Netflix is about to make it much more convenient for Indians to pay for its monthly subscription.
The on-demand video streaming service will soon integrate the Paytm mobile wallet service as a payment method, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
SEE ALSO:India's futile attempt to go cashless is a reality check for our dream epayments futureRight now, the company supports credit cards for payments, the penetration of which remains very low in India. This has been among one of the chief factors in limiting the company's reach in the country. Several users report that Netflix also supports debit cards, however it appears that those cards need to have 'international purchases' feature enabled for this.
The California-based company recently met with several Indian wallet companies who presented their offerings and it has finalised its talks with Paytm, said one source, who requested anonymity.
The company is also exploring UPI and internet banking payment options, however, both the options are "on deep freeze for now", a source said, adding that the company is also in talks with Vodafone to introduce carrier billing option.
During his visit to India earlier this month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced partnerships with several of India's leading telecom carriers and DTH service providers. He also announced that the company will be opening an office in Mumbai.
According to our source, the company is also working with "local TV manufacturers who are doing their own homespun version of Android TV". But these efforts are about it for what you could expect from Netflix in the coming months in India.
(An original series with comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath is also in talks. The show will be set in Indian town Vijay Nagar.)
"Mobile wallet providers are giving us very savvy presentations but I'm very skeptical because the amount of money users have on those platforms is usually very low, and recurring billing becomes a problem," the source at Netflix said.
Paytm has solved that issue today. The Alibaba-backed company, which recently hit 200 million wallet users, announced that it is bringing the recurring billing feature to its service.
It has made available software developer kits and tools for developers and entrepreneurs to implement this feature into their services.
Netflix is integrating Paytm as a payment option on its service.
Recurring billing allows a company to charge its customers a specified amount every month (or any other specified duration). A source at Paytm confirmed that Netflix is integrating Paytm as a payment option on its service, without sharing how soon we could expect this feature to be live on the service.
India is one of the most important markets for Netflix. The country's rapidly growing internet market and the mammoth film industry has a lot of potential -- much of which is yet to be tapped. Netflix's global rival Amazon is also aggressively pushing Prime Video to the Indian market.
In addition to a trove of local content Prime Video offers, the service is very aggressively priced, charging its users the same amount for a year-worth of subscription that Netflix charges for a month.
Netflix has around 200,000 to 300,000 paying customers in the country, according to a report on MediaNama, which looked at company's local tax records.
Paytm declined to comment on any Netflix integration development whereas Netflix hadn't responded at the time of publishing this story.
UPDATE: March 14, 2017, 2:34 p.m. IST The story was updated to note that Netflix also supports some debit cards, and with more inside information on what to expect from the company in the days to come.
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