Netflix, which used to offer a free 30-day trial, previously slashed it down to 48 hours but only for Indian customers. This news came after Netflix ultimately canceled the free trial in the US after experiencing a dip in their Q3 revenue and subscriber surge count.
The 48-hour free trial is more like a promotional offer for Netflix to increase its subscriber count in the international market after seeing a prolonged growth rate in their Q3 reports. StreamFest is what Netflix is calling the event where Netflix will not demand any credit card details or payments before the 2-day trial subscription.
Netflix looks at this offer to increase subscriber count, as these 48-hours will be more than enough for the user to get a taste of what Indian Netflix has to offer and what the user is missing by not subscribing to the service after the trial ends. COO Netflix Greg Peters is optimistic about the approach and expects to bring the promotional offer to other countries.
While the previous 30-day trial ended for the American version of Netflix and many other markets, users would subscribe for the 30-day trial and cancel the subscription before the trial ended. They had outgrown this marketing tactic and will be venturing out into a different promotional offer to gain subscriber count.
Despite the increased screentime, Netflix missed its quarterly goal of achieving subscribers, but luckily they surpassed their revenue expectations with a couple of million dollars at $6.4 billion.
This news comes at a time when Netflix is currently fighting off numerous competitors that emerged along with the pandemic. Services like Disney+ and Apple TV+ are already working hard to take away as many subscribers as they can.
AppleTV+ recently extended its free trials, whereas Disney+ got rid of them altogether in early 2020. Yet both the services have seen a spike in their services and subscriber count throughout the year.
Especially Disney+, this year has totally been unexpected as Disney completed their 5-year plan in just 6 months; along with that, they successfully released multiple originals on their streaming platform like “The Mandalorian,” which became one of the best shows of 2019 and broke various records, including weeks worth of streak of Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”
Netflix is currently the top streaming service of 2020, but with Amazon Prime hanging by its feet and Disney+ and Hulu along with numerous other services in line, which store a vast content library ranging from entertainment to news and sports, all in one. If Netflix’s new marketing policies fail to bring in more subscribers, it may not remain the OG streaming service for long.
The subscriber count for Amazon Prime is close to that of Netflix and is increasing along with Disney+ and Hulu, who have been working hard to gain recognition worldwide, and the process has been successful so far.
Let’s see what Netflix has in store for its subscribers now with their offers and promotions. Will they remain on the top? Or other services will beat them; only time will tell.