In Q2 2018, Netflix added fewer subscribers than expected, sending stocks tumbling down by 10%. The company struck an optimistic tone on India in their earnings call, though, saying that the country had "lots of potential" in the future. This is literally true, considering how under-penetrated Netflix is in India — IHS Markit estimates that the company has only around half a million subscribers here two and a half years after launching. "We’re way behind YouTube and Hotstar. Those are really the leaders on the internet. There is so much TV viewing at Linear TV that could be internet viewing," Chief Product Officer Greg Peters said, echoing a point the company's CEO has made in the past about India — unlike other markets, TV in India is ad-supported and cheap, meaning that paid streaming services are a niche offering for the foreseeable future. "We're still a niche product [in India]," Peters said. "We’ve got a long way to go to expand languages and many other aspects to able to be a broad Indian product." Netflix in India That beachhead so far has been one original show, and four Indian original films — all of them swept up under the company's brand after they were made. The first original series, Sacred Games, was released this month with a significant TV and billboard advertising spend. Since Netflix doesn't release viewing data for its titles, it's not possible to know how successful the show has been. But location-filtered searches for discussions on Twitter…
