Ted Sarandos wearing a white shirt and a black blazer standing against a white background. ” width=”970″ height=”661″ data-caption=’Ted Sarandos was appointed Netflix (NFLX) co-CEO in 2020 after working at the streaming company for two decades. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>WireImage</span>’>
“The more authentically local it is, the more likely it is to travel.” That’s the secret formula behind global sensations like Squid Game, according to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who spoke today (April 23) at semafor’s World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C. Over his 25-year tenure at the streaming giant, Sarandos has developed a counterintuitive strategy for creating international hits: don’t aim for global at all.
“Our Korean team feels very much like it’s a Korean company. They were able to make great programming like that for Korea because there was no focus on making it global,” Sarandos said during an onstage interview with Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith today.
Squid Game’s success wasn’t just a lucky break. It rode the crest of a cultural wave that had already brought Korean pop culture to global prominence—from BTS’s chart-topping music to Parasite’s historic Oscar wins. Still, Netflix didn’t create Squid Game with international audiences in mind, even though K-dramas have a large fanbase abroad. (More than 60 percent of Netflix users watched at least one Korean title last year.)
To be fair, Squid Game’s success wasn’t just a lucky break; it rode a cultural wave that had brought Korean pop culture to global prominence—from the boy band BTS’s chart-topping music to Parasite’s historic Oscar wins. Still, Netflix didn’t create Squid Game with international audiences in mind, despite knowing K-dramas have a large fanbase in the West. (More than 60 percent of Netflix subscribers watched at least one Korean title on the platform last year.)
“It’s very different than typical K-drama—it wasn’t romantic, for sure; it’s a bit dark and strange, but it’s very Korean,” Sarandos said, alluding to how the series’ plot draws on traditional Korean children’s games from the 1980s and 1990s.
In its early days, Netflix tested the idea of creating globally oriented shows by mixing actors or storylines from different countries. That strategy flopped, Sarandos said. But when it pivoted to the opposite, viewership soared. Netflix’s overseas teams have “have absolute autonomy over what they program for their countries,” Sarandos said, and “there’s no discussion about making anything from a local [show] global.”
That philosophy extends beyond Korea. The CEO pointed to Adolescence, a newly released four-part psychological crime drama, as another example. The series is so “remarkably British,” Sarandos said, that American viewers might need to watch it with subtitles.
Today, Sarandos describes Netflix as both “a local company and a global company” and both “a tech company and an entertainment company.” Though the U.S. remains its biggest market, international users now make up the majority of Netflix’s subscriber base. About 70 percent of subscribers—and around 80 percent of new signups each quarter—are outside the U.S.
Current claiming a market cap of close to $450 billion, Netflix is one of the few major tech companies to see its stock rise this year amid market volatility triggered by unpredictable policymaking in Washington. Sarandos has stated his ambitions to grow Netflix into a trillion-dollar company eventually, though he hasn’t detailed any plans to expand beyond its core offerings. For now, he said, the company’s streaming business continues to post strong results, with revenue doubling and profits rising steadily over the past five years.
