Netflix users in Kenya have increased by 700 percent in the last three years. According to Statista, active Netflix subscribers in Kenya have grown from 3,700 in 2016 to over 29,500 in 2020.
Netflix launched in Kenya in 2016 as part of its global expansion plan that year. This was when they switched their services from being available only in a few countries enabling Kenyans access to their services. The brand has grown steadily in Kenya with a big number of the urban population easily identifying with it. The site advertises heavily on Youtube, Instagram and Google so much that their shows have a wide variety of followers in the country.
Since 2016, Statista recorded that the number of subscribers in Kenya have been doubling every year. This can also be attributed to the fact that there is an increased number of fixed broadband connections currently at about 500,000 countrywide.
Compared to Kenya, Statista estimates that there are about 338,000 subscribers in South Africa in 2020, over 10 times the number in Kenya. They however noted that the growth rate in South Africa is not as rapid as the rate in Kenya. Between 2016 and 2020, South Africa’s subscription has grown by 275 percent compared to Kenya’s 700 percent.
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It is not clear though, if the numbers represent the account holders only or all Netflix users. They have only been referred to as active subscribers. However, as you may be well aware, one Netflix profile allows you to add up to 4 people on the same account so the audience number could be much bigger if the 29,510 is in reference to account holders.
The steep rise in the use of Netflix should sound an alarm to Pay TV companies which are still dominant in the market. It is estimated that there are about 1.4 million Pay TV households in Kenya, with the number expected to rise by 2023. However, with the popularization of Netflix among the younger people and availability of Home Wi-Fi options, use of streaming services like Netflix could bring down those numbers.
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