• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, February 24, 2023

In a bid to spur growth in smaller markets, Netflix is cutting its subscription prices in more than three dozen countries.

The U.S., Canada and Western Europe are not included.

Regions getting price reductions Malaysia of up to half on some or all plans include Latin American countries such as Nicaragua and Ecuador; Middle Eastern markets including Yemen, Jordan, Libya and Iran; Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries; European countries such as Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Slovenia; and Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Netflix has only confirmed that it is “updating” pricing in some countries.

Price changes were reported first in Cord Cutters News and the Wall Street Journal. One example: In the Balkans, Netflix has cut the basic plan’s price from 7.99 to 4.99 euros, the standard plan from 9.99 to 7.99 euros, and the premium plan from 11.99 to 9.99 euros.

Netflix has rarely lowered prices in its sixteen years of existence. Its profitability strategy appears to call for achieving overall revenue gains by offsetting price cuts in smaller markets with volume growth, while raising prices in major markets and implementing its elimination of free password sharing.

The company hiked prices in the U.S. and Canada in January — when it introduced its $6.99 with-ads tier — and recently launched its paid account sharing plan in Canada, Portugal, Spain and New Zealand, after starting in Latin America. It has said it will roll out that program in all markets over the course of 2023.

“We seek to serve more members around the world in trying to deliver appropriate value at those different price points, and we’re doing a good job expanding that range,” Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters summed up the core pricing strategy during January’s earnings call. “There’s a bunch of people around the world in countries where we’re not deeply penetrated, and we have more opportunities to go attract them.”

“We believe we have a clear path to reaccelerate our revenue growth: continuing to improve all aspects of Netflix, launching paid sharing and building our ads offering,” co-CEO Ted Sarandos and CFO Spence Neumann added in the company's Q4 shareholder letter. “As always, our north stars remain pleasing our members and building even greater profitability over time.”