Netflix is offering a free movie, "To All the Boys I've Loved Before," until Mar. 9 to entice people to subscribe and watch the sequel which was released on the streaming service Wednesday.
The offer to watch free, original Netflix content is a strategy the company used before in the UK with shows such as "The Crown" and other regional shows in Mexico, Colombia, and India. But this latest promotion marks the company's first attempt to use the strategy with a film in the US.
The evolving marketing strategy follows the company's fourth-quarter earnings report which showed slowing rates of new US subscribers. Analysts were expecting Netflix to gain more than 602,250 new subscribers in the US, however, the company gained 420,000 subscribers in the quarter.
Despite the slowing growth of Netflix's US subscriber base during the past three quarters, the company pulled in 8.33 million subscribers internationally during its fourth quarter, blowing past analysts' expectations of 7.15 million.
The drop in US subscriber growth also follows the service's price increase in 2019, as well as intensifying competition with the release of Disney Plus in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and The Netherlands.