Netflix revs up its Asia offerings

LOS ANGELES • Netflix Inc. brought its chequebook to Asia.

The streaming company on Thursday announced a slate of 17 new Asian original series during an event in Singapore, part of a pipeline of more than 100 projects being produced in the region. The new shows will include nine Indian programs, its first Thai original and the company’s first Mandarinlanguage series.

Netflix has much riding on the success of those titles in the region, home to more than half of the world’s people. While Netflix boasts more than 130 million customers, the vast majority of them live in the U.S., Latin America and Europe.

Though Netflix doesn’t break out subscribers by region outside the U.S., researcher Media Partners Asia estimates the service has yet to surpass two million customers in any Asian market. The company acknowledged it has a long way to go.

“When you think about the entire world, we’re still quite small,’’ chief executive Reed Hastings said. Hastings, who co-founded the company 21 years ago, kicked off a twoday press event in Singapore with a brief synopsis of the history of entertainment, as he has done at many events in recent years. (Spoiler: First came film, then TV and now we live in the age of online entertainment.)

The new titles include a series that is a prequel to Baahubali, the highestgrossing franchise in Indian history. The company is also making an anime version of the popular Pacific Rim monster movies, and bringing in Taiwanese stars Eugenie Liu and Jasper Liu to appear in Netflix’s first Chinese-language series, Triad Princess.

The Asia production boom follows a familiar pattern for Netflix, which spends more cash than it generates by plowing its growing sales into new programming. The firm plans to spend US$8 billion on content this year — and more in the years to come — to build its online video library, though it’s unclear how much of the budget will go to Asia.

Investors have accepted the company’s cash burn because of their confidence in its ability to sign up as many as 400 million customers worldwide. Netflix shares have climbed more than 70 per cent this year, boosting its market capitalization past US$140 billion and approaching levels that would rival entertainment giant Walt Disney Co.

Yet investors are bound to be disappointed unless the company has a strong showing in Asia, which is littered with Netflix-like companies already offering troves of programs in local languages. Netflix first expanded to Asia in 2015, opening an office in Japan under Greg Peters, one of Hastings’ top lieutenants. The firm then expanded to the rest of the region in early 2016.

One big hole is China. The company can’t operate its service there without a local partner, and Hastings has said Netflix has no plans to enter China anytime soon.

Japan, which was Netflix’s first Asian foray, no longer appears to be the company’s largest market in the region. Growth has been slow, prompting executives to label the country a “slow burn.’’ Netflix didn’t announce any Japanese original series at the event. Instead, the company unveiled five series in anime, a genre pioneered in Japan that’s been catching on all over the world.

India has emerged as the company’s biggest market in the region, according to some estimates. Netflix released its first Indian original, Sacred Games, this year and planned to announce nine more programs on Friday.

Highlighting the country’s importance, Netflix’s Singapore event was dubbed “See What’s Next Asia” but more than half of the shows announced hail from India.

Still, Netflix will need to lower prices if it wants to become more popular there. Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, the most popular video site in the world, has a competitive advantage in Asia because it is free. YouTube accounts for seven times as much viewing time as Netflix, Hastings said. Earlier this month, Netflix suggested it may begin to offer lower-priced packages.

“India is the momentum market,’’ said Vivek Couto at Media Partners Asia.