Once upon a time in Bollywood

Hullo, it’s Alex in London. Silicon Valley is still trying to crack India. But first...Three things you need to know today:• Arm’s revenue f [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hullo, it’s Alex in London. Silicon Valley is still trying to crack India. But first... Three things you need to know today: • Arm’s revenue [fell last year]( • Apple and Intel [decried India’s PC import rules]( • Instacart plans to [file for an IPO next month]( Indian matchmaking It can be very easy to look at India and say, Wow, 1.4 billion people! If I can capture just 1% of that market, I’m gonna get 14 million customers. Sign me up! For technology companies, at least, it would be misguided. That appears to be what Netflix Inc. is finally discovering. Yes, India just surpassed China as the world’s most populous country, according to the United Nations. But it’s a nation characterized by massive price sensitivity. In other words, only a relatively small fraction of the population is willing to pony up meaningful cash for a Netflix subscription. The numbers tell the story. While it’s been slowly inching prices higher throughout much of the world to offset at times stagnating viewer growth, Netflix has decreased them in India. Back in 2020, Netflix was charging the equivalent of $6.67 a month for a basic subscription in the country. Now, it charges $2.66 for a basic plan, whereas the cheapest advertising-free tier in the US costs $15.49. Netflix doesn’t disclose subscriber numbers for India, but it has 38 million in the Asia Pacific region, an increase of more than 50% since 2020. Given that the region also includes large and less price-sensitive markets such as South Korea, Australia and Japan, it would seem highly unlikely that Netflix has managed to sign up anything near 1% of the Indian population. Friday marked a new pivot in Netflix’s India strategy. Reliance Jio, the country’s top phone carrier, rolled out a new prepaid mobile phone bundle that will include Netflix and cost about $5 a month. That, of course, also includes calls, data and text messages. If it can get a slice of Jio’s 449 million customers, Netflix can handily juice its subscriber numbers in the region. Revenue might be a different story: Although Jio and Netflix haven’t commented on the terms of their agreement, these sort of deals are generally a flat fee rather than a per subscriber royalty. India has long puzzled Silicon Valley. Apple Inc. has tried a bunch of things over the years and now seems to acknowledge that most of its customers are to be found in urban centers. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told investors in May that India was “at a tipping point,” following a 12-month period in which the company recorded $6 billion in sales from the country, Bloomberg reported, and the iPhone maker opened its first two stores there. To put that in context, China crossed that same revenue mark in 2011 — three years after opening its first retail location. If it’s to follow China’s trajectory, India will need to figure out a way to pull people out of poverty at a more rapid pace. That doesn’t mean Netflix should stop investing in Indian original content. It has scores of shows and movies in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English — titles such as Sacred Games, Indian Matchmaking, She and Leila. The prize for now is instead likely to be the Indian diaspora, where price sensitivity is often lower. The US alone has 4.9 million “non-resident Indians” and “people of Indian origin,” as the Indian government calls them. They can be a lucrative market. The Ken, an Indian news website, charges subscribers inside India $39 a year. Subscribers in the US meanwhile pay $120. Actively targeting wealthy members of the diaspora is a canny approach. —[Alex Webb](mailto:awebb25@bloomberg.net) The big story Practically the whole video game industry is trying to figure out the surprise success of Baldur’s Gate 3. The game, made by the independent company Larian Studios, is a unicorn, writes Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier in the [Game On newsletter](. One to watch A screenshot of a video clip from TV. Embed the screenshot as an image and then link the image to the video. Get fully charged Elon Musk said X, the site formerly known as Twitter, will [stop allowing users to block accounts](. The US warned the space industry of the growing [risks around spying and satellite attacks](. Wall Street was suspicious of Palo Alto Networks’ decision to report financial results in the afternoon on a summer Friday. The [timing is practically unheard](, and the stock had fallen after announcing the date. WeWork will hold a 1-for-40 stock split in a bid to [save its listing on the New York Stock Exchange](. The company previously expressed “substantial doubt” about its ability to stay in business. More from Bloomberg Get Bloomberg Tech newsletters in your inbox: - [Cyber Bulletin]( for coverage of the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage - [Game On]( for reporting on the video game business - [Power On]( for Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more - [Screentime]( for a front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley - [Soundbite]( for reporting on podcasting, the music industry and audio trends - [Hyperdrive]( for expert insight into the future of cars Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Tech Daily newsletter. 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