A Research Project on Introduction of Netflix services in India

Background
History

Netflix was founded by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings and

originated in California, US in the year 1997 as a DVD-rental service
provider.
Gradually, it developed into a public company in 2002 by initiating
an IPO. It also started dealing in video-on-demand services along
with DVDs to keep up with the developing technology.
In the year 2007, it delivered its billionth DVD, while also gradually
moving to a completely internet based service of Video-on-Demand.

Expansion

Netflix started expanding internationally in the year 2010. The first

country which it expanded to was Canada.
2011 was the year when the company tripled its reach by expanding
its operations to Latin American countries. It expanded to 43
countries by September 2011 in South and Central America.
Netflix started expansion in the year 2012 in Europe, starting with
United Kingdom and Ireland. Be September 2012, it was operating in
Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
By the year 2014, the company had presence in almost 15 countries
in the European circle in addition to the 43 countries of South and
Latin America and the US and Canada.
It launched its services in India on 6th January, 2016.

Diversification

Starting with DVD rentals in the era of VHS cassettes, the company
was slow to grow as compared to its closest competitors which dealt
exclusively in VHS rentals.
During the development phase, Netflix became the largest rental
service provider for DVDs in the US.
From the year 2007 onwards, the DVD rentals started reducing
gradually in volume, as the company moved towards internetdependent business model.
Also in the year 2001, the company started acquiring original
content for its streaming service and began streaming this content
exclusively. It currently has original production of 15 series.

Research Synopsis

We plan to find out the potential user subscription base for Netflix in
India. This shall be based upon various parameters such as
o Internet penetration and adoption in India (This will also deal
with the impact of Geography on ROCE)
o Indian exposure to foreign soap operas / series
o General interest in Mumbai towards Netflix services
We also plan to delve into the potential future development
strategies by Netflix - Native language support and content
development
Further, we also plan to do a competition analysis including threats
from peer-to-peer sharing services.

Literature Review We are relying on the following research papers /

sources
o Netflix: Past, Present and Future Innovation
o Netflix Wiki
o Unreeling Netflix
o Analysys Mason report on Netflix Expansion in India
o Business Standard Netflix eyes content production in India

Design
o We shall be surveying Mumbai based potential customers for
Netflix to judge their reaction to the introduction of Netflix and
the pricing
o We are also planning an exploratory research on the potential
growth and penetration in India

Output
o Report on the existing business model and its applicability to
India
o Analytical Report of Indian response to Netflix

Conclusion / Implications
o On completion, we will have a fair idea about the kind of
response to the service and also to the pricing
o We can also judge the kind of growth Netflix is expecting in
the country