Netflix now belongs to some tech giants whose efforts got stalled while trying to penetrate into the Chinese market, despite its proud announcement in January that it would bring its services to 130 countries around the world.
"Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network," Reed Hastings, the company CEO, said at the time.
At a tech conference sponsored by The New Yorker on Friday, Oct. 7, in New York City, Hastings told editor David Remnick that the company still has to work with the Chinese government, adding that he does not expect a relationship to develop based on the attitudes of Chinese regulators towards iTunes and Disney's movie offerings, according to an article by Vanity Fair.
"It doesn't look good," Hastings said. "We're figuring our way out (in China), but we're really focused on the rest of the world. There is so much opportunity for us in India, Poland, Turkey and Latin America and Vietnam."
According to its recent earnings report, the $44-billion streaming company's growth slowed slightly, adding only about 1.68 million new subscribers in the last quarter, in contrast with its expectation of 2.5 million to add, from 1.52 million new subscribers abroad and 160,000 in the U.S.
But Netflix was not the first and only company that failed to make it in China. Google also made an attempt but failed to push into the country, which is hostile to foreign competitors. Chinese officials have banned Facebook in the country, despite overtures by Mark Zuckerberg to the government.
Recently, Apple made a $1-billion investment in Didi Chuxing, Uber's rival, which was seen as a move by the U.S. company to gain favor with local regulators and help it expand in the country. The tech company also had a tough battle in China when Carl Icahn, its billionaire investor, withdraw his Apple shares after expressing concern for Apple's relationship with Chinese regulators.
But still, China has the huge potential market that remains untapped, which represents a big percentage of the world's broadband households.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Hastings said at the Consumer Electronic Show in January. "Because of the number of countries, it seems like we are ahead of plan. But we still have China-we still have a quarter of the world to go."