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Strive Masiyiwa, a London-based Zimbabwean telecom businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Netflix has named Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa to its board, adding its first African director as it seeks new markets for future growth.
Masiyiwa is the founder and CEO of Econet Global, a telecommunications company that operates in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Econet offers telephony, broadband and satellite services, and is also a major provider of mobile payments.
Masiyiwa brings a new set of connections and experience as the first African, and the third international media executive, to join the Netflix board in recent years. The streaming giant already has two directors from Europe, which has been its fastest growing region in recent years.
Netflix now has more than 190 million subscribers and is looking for regions beyond the US and Europe for its next batch of customers. Asia accounted for the most new subscribers last quarter.
For now, Africa is a small market for paid video streaming. On a continent of more than a billion people, Netflix has only a couple million customers, according to Digital TV Research. But the company has long argued that it would play the long game by adding customers in Asia and Africa, home to most of the world’s population. To that end, Netflix has started offering cheaper mobile-only plans and commissioned a number of original series and movies.
Masiyiwa is one of the richest businessmen in Africa. Earlier this year, he paid $ 10 million in cash and other assistance to more than 1,700 healthcare workers, helping him place him on Bloomberg’s list of the 50 Most Important People in Business for 2020.
“We are delighted to welcome Strive to the board of Netflix,” President and Co-CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement Wednesday. “His entrepreneurial spirit and vision in building businesses in Africa and beyond will bring valuable knowledge and experience to our board as we work to improve and serve more members around the world.”
Masiyiwa assures that Netflix will continue to have at least one black director. Susan Rice, who became Netflix’s first black board member in 2018, is leaving to join Joe Biden’s presidential administration.
