Published: October 24, 2026
StartupFeed Quick Take
- India revenue grew about 18% in the September quarter, faster than all four reported regions
- The Flipkart shopping bundle was live for 61 of the quarter’s 92 days
- No India subscriber count was given, so the record cannot be sized
Netflix recorded its largest-ever quarter of paid sign-ups in India in the three months to September 30, and credited a shopping deal with Flipkart.
Revenue in India rose about 18% from a year earlier, after stripping out currency moves. Netflix’s shareholder letter of October 20 carries the figure. No other region grew that fast on the same basis.
The record is a sign-up number, not a size. Netflix gave no India subscriber count and no revenue figure in rupees. So nobody outside the business can say how large the Indian base now is.
What Netflix India Reported for the September Quarter
View hours in India grew 24% year-on-year. View hours per member rose by a low to mid single digit percentage.
Three titles did the work. Lock Upp, Netflix’s first daily reality series, drew more viewing in its first 91 days than any title in India before it.
Musafir Cafe recorded 9 Mn views. Operation Safed Sagar recorded 11 Mn.
A view counts hours watched divided by a title’s runtime. The 91 day window runs from each episode’s release.
The Flipkart Bundle Ran for 61 of the Quarter’s 92 Days
The bundle started on August 1, 2026. The September quarter began on July 1. So the deal was live for 61 of the quarter’s 92 days, two thirds of the period.
A Flipkart Plus member places four orders of Rs 299 or more in one calendar month. The fourth order unlocks a 30 day Netflix Mobile plan inside the Flipkart app.
Orders on Flipkart, Flipkart Grocery and Flipkart Minutes all count. Members must requalify every calendar month.
That sets a floor of Rs 1,196 of qualifying spending a month. A member who wants the plan all year must clear that bar twelve times, or Rs 14,352.
Plus membership itself costs nothing. A shopper joins after 15 orders in 12 months. Plus members already shop four times more often than the average Flipkart customer.
The Flipkart and Netflix joint announcement of July 31 calls this Netflix’s first deal with an Indian e-commerce platform.
Ravi Iyer, who runs strategic partnerships at Flipkart, put the logic this way:
“Completing four orders a month is already a natural shopping pattern”
Ravi Iyer, chief financial officer and senior vice president for strategic partnerships, Flipkart. From the Flipkart and Netflix joint announcement, July 31, 2026.
India Grew Faster Than Every Reported Region
Netflix reports revenue for four regions, and India is not one of them. India sits inside Asia Pacific. The regional table still shows how unusual the Indian figure is.
| Region | Q3 2026 revenue | Growth, currency effects removed |
|---|---|---|
| United States and Canada | $5,628 Mn | 11% |
| Europe, Middle East and Africa | $4,107 Mn | 9% |
| Latin America | $1,603 Mn | 12% |
| Asia Pacific | $1,537 Mn | 15% |
| India | Not disclosed | About 18% |
Asia Pacific is the smallest of the four regions by revenue. It is also the fastest growing. India is pulling that number up.
Netflix Still Sells No Ads in India
Netflix will take its ad tier into 15 more countries in 2027. The first group arrives in March: nine countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, plus Colombia, Peru and New Zealand.
India is in none of the 12 named. So every rupee earned from an Indian member is plan money.
A cheap mobile plan earned through shopping carries no ad income beside it. That matters for how much a record Indian quarter is worth.
The 2026 ad revenue forecast was also cut, to about $2.7 Bn from about $3 Bn. A slower rollout of some ad products was blamed. Group revenue for 2026 is still guided at $51.1 Bn, up 13%.
Profit Rose Faster Than Revenue
Operating profit rose 37% to $4.46 Bn in the quarter. The operating margin reached 34.6%, against 28.2% a year earlier.
Net profit was $3.66 Bn, up from $2.55 Bn. Diluted earnings came to $0.87 a share, against $0.59.
Revenue rose 11.8% to $12.87 Bn. Profit grew more than three times as fast as revenue.
Growth has still slowed, from 17.2% in the September quarter of 2025 to 11.8% this time. The December quarter carries a cost too.
The December margin is guided at 26.0%, which includes about 120 basis points of expense from announced job cuts. December quarter revenue is guided at $13.4 Bn, up 12%.
The quarter also brought the largest buyback yet: 63.9 Mn shares for $4.8 Bn. Free cash flow for 2026 is now guided at about $12.0 Bn, down from about $12.5 Bn, on a real estate deal closing in December.
What this means for you: If you sell on Flipkart in categories priced under Rs 300, the four order rule is now shaping your basket sizes. Watch your average order value through the festive quarter, and price bundles to clear Rs 299 in one go.
StartupFeed Insight
Netflix bought a record quarter in India with two months of a shopping reward and three local hits. The split in the numbers tells the story: view hours rose 24%, but view hours per member rose only low to mid single digits. More members, not deeper watching. A Flipkart member must requalify every month, so churn in this group will show by the January letter. If India still grows near 18% once the festive order rush fades, the deal built a base. If it does not, Flipkart rented a quarter. The next letter comes in January 2027.
By Avinash Mishra, Business Correspondent
Have a tip? Write to us at editorial@startupfeed.in.
Disclaimer: This article is for information only and is not investment advice. StartupFeed and its authors are not SEBI-registered investment advisors. Please speak to a SEBI-registered advisor before investing.
Liked this story? Follow StartupFeed on Google so our reporting reaches you first.
