As Amazon and Disney step back, Netflix invests in “locally authentic” content to grab subscribers in the region.
When Netflix began discussions on its first original Bahasa Indonesia series in 2018, it was struggling to sign on subscribers after having been blocked by the country’s biggest internet service provider. The streaming platform was unblocked in 2020, and the show, Gadis Kretek, or Cigarette Girl, based on a novel by the same name, premiered last year. With an all-Indonesian cast and crew, the period drama quickly climbed into the platform’s Non-English Top 10.
Six years on from that stumbling start, Netflix has six original titles from Indonesia this year, besides 10 from Thailand and a zombie film from the Philippines. One of the Indonesian shows, a supernatural sci-fi series from director Joko Anwar called Nightmares and Daydreams, made it onto Netflix’s U.S. Top 10 when it aired in June this year. (Rest of World)