Things have definitely changed over the past few years especially in the media industry. Back in the day, if you want to see movies, then you would either have to go to the cinemas or wait for it to come out on VHS tapes or DVDs. These can either be bought or rented to local video shops like Blockbuster, which is one of the biggest chains of rental films and games back in the day. Unfortunately, there are now less than three Blockbuster stores in the United States.
Back in the late 1990s, their main rival was an online DVD rental company known as Netflix. Almost 20 years later, Netflix became way bigger, in fact, they are now the biggest media streaming service in the entire world. They have come a long way from simply letting people rent films and telefilms shows. They have introduced the streaming media into the world in 2007, but still doing the rental services.
They have grown so much for the past 10 years, not just in the United States, but to the entire world. They now have more than than 117 million subscribers and counting all over the world.
Suntrust Upgrades Netflix
According to Robinson Humphrey of SunTrust, they will be upgrading the shares of Netflix because of how fast it is actually growing. They are always on trend especially this third quarter, while earning millions of subscribers all over the world.
They based it off of the Google search trend analysis on both their domestic and international subscriptions, which is way above their expectations. However, their drop could’ve caused major issues, but Suntrust obviously have faith on the streaming service.
Their analyst, Mather Thornton, even explained that their subscriber tracker this last July was on point and it showed how much the third quarter being even better for the streaming service. He even pointed out how Netflix has actually never missed subs in two straight quarters ever since about six years ago. This is basically why Suntrust, which is basically one of the biggest bank holding company in the United States, decided to lower their price target for the said streaming service coming from $415 down to $410.
Last July, Netflix revealed that they have managed to have 5.15 million to their users, which may sound like a lot but it is not compared to the 6.2 million from April. This then led to their shares falling 12.7%, but despite that, they have managed to gain about 7.5% more so far.
This is also the major reasons as to why Suntrust think that it would be best to try to reach India now. According to Humphrey, it is in India where an incremental market for Netflix can be found. That is because of how different its size market would be compared to the United States and it may have the chance to grow even bigger in the next decade or so.
Netflix India
Turns out that it wouldn’t be that easy for them, that is because according to the chief executive of Netflix, Reed Hastings, they could actually get a hundred more million of their subscribers from India, if it weren’t for the global competitors that they have there. They are talking about the Indian video streaming company known as the Hotstar, and of course the Amazon prime, so the audience and the pricing could be a problem.
Netflix is already available in India, but their service cost around $7-$12 dollars every month, which may not seem like a lot, but it actually cost more than the average pay-TV that they have locally. Compared to the United States, India also has fewer households that has broad bands.
What Netflix has been planning to do to be able to get more people in India to subscribe to them is to partner up with local companies just like Vodaphone, Videocon, Tata Sky and more. Thornton even think this is actually a great idea to be able to get the trust of the Indian audiences. India already has high hopes for Netflix, in fact, their official app is one of the most downloaded app in the Apple App Store. Recently, Netflix have increased their subscriber fees in Japan, which they have also done last year in the United States.