How Patrick Grove plans to run circles around Netflix

Patrick Grove isn’t slowing down despite making a killing selling his company’s stake – worth hundreds of millions – in online property portal iProperty.

In fact, he’s already plunging full-speed into his next venture: a streaming video site called iFlix.

The name’s similarity to Netflix isn’t coincidental; Netflix and iFlix have been compared plenty of times. But Patrick insisted – at a fireside chat yesterday at Tech in Asia Singapore 2016 – that the two aren’t direct competitors.

Netflix chases the affluent crowd, who are willing to pay the US$10 a month subscription fee. “IFlix will probably never target anyone in this room,” he said to a roomful of startup founders and investors.

IFlix’s desired audience, in contrast, use their smartphones as their primary computer. They own prepaid mobile plans, endure slower internet speeds, and earn a salary of less than US$10,000 a year. That’s why iFlix only charges US$2 to US$3 a month, said Patrick.

But the retort goes: what’s stopping Netflix from eventually going after the same market, just like how Google is now chasing after the next billion internet users?

It employs about a hundred translators to make foreign shows and movies available in local languages.

Patrick’s answer is simple. He’s the speed demon that outruns everyone. He’s The Flash of the startup world. In other words, he hopes iFlix can secure a firm footing in emerging markets that’s impossible to dislodge, if and when Netflix decides to come in.

“Just running 1,000 miles per hour is what wins the day,” he declared. “In emerging markets, it’s not innovation that wins the battle, it’s rapid execution.”

In practical terms, that means not only building a great team and a sound strategy, but making tweaks daily to give people what they want.

Patrick doesn’t believe in an expansion strategy that focuses on one new market at a time. To that end, within a year of launch, iFlix is already available in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Central America, Africa, and Eastern Europe are also attractive to the startup.

iFlix is his biggest challenge