Netflix expands into games According to its letter to investors, Netflix reveals its intention to expand into games. At first, based on the statement, the American technology giant focuses on […]
According to its letter to investors, Netflix reveals its intention to expand into games. At first, based on the statement, the American technology giant focuses on games for mobile devices. One more good news for its paid membership, there is no additional cost to enjoy games.
According to its official page, Netflix is one of the world’s leading entertainment services. As of June 30th 2021, the company has over 209 million paid memberships in over 190 countries. Its customers can enjoy TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages.
In fact, members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. What’s more, they can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments.
The gaming industry grows bigger and faster. We can see this trend before the pandemic, but it is accelerating. This is simply because more people had or have to stay at their home and they must find something to do there. The expansion of eSports is one example of this trend.
As we reported eSports, it will be 670mn EUR market in terms of revenue, even in Europe alone by 2023. Furthermore, eSports audience grew 12% in 2019. The industry created a community of 443 million global viewers across different channels, according to a Deloitte report. If we compare to other traditional sports, the number is still far from them. For example, tennis has almost 1 billion viewers or soccer has 3.5 billion.
However, it does not mean that the eSports or gaming market is not attractive. The reality is complete opposite. As a result, not only Netflix but other big companies including Google enter the market.
First of all, the competition of online streaming services becomes intensified. In the letter, streaming accounts for 27% of total US TV time. This number is divided into several companies: Netflix (7%), YouTube (6%), Hulu (3%), Amazon Prime Video (2%) and Disney + (2%). For example, even though Disney + is relatively new and actually launched in November 2019, it has already 103.6 million users as of April 3, 2021. What’s more, Amazon Prime Video increases its original contents and users can enjoy other features as well.
Therefore, it seems natural that Netflix tries to offer additional service to their customers. Of course, it is not an easy job, or we can say it is a difficult task to win the gaming industry. However, if Netflix tries to satisfy its stakeholders, there are always new challenges. In addition, Netflix has its history and confidence to realize innovations in the digital era. Thus, it has strong potential to win the competition.
From users’ perspective, this news is good. This is because they have more options to enjoy games. Even though Netflix focuses on games for mobile devices first, it might enter the video game industry. Therefore, it means that the market also has strong potential.
When the video gaming industry is expanding, what will happen for other companies? For video game consoles companies, they have also more opportunities to sell their products. Other gadgets including a mouse pad have opportunities, too. Therefore, the gaming industry is one of the markets that we must pay attention to.
