Netflix CFO Appreciates The Use Of Bitcoin As A Global Currency

Streaming giant Netflix announced the launch of its service globally last week, simultaneously bringing its Internet TV network to over 130 new countries around the world. The service went live and Netflix is now available to a total of 190 countries, worldwide.

“Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” said Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings. “With this launch, consumers around the world -- from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo -- will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simultaneously -- no more waiting. With the help of the Internet, we are putting power in consumers’ hands to watch whenever, wherever and on whatever device.”

Interestingly, during a Q&A at a Citigroup investor conference in Las Vegas, Netflix CFO David Wells touched upon the topic of Bitcoin.

Wells noted that the streaming service will accepts payments in some local currencies, in addition to credit cards and PayPal. He said that Netflix aims to keep pricing “comparable” to the U.S., where the service starts at $8 per month.

He added that Netflix aims to keep its log-in procedure and payment systems as simple as possible as it continues its expansion to more countries, Investors.com reported.

"The world in general from an e-commerce perspective is balancing security and fraud detection with friction-less sign-up," Wells said."You have to authenticate, you have to make sure you have the right person, the right bank account, but you don't want to run people through a 20-step process, because that's not going to work," Wells added.

When asked about the lessons Netflix learned amid problems launching payment services in Latin America, Wells replied that the company is still adjusting to those lessons today, as well as experiences from integrations in Europe, as reported by CoinDesk.

"Payments are becoming more of a global world," said the CFO. "You still have central banks. We'll see where we go from here in the next 10, 15 years. Countries still want to hold onto their monetary policy. But, it sure would be nice to have bitcoin in terms of a global currency that you could use globally."