Netflix reveals APAC is biggest growth region

Netflix's most rapid growth over the past three years—in both subscribers and revenue—has come from the Asia-Pacific region, where it has just surpassed US$1 billion in revenue, according to the company's 8-K filing.

The SVoD revealed on Monday (December 16) historical revenue and membership numbers by region across 2017, 2018 and the nine-month period ended September 20 2019. The unaudited figures come ahead of its January fourth-quarter earnings report, when it will breakdown its subscribers and financials by region for the first time.

While the Asia-Pacific region is the company's smallest, it has experienced the biggest growth, with revenue up 153% from the end of the third quarter of 2017 to the end of the third quarter of 2019. APAC revenues for the first nine months in 2019 were $1.05 billion. Meanwhile, looking at the same year-on-year comparison, paid memberships grew 148% from 2017 to 2019, to reach 14.5 million.

Total international revenue was $7.08 billion in the nine months to September 30 this year, edging closer to the US' $7.38 billion.

While Asia is still a small portion of Netflix's overall business, it has registered the biggest gains across all regions in terms of revenues and subscriber base in the past three years, the data show.

The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region is the largest region for Netflix outside the US, with a subscriber base of 47.4 million—up 132% from the end of the third quarter of 2017—and revenues of $3.98 billion as of September 30, 2019—a 105% increase from the same period in 2017.

In Latin America its subscriber base has grown by 61% to 29.4 million as of September 30, 2019, and revenue has also increased to $2 billion for the first nine months in 2019 from $1.15 billion in 2017.

In its most recent Q3 report, Netflix said international markets account for 90% of the service's growth. It is its international presence and investment in original programming that it believes will help it weather new competition from the likes of Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Peacock. 

In Asia-Pacific it has rolled out lower-priced, mobile-only subscription plans in both Malaysia and India to broaden its reach in mobile-heavy markets.