Business

Netflix looks to Asia amid subscription crisis

Netflix Inc. is looking to Asia after its shock first-quarter slowdown, seeking to both maintain growth in the one region where it’s still adding subscribers and replicate its success there in other parts of the world.

Despite plans to curb overall spending, investment in Asia will keep growing, including financing for the production of local films and series, Tony Zameczkowski, vice president of business development for Asia Pacific, said in an interview.

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While Netflix will continue to offer low-price, mobile-only membership across Asia, it’s also seeking more partnerships with wireless operators and digital payment companies to reach more potential customers in a region where credit card use is less common, he said. The company’s Asia strategy is informing moves in other emerging markets, where the platform must also grow to balance out saturation in North America and Europe.

“Asia is a great proxy for other markets in the world,” said Zameczkowski. “There are similarities between emerging Asia and other emerging markets like Africa and Latin America. Learnings here can be easily replicated or leveraged by those regions.”

The world’s biggest streaming platform is at a critical juncture. Shares surged in recent years as subscriber counts boomed, but the company reported its first loss of customers in more than a decade in April and forecasts another contraction this quarter amid fierce competition from rivals. With more than 70 percent of its market value wiped out since mid-November, Netflix is under pressure to renew a content pipeline that’s lost shine, while cutting costs.

The company has already made inroads in the Asia Pacific but the broader slowdown gives added impetus to build on the success of South Korean mega-hits like “Squid Game” and “Hellbound,” which boosted subscriptions.

The Asia Pacific region accounts for 15 percent of Netflix’s 221.6 million global subscribers and is forecast to be the biggest driver of further expansion. After a disappointing start to the year, analysts expect a rebound in the second half will see the company add about 6.8 million members for the whole year, with 79 percent coming from the Asia Pacific.

Challenges Ahead

Still, the region’s widely differing audiences, preferences and operating environments pose risks. New users in the Asia Pacific totaled 1.1 million in the first quarter, down 20 percent from a year earlier, and the company has faced cultural and political challenges in penetrating some markets. The series “A Suitable Boy” triggered controversy in India in 2020 over a scene showing its Hindu female protagonist kissing a Muslim man, while the company removed a show for Vietnamese audiences after the government said a map in it violated sovereignty laws.

Netflix’s customers in Asia are also some of its lowest-value ones, which means many more subscriptions are required to juice revenue. The pace of revenue growth is already the slowest since records began in 2017 after low-priced mobile-only plans were introduced across Asia and prices slashed in India.

Average revenue per membership fell 5 percent to $9.21 per month in the Asia Pacific, compared with a 5 percent increase to $14.91 in the US and Canada.

“It’s those $14.91 subscribers who pay the bills, and they declined last quarter,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “Cheap mobile pricing drives subscribers, but they come at a huge cost.”

Netflix also faces keen competition from streaming giants such as Amazon.com Inc. and Walt Disney Co., as well as local companies that have made headway into Asian markets. In Southeast Asia, Viu, owned by billionaire Richard Li, overtook Netflix to become the region’s second-largest streamer last year due to its extensive library of Korean content and a free subscription tier.

To make up for the steep pricing discounts, Netflix must concentrate on expanding the user base, both in high-revenue countries like Japan and Korea as well as emerging markets such as Thailand and Indonesia, said Vivek Couto, executive director of Media Partners Asia.

In India, that would require adding 20 million to 30 million subscribers for revenue to be meaningful, he said. The market had about 5.5 million subscribers last year, according to estimates from the consultancy.

This will likely be an uphill challenge. Many people in the country still prefer to watch movies at cinemas and dramas on traditional TV, with streaming services relying heavily on live programming to draw customers. Even Disney, whose Disney + Hotstar is one of the dominant players in the market, is facing a potential subscriber drain after losing the rights to stream the lucrative Indian Premier League cricket matches.

“They are trying to create a deeper funnel of customers,” said Couto. “You can’t increase prices unless you’ve got a significant customer base.”

While major competitors have all introduced tiered pricing such as mobile-only plans, Netflix is going beyond that to attract sign-ups through innovative payment methods, like allowing users to include their subscription fees in their monthly phone bills or pay via digital wallets.

Netflix offers a wider range of payment choices in Asia than competitors, Couto said. The number of new members signing up last year using alternative payment methods more than tripled from the previous year, and these measures have been adopted in other markets after their successful launch in Asia, according to Netflix.

Asia could also be part of Netflix’s latest plan to raise revenue via introducing advertising. While Zameczkowski said it’s too early to tell in which markets the company will launch the new model, he believes it would make the platform more accessible to customers.

“Even though the company is entering a new phase of slower growth, Asia is very exciting and presents a lot of opportunities,” said Zameczkowski. “We are just getting started.”

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Business

Almarai signs multiple agreements to localize jobs through training and recruitment programs

Almarai signed a cooperation memorandum with the Food Industries Polytechnic, the
Transport General Authority, and the Saudi Logistics Academy to localize jobs in the
food and beverages sector through training and rehabilitation programs ending in
employment. This came within the first international conference on the labor market,
organized by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development on 13 – 14
December 2023 at the King Abdulaziz Convention Center in Riyadh.

‘These agreements are part of Almarai’s corporate program for the social responsibility
to achieve localization in the food industry sector, which is one of the top priorities of the
comprehensive strategic plans in Almarai, especially since the company is one of the
largest working environments in the kingdom, with more than 9,000 Saudi employees,
including more than 900 Saudi female employees.”Fahad Aldrees, Chief Human
Resources Officer of Almarai, said.

He added that the agreements signed to train and qualify young people are part of the
integrated initiatives and training and rehabilitation programs for national human
resources in Almarai. He pointed out that the company provided about half a million
employee training hours during 2022, raising its retention rate to 90% during 2022.

It is worth mentioning that Almarai is the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy
company, and the largest food and beverage producer and distributor in the Middle
East. Almarai was ranked among LinkedIn’s top 15 Saudi companies for professional
career development for 2022.

Business

SEBA Bank rebrands to AMINA Bank and continues to write its success story

a fully licensed Swiss crypto bank, announced today its new brand identity: AMINA Bank AG. The group operates
globally from its regulated hubs in Zug, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong, offering its clients traditional and crypto banking services.
SEBA Bank made history in 2019 by becoming one of the first FINMA-regulated institutions to provide crypto banking services. This rebrand marks a new chapter for the company, which has proudly been in operation for more than four years. AMINA Bank is inspired by the same trailblazing ambition to lead the way for its clients and to write its own future as a Swiss-
regulated crypto bank offering services to its traditional and crypto savvy clients around the globe. The name ‘AMINA’ stems from the term ‘transAMINAtion’, meaning transference of one compound to another. AMINA is a brand driven by perpetual change, bringing together the various ‘compounds’ of traditional, digital, and crypto banking to unlock new potential and
growth for our clients. This vision of change represents the transformation of our clients’ financial future. Franz Bergmueller, CEO of AMINA, said: “We are delighted to introduce the world to our new brand identity. While we say goodbye to the SEBA name, we remain forever proud of the achievements made by the group under the former brand. “Our brand signifies a new era in the company’s growth and strategy; we are a key player in crypto banking and are here to define the future of finance. With our client-focused approach, our years of traversing traditional and crypto finance, we offer a platform for investors to build
wealth safely and under the highest regulatory standards.” “We are grateful to be encouraged by our supportive and committed investors who have been very helpful, supporting the growth of the company. We thank our employees in all the regions
for their dedication and client focus. As we look forward to 2024, our ambition is to accelerate the growth of our strategic hubs in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi, and to continue our global expansion, building on all the successes we have laid down over the past years.” Current clients of AMINA Bank (formerly SEBA Bank) will be unaffected by the rebrand other than encountering the new name; all operations will be business as usual across the board. The branch office based in Abu Dhabi and the subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Singapore will subsequently apply for a name change to align with the head office in Zug.

Business

Uptime Appoints Mustapha Louni Chief Business Officer

Uptime Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Mustapha Louni to the position of Chief Business Officer, a role specifically created to drive strategic leadership and client success. In this new role, Mr. Louni will assume responsibility for the global Uptime sales and marketing organizations and drive overall business value for all Uptime clients. He will retain his existing responsibilities overseeing operations in the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. In this elevated capacity, Mr. Louni is poised to play a pivotal role in driving Uptime’s next phase of global expansion through strategic initiatives to enhance market awareness of the dramatically expanding global service lines and delivery capabilities of Uptime that uniquely support the global data center industry in its pursuit of ever higher performance through elevated availability, resiliency, sustainability, and cyber-security of digital infrastructure. Louni’s appointment renews and expands Uptime

Institute 39;s 30-year commitment to advancing excellence in the data center sector on a global scale. “Today we are experiencing the next phase of the one-time, planetary transformation from analog to digital. This unprecedented, once-in-a-generation growth in data center demand is primarily driven by continuing cloud adoption, the new promise of AI, and the demonstrable fact
that hybrid digital infrastructure is here to stay for the foreseeable future,” said Martin McCarthy, CEO, Uptime Institute. “These complex and nuanced market demands require a visionary talent like Mustapha Louni. He is someone who cannot only deftly manage specific aspects of the business but also remain ahead of accelerating changes and trends. He continues to earn client
trust and respect by timely delivery on demanding commitments while he also inspires and energizes colleagues and clients alike. I am delighted to announce Mr. Louni’s new position and know that he will continue to expand the impact that he has already brought to Uptime since his arrival.” In 2014, Mr. Louni joined the Uptime organization in the United Arab Emirates, leveraging his extensive experience from roles at Panduit and Schneider Electric in Paris and Dubai. As the company’s first commercial resource in the Middle East and Africa region, Mr. Louni played a pivotal role in expanding Uptime’s presence. Within a year, he successfully established what became and remains Uptime’s fastest growing regional office. Under his leadership, Uptime has
extended his impressive trajectory of growth in MEA to the Asia-Pacific regions, augmenting the Uptime workforce with dedicated team members spanning more than a dozen countries across these regions. A new Uptime office has been inaugurated in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) this year, further fortifying the company’s ability to meet its commitment to sustained
growth and excellence and serve clients in critical, accelerating markets for digital infrastructure.

Uptime Institute began development of its proprietary and now globally recognized Tier Standards and its Tier Certifications 30 years ago to ensure that the mission critical computing needs of all organizations could be met with confidence and understood by executive management. Since that time, Uptime Tier Certification as well as other Uptime offerings including assessments and awards in digital infrastructure for ensuring business performance in areas of management and operations, risk and resilience, sustainability, and more recently cyber- security have gained global adoption. Uptime’s expanding success is based on delivering a
unique business service that is based upon unparalleled engineering excellence and technical mastery, while remaining vendor independent and technology agnostic.