American over-the-top content platform and production company; Netflix announced this week, that it will be launching a new plan in the East African nation of Kenya. The new plan will be entirely free, and users will have a significantly limited amount of content to choose from.
The free plan, will also only be available for users who stream via Android phones. Kenya has over 20 million internet users.
Netflix which has its headquarters in in Los Gatos, California, United States believes that by providing a tier that is 100 percent free and that comes with one fourth of all its content available in the paid streaming plans in Kenya, more and more people will end up trying out its service and eventually subscribe.
The Director of Product Innovation at Netflix; Cathy Conk made it known through a blog post that, “If you’ve never watched Netflix before — and many people in Kenya haven’t — this is a great way to experience our service.”
The Director of Product Innovation added that, “And if you like what you see, it’s easy to upgrade to one of our paid plans so you can enjoy our full catalog on your TV or laptop as well.”
The Netflix free streaming plan in Kenya will allow users in the country to sign up for access only through mobile phones running on the Google Android Operating System (OS). In addition to only having access to one fourth of all its content available in the paid streaming options in the country, the free; no cost plan will not allow users to download any titles to view offline.
It also will not allow users on the free plan to cast to connected TVs.
When anyone in Kenya signs up for the free plan, no payment information will be required from them. The user will only need to provide an email address, and confirm that they are at least 18 years of age or older. Once done, the user can then proceed to create their own password.
According to Cathy Conk; the Director of Product Innovation at Netflix, “Then you can sit back and watch many of Netflix’s most popular series and films, as well as enjoy our personalized recommendations, parental controls, and profiles (including kids).”
According to Variety, a spokesperson revealed that the streaming giant; Netflix was reportedly in search of a new way for the Kenyan market to check out its service.
Netflix has in the past, offered free trials along with specific Netflix originals for free in a number of different markets.
The free option that the streaming platform is offering in Kenya, is its first free offering ever. It is being seen as Netflix way of testing out the strategy while also gathering up information regarding just how effective it would be at converting the free subscribers into paying subscribers.
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