We all love free trials. It’s the best way to try something before we pay or subscribe. Good thing for those in Kenya, Netflix is giving away a free trial plan to spark growth in their market.

Netflix, the world’s largest streaming video service, is looking to expand its service outside the usual areas. This is because new subscriber sign-ups have slowed down in countries such as the United States where there is a lot of competition for online streaming.

Netflix realized that increasing its subscribers would be easier in a key African market. And so, Netflix has been giving free plans since Monday and will continue to roll out across Kenya in the next upcoming days. Said free plan consists of about one-quarter of its series and movies and is available on Android mobile phones. Contents that are not included in the free plan will be marked with a lock icon. 

Despite giving only a quarter of the whole available content, the free plan includes popular Netflix movies and TV shows such as Money Heist, Bridgerton, and African series Blood & Water. The best part is that it will all stream without any ads. Anyone 18 or older in Kenya can enroll in the free plan and create up to five profiles. No payment information will be required. However, functions such as offline download are not available under the free plan.

“If you’ve never watched Netflix before – and many people in Kenya haven’t – this is a great way to experience our service,” Cathy Conk, director of product innovation at Netflix, said in a blog post.

Netflix has already experimented with free offers before. In 2020, it made some episodes of series such as Stranger Things and movies including All the Boys I’ve Loved Before available globally for no charge. However, according to a Netflix spokesperson, the free plan in Kenya is broader as it gives the users a more complete experience.