Netflix turns to Asia with anime, new originals
LOSANGELES: Netflix Inc. brought its checkbook to Asia. The streaming company announced a slate of 17 new Asian original series during an event in Singapore on Thursday, part of a pipeline of more than 100 projects being produced in the region. The new shows will include nine Indian programmes, its first Thai original and the company’s first Mandarin-language 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 US, Latin America and Europe.
Though Netflix doesn’t break out subscribers by region outside the US, 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 officer 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.
The new titles include a series that is a prequel to Baahubali, the highest-grossing franchise in Indian history, and will involve SS Rajamouli, who directed the films. 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 company plans to spend $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% this year, boosting its market capitalization past $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 vast trove of programs in local languages. Netflix first expanded to Asia in 2015, opening up an office in Japan under the stewardship of Greg Peters, one of Hastings’ top lieutenants.