* Award Bestseller in Strategy and Management for 2021.

The on-demand entertainment industry has evolved rapidly over the last two decades, but the most disruptive innovation, pioneered by Netflix, has come in the form of subscription video-on-demand (VoD) online streaming service. Established in 1997 as a retailer which delivered DVDs via mail, Netflix has grown tremendously to become the undisputed leader in the online video streaming business today. It serves more than 57 million subscribers globally, including nearly 40 million in the US. With the subscriber base in its home market nearing saturation, international expansion has become crucial to the company's growth.
At the same time, the growing market for VoD streaming has meant that Netflix is no longer the sole player in online streaming service, and is competing with similar service providers as well as television channel networks. Its bid to expand is further complicated by factors such as internet penetration, piracy laws and popularity of local content which are not uniform across regions and hence, need to be tackled differently in different geographies.