Latin America is a boon to Netflix’s global expansion efforts

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The news: As Netflix matures and faces moderating growth in its home US market, its paid memberships in Latin America rose 4.1% year-over-year (YoY) in the first quarter.

Zoom out: Underscoring its importance to growth, Latin America was chosen as the region to pilot the company's password crackdown.

  • Netflix launched an “add extra member/household” feature in eight countries in 2022, as the region has a higher rate of account sharing than others. Brazil and Mexico were excluded from the pilot to avoid upsetting subscribers in its two biggest Latin American markets.

  • The company quickly reversed course amid a public outcry from subscribers. In true Latin American fashion, users protested the changes on social media. The hashtag #ChauNetflix (“ByeNetflix” in English) trended on Twitter not long after. Netflix sunset the feature in October after considering customers’ feedback.

  • Netflix’s policy changes didn’t stymie subscriber growth in Latin America. Despite users threatening to leave the platform en masse, Latin America was Netflix’s third-fastest-growing paid subscriber market in Q1 2023 after Asia-Pacific, and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), where paid memberships rose 17.1% and 4.9% YoY, respectively.

  • Latin America shows promise for Netflix’s bottom line. Despite having 33.1 million fewer paying members than regions like the US and Canada in Q1 2023, Latin America was the second-fastest-growing market for average revenues per Netflix membership (ARM), at 2.7% YoY, according to the company. Latin America’s ARM in Q1 was roughly half that of the US and Canada, at $8.60.

Looking ahead: Netflix will dominate paid streaming in Latin America. While new players have emerged on the scene, the global giant will remain victorious in this year’s streaming wars, according to our latest forecast.

  • We estimate that 79.4% of sub OTT viewers, or 142.9 million people in Latin America, will watch Netflix at least once per month. That puts the region ahead of Western Europe and North America.

  • Starting next year, Latin America will be the only region where Netflix will have a penetration rate above 80% through 2026 among sub OTT viewers.

Go further: Read our report, Latin America Digital Video Forecast 2023, to learn more about growth opportunities in the region.