough and the spacing between rows of content preview images appropriate (fonts and font sizes also matter). On both Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar, I find the preview images and the layout to be cluttered and much smaller than expected. Reading content titles is quite difficult. It gets worse because both Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar have a lot more Indian content, but they tend to display the title transliterated in English while the poster has the title in the original language (which is small). This makes it difficult to read the text in the Indian language's script (transliterated titles can only help to some extent).
Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar also seem to load information on opened shows/movies slower compared to Netflix. I have a fast connection (40Mbps) with almost nothing else going on most of the time. So Netflix is doing something better in these areas.
Of course, like others have mentioned, I hate the Netflix auto-playing trailers for the currently selected show or movie. That's certainly very annoying and a ding on the Netflix UX.
If I'm browsing a particular genre, say Sci-Fi for example, I'm shown every season of each show, with it's own cover art. This serves to make their selection of shows seem more expansive than it is, which might be the purpose.
And given that they have a fair number of long running series licensed, this means browsing through dozens of the same shows.
I'll qualify all this by saying my experience is limited to the Fire TV interface, as I rarely watch streaming on my PC, but if the interface is that tedious on their own branded experience, I can't imagine the web interface is much better, though I could be way off the mark.
Are those still produced for recent movies?
Source please, especially on video quality.
That minor annoyance is nothing compared to Netflix's auto-playing trailers, however. I actively avoid opening Netflix unless I already know what I am going to watch, and I close it immediately after I'm done watching it.
As you yourself mentioned cheap beats expensive in India. And because of the latest TRAI rules of selling TV channels in packages, cable TV has just become prohibitively expensive. Earlier you could get all the channels for 500 rupees, you get nothing for that today.
Which is a big reason Netflix like streaming services will win big in the coming future.
>>For this particular price point, restricted to mobile and a single screen at a time, what matters to this audience segment would be more Indian content.
Anybody buying this plans has a smart phone that can cast to a TV. So its not exactly mobile only. Plus if you have one account it works for the whole family.
I don’t know man https://youtu.be/q8vr0jVHU8Q?t=205
Hotstar has been killing it. They have the massive advantage of streaming live sports, especially IPL and other cricket matches.
I think Netflix will become the next Apple in India. They gotta think like an Indian company and not as an American company!
I believe in the Kolkata superb area, many people with a bachelors or equivalent only make $60-80 usd a month. (4000-5500rs)
Of course, there are many many many people who make much more.
If I think of what it costs to eat out in the US, and what it costs to eat out in India... 200rs is probably more equivalent $15-40 dollars in the US. For buying power.
Examples: Throw pillow that would be $30 USD, is 150rs, or 315rs at someplace like Anokhi.
Streetfood that would be ~$10 in the us is probably around 70rs ? But that’s even a hard comparison, as I’ve been able to snack for 20rs, but not a full meal.
A knife I bought to open coconuts, that isn’t pretty, but would probably be $25-$35 in the US, was 325rs, and I probably could have gotten it cheaper.
But hotel front office:
https://www.indeed.co.in/m/viewjob?jk=169b33826c0225f4&from=...
$188~ USD a month.
But looking around police make ~600 USD a month,
And I’m wondering if the data isn’t as good as it was supposed to be. Because looking on indeed the lowest end seems to be 10000rs
As an X role in a company if you make 10k per month in India, then working for the same company as X in US, you will likely make 60k.
This is mostly based on salaries info that i have but it gives me a good yardstick for mental models. This also conveniently fits with exchange rate which fluctuates between 55 to 70 INR = 1 USD.
By this yardstick, throw pillow that would be $30 USD will be around $5 (Rs. 300) in India, subject to local revisions.
I mostly use this when I need to roughly calculate how much money I should take with me while traveling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_Wages_Act_1948
Rs. 200 is not a big amount. Of course, the real comparison will be with respect to the cable TV rate, and the Netflix rate might not be low enough to be a better option.
“Lack of awareness: Many citizens are not aware of the existence of a statutory provision that ensures a minimum wage rate. "80% of workers earn less than INR 20/day or less than half of government stipulated minimum wage rate (rural INR 49 and urban INR 67)”.[2] On certain instances of doubt among workers on existence of a minimum wage rate, officials have denied claims of any statutory act or legislation.[11]”
“42% of all wage earners in India receive wages below the national minimum wage floor rate.[62]”
“In Mumbai, as of 2017, the minimum wage was Rs. 348/day for a safai karmachari (sewage cleaner and sweeper), but this was rarely paid.[5]”
“On this I would say that it will be expensive for the maximum population of India as the Percentage of working class people earning good is not on the positive side. Many people still fall under BPL and I as an Indian citizen can absolutely tell you about this thing that we people totally browse it of the web and find things for free even the Netflix originals. This is something not good or praiseworthy but yes most people do that.”
But is there anyway to cast your mobile streaming videos from such apps on TV? I tried raspicast but it only works for YouTube not for any other app like Zee5, or hotstar or Amazon prime video.
Is there anyway to make it work on TV? Even if it requires rooting android device or smth.
Raspberry pi is for hardware enthusiasts and not for end consumers. Pi 3b costs 3000Rs. A Nokia 1 phone(android) costs 4000Rs. What are people gonna buy in these two?
Whats the difference between thinking like an Indian company vs an American company? You got me curious.
>> Hotstar has been killing it. They have the massive advantage of streaming live sports, especially IPL and other cricket matches.
I take it they are funding it with ads? Do you think they will fund everything with ads long term or are they just buying time to build market share before converting to a subscription model?
Netflix is doing the same with this 480p vids for 199rs.
Yes hotstar shows ads but they aren't a startup. They are the online branch of the massive star group
To a first order of approximation, Most american products are tailored towards "Ease of use", "Batteries included" style. All most all Indian products are focused on claiming cheapest cost at the cost expense of convenience.
Only they do have some robust infrastructure like Amazon, hotstar service seems somewhat struggling under the load of millions of people watching at prime times.
In fact, Indians were massively watching Netflix already - but using someone else's Account - which is a very common way of saving money. Now this is Rs. 199 is probably going to change that because it's more like a Mobile Plan Recharge.
I guess this is the power of introducing a price-plan using Data Science as Netlfix's teams must have found out the importance of Smartphone (Device) and the game Indians were playing.
I'm reminded of a court case in the UK between Tesco and Levis. Tesco were importing Levis from the US where they retailed and presumably wholesaled for much less than in Europe, but were forced to stop distribution due to trademark rules. I wonder if you could avoid that by reselling debranded Netflix, I'd guess you'd fall foul of a load of other laws doing that though.
Kind of ridiculous to believe otherwise.
I travel in the metro quite regularly, I see 30-50% of passengers consuming some sort of video content on their phones. There is demand for sure. Only time can tell if this new plan really helps Netflix getting more paid subscribers.
Aren't there data caps?
Mother of god. I get that per month in Mexico.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47416250 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliance_Communications
Or is it that regular priced Netflix is a large enough portion of a normal Indian's income that they don't feel like they get enough to watch for their money?
Most of the people I know in America basically shrug off the price of Netflix as the cost of a few cups of coffee per month
I'm not sure what the right interpretation is, but they kind of lead to different business strategies. The first (easy piracy) is not really Netflix's problem to solve, it's the government's problem. The second (content for money) is either that Netflix needs to invest in more Indian shows or lower their prices even more.
Poverty/Income level topics are reserved for UN or WHO type reports and research papers.
Regarding 'piracy vs content for money' I'd add in Indian context it is same thing. People pirate not because high idealism like "content wants to be free" but mainly because most people can't afford any better. If one reverse argument and say people will stop pirating if content is conveniently available like via netflix it will still not work because even 2 dollar/month is too expensive for people who would rather have rented pirated DVD for 5-10 cents and multiple families watch together.
For example, here is a headline from a .co.uk domain that uses the word and not the symbol for Euro
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1082938/italy-fine-trav...
What are we supposed to gather from this?
Being a Tech website, Rs should be fairly well known since India comes up a lot
Then, during the parsing of the title, my second interpretation was that "Rs 199" was the model number of some sort.
The letters "Rs" do not, as someone from North America, mean a currency to me. IMHO, using a 'special' character like ₹ would help me interpret things better.
(But that's just me.)
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/6/18298146/netflix-confirms-...
Though I suppose this one isn’t a deal breaker. Don’t all airplay capable devices (Apple TV, newer smart TVs, etc) have their own Netflix client?
2. Users in India access the internet via data packs and not wifi/broadband. Most are on a daily data limit of 1-2GB/day. Netflix uses about 1GB/hr for standard definition streaming.[2] So most users will likely be able to watch only 1-2 hours of video per day. Had they been streaming in HD, this would drop to about half an hour a day.
My opinion is that this is brilliant move by Netflix.
[1] https://www.designcompaniesranked.com/resources/is-this-reti... [2] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87
I don't think the GP is really exemplary of this, but I've seen it cropping up more and more. For instance people who insist on running their low-quality anime rips through numerous interpolators and scalars to knock 720p/12fps source material up to 4K/60fps, or similarly insane endeavors.
[1] Technology Connections brought my attention to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICcEOXVZ3F0
India consumers are really price savvy and look for value for money more than most people I know and with that, not as easily hooked into the fashion whims of society. Though that may well change as the average income rises.
I had a look at the best selling phones in India and https://www.gizbot.com/best-selling-phones/ and it is most insightful, of note - not one single Apple product there. Though I do recall Apple looking at producing phones locally - which would help in price as would avoid import taxation saving around 20% of the price and allow them to pass that onto the consumer. https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/apple-foxcon...
Why are they doing this though? Saving data streaming cost?
Huge, mosly untapped market - it will be interesting to watch their content strategy, will we see Bollywood Netflix originals?
For the majority of Indian masses that this is intended for, it is not just the pricing but the payment method is one of the hurdles.
Lot of people still "recharge" their prepaid phone bills with cash.
Didn't India outlaw cash?
Does India have the same level of legal enforcement? Why pay for a streaming service if they can pirate content?
What is a considered 'good' salary in India?
For the Indians living in tier 1 - 2 cities, in their 20s - 30s, with access to high speed internet (4G, 1GB per day caps), definitely. For comparison the most popular of these mobile data plans (which also offer unlimited calls) come in at around 300-400rs per month. And there are enough Indians in this bracket for Netflix to carve out a good chunk of the market.
Netflix started at $7.99 in 2010 and today for the same subscription you pay $12.99, which is a 62.5% price hike. That is particularly interesting, because it's considerably more than the inflation over the same period of time, which is at only 17.5% (https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/).
Content got cheaper through Netflix's own productions, engineering optimisations over the last 10 years probably also helped to significantly reduce infrastructure cost for the same service which someone paid $7.99 before and hosting got cheaper as well as Azure and Google Cloud have significantly started to compete with Amazon, yet customers pay A LOT more.
Now they want to capture a share of the Indian market and can basically offer a "reduced" service for only a small fraction of the price what a US customer pays, even though nothing changes in terms of what they have to pay their engineers and hosting, etc. in order to sustain the company. Yes there will be a little bit of additional infrastructure cost to also facilitate 480p streaming in India, but I doubt that has anything to do with the actual pricing.
I bet Netflix would happily offer HD streaming to Indian customers for the same price if there wasn't a risk of upsetting other paying customers from different countries.
Netflix customers will pay arbitrary made up prices always going up and never going down for as long as there is still enough people who just don't care to foot the bill every month. A sense of entitlement to be treated fairly or otherwise walk away, even if that means that you have to spend more time with friends instead of binge watching dumb TV is being lost in this world.
Citation needed. Everything I've heard is that content is getting more expensive for them because there are more streaming services competing for content.