Only about 10% of the 1.3 billion people in India speak English. However, dozens of companies operating in the country offer their services only in English. Netflix, one of these companies said on Friday it intends to overcome the language barrier.
The American on-demand video streaming giant today launched support for Hindi, a language spoken by nearly half a billion people in India, through its platform. From the registration page to the search lines, collections, synopsis and payment, the Hindi language is now integrated into the whole platform. Subscribers can choose the Hindi language from the "Manage profiles" section on the welcome screen.
"Offering a fantastic Netflix experience is just as important to us as creating fantastic content. We believe the new user interface will make Netflix even more accessible and will better suit members who prefer Hindi, "said Monika Shergill, vice president of content for Netflix India, in a statement.
Global competitors of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney + Hotstar also support Hindi language, although the latter has implemented Hindi in limited capacity (not for the synopsis of a film or show, for example).
The focus on Hindi illustrates the level of traction that Netflix believes to have received in India. Most international companies tend to locate their services in India after taking full advantage of the population in urban cities across the country where English is a common language.
Facebook and Google, which have accumulated over 350 million users in India, have long supported Hindi and several other local Indian languages. Amazon added support for Hindi to its app in 2018 and last year implemented language support in Alexa. In June, the company said that sellers can now register on its platform and manage their Hindi-language accounts.
Flipkart introduced support for Hindi on its platform last year and added three more local languages in June of this year.
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