Netflix to hire hundreds of people for Amsterdam office

Netflix is planning an expansion of its Amsterdam operations to eventually accomodate over 400 employees. The video-on-demand, production and distribution firm wants the office to become its customer service headquarters for its clients in Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The company likes the Netherlands because of the country's diversity, with many people there capable of speaking multiple languages, Jeroen Nijland told the Parool. Nijland serves as a commissioner for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, an organization tasked with attracting investments from companies based abroad.

With the company moving into a new building on the Stadhouderskade, Netflix plans to double the number of its Amsterdam workers by the end of the year. This will take the headcount there to 345, with more jobs added in 2018.

Helping to seal the expansion is the reliable fast internet in Amsterdam, and the strong purchasing power in the Netherlands, Nijland said.

Netflix first announced it would open an office in the Netherlands back in 2014. Soon after, the company was being wooed to produce an entire series based in Amsterdam. Reed Hastings, the company's CEO, said Netflix invested over $1.75 billion on original content production in Europe, as well as European co-productions and licensed programming. This content is already viewed by 93 million subscribers worldwide, Hastings said last March.