Netflix planning overseas invasion, slowly but surely

It’s been a long time coming. The video-on-demand provider Netflix has been talking about launching its service as a streaming-only version outside the U.S. for a while, but only now does it seem that the company is really getting ready to test its service globally, Engadget reports.

Netflix has put out job listings seeking people for its Hillsboro, Oreg. customer service call center. While based domestically, the positions will support Netflix customers outside of North America, and the applicants must be fluent in a foreign language in addition to English. The languages listed are Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), and Spanish (Latin American and European).

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One of the jobs, the position of a Training Supervisor, also explicitly calls for help in growing globally: “We are rapidly expanding internationally and are looking for a very bright Training Supervisor to help us educate our CS reps for that growth.”

Netflix hasn’t publicly said which country or region outside the U.S. will be the first international market for the company. Judging by the languages listed here, most of Europe is covered as well as important markets in Asia and Latin America. Also, the reach seems to cover countries with deep penetration of laptops, computers and games console networks, which Netflix could leverage for its streaming-only service.

Netflix did say back in January 2010 that as far as demand goes, Europe could be first: “The big market for Hollywood content (after the U.S.) is Europe…Third is Asia. Fourth is the rest of the world.” (Canada was “international-lite”, according to Chief Executive Reed Hastings.) In addition, Netflix was planning for a launch in the UK in 2004 but scrapped its plans to build its domestic business, which now boasts some 20 million subscribers in the U.S. After all this I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Netflix first going after a major European market, as it sets out for world domination.

Via Engadget, photo via RyAwesome