Netflix celebrates 15 years in Latin America, calling it one of its most sophisticated markets

Latin America was Netflix’s first international expansion, and after 15 years the company sees the region as one of its most sophisticated markets. Francisco Ramos, Netflix’s vice president of content for Latin America, made the assessment in an interview with EFE in Mexico City.

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Latin America was the first site of international expansion, 15 years ago. Growth has been constant.

Netflix began offering its streaming service in Latin America in 2011. Ramos said growth had been constant and that regional audiences had provided important clues about the decisive role local content would play in the company’s value proposition.

Viewers in Mexico’s top 10, he said, watch Mexican productions alongside content from other countries. Netflix’s first non-English-language original series was Mexico’s “Club de Cuervos,” released in 2015. Ramos said the series broke with the earlier pattern in which American productions were the audiovisual content most likely to travel internationally.

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There is a sophistication in Latin American audiences, who watch content from everywhere.

“People like to see themselves and also to see other people,” Ramos said, describing that combination as the “secret sauce” of Netflix’s formula. The company has recently released high-profile adaptations of Latin American literary classics, including Gabriel García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and Juan Rulfo’s “Pedro Páramo.”

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I think people like to see themselves and also to see other people. And that is the secret sauce of our recipe.

Ramos said Netflix wants to be seen as a Mexican company in Mexico, a Brazilian company in Brazil and a Colombian company in Colombia. He also rejected the idea that Latin American creators are limited to soap operas, pointing to “The Eternaut” and “Senna” as evidence of the region’s ability to produce internationally significant series. Mexico remains one of Netflix’s main Latin American markets, and the company has recently expanded its offices there. From 2016 to 2025, Netflix produced or co-produced more than 200 titles in Mexico, while its investments contributed more than 50 billion pesos, or over $2.7 billion, to the country’s GDP when the multiplier effect was included.

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We have to move past the notion that Latin Americans only know how to make soap operas.