To some, Netflix’s limited presence in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau represents a foot in the door for the streaming service as it eyes entry to the potentially lucrative mainland market.
However, the company’s limited available content in the three territories does not bode well for those looking to take the service over the border. If, as expected, the offerings are similar in China, it will not be in a strong position to challenge the existing preponderance of free streaming services.
Given the prevalence of internet piracy in the country and the reluctance of mainland residents to pay for a service they can already utilize for free, Netflix is unlikely to find many converts.
In fact, the service’s limited catalogue is a point of contention in Macau as it is for many places around the world, all of which provide fewer available titles than in the company’s domestic market, the U.S.
According to the unofficial Netflix online Global Search service, Netflix offers 797 movies and 282 TV shows in Macau, ranking below other unimpressive markets for the company, such as Greenland, Antarctica and Vatican City. The respective numbers for both Hong Kong and Taiwan are practically identical.
For comparison, the service streams 4,096 movies and 1162 TV shows in its domestic market in the U.S.
The reason for this cannot be solely due to the size of the domestic market, given Antarctica’s 1,199 movies (for a population of at most 4,000) or the 3,318 movies available in the Caribbean island-nation of Saint Lucia (population: about 182,000).
On the other hand – and almost inexplicably – South Korea, with a population of over 50 million, has even fewer titles (1046) available for streaming than in Macau.
The variance in available content by country is an issue raised incessantly by dissatisfied customers on Netflix’s social media pages. One Facebook user, who claims to have bought the subscription in South Africa, complained that the catalogue of content was dated and rarely saw new additions. Meanwhile, another user from Poland protested that he is only able to watch around 20 percent of the U.S. content but is charged the same price.
Netflix’s corporate silence on the issue has only added ire to the dissatisfied.
Earlier this year, in response to disillusionment from Netflix users in Singapore who complained about the limited offerings of the service compared with that in other countries, the firm’s CEO, Reed Hastings, announced that Netflix is seeking to standardize its content, making it all available globally.
“We know it’s frustrating, but we’re growing into having global content so that everybody has the same [content],” said Hastings in Singapore. At the same April meeting, he also warned that this would take some time due to expensive content licensing rights.
Mainland China is one of just four markets that Netflix does not currently serve, according to a statement made by the company in January, which also clarified that the other three are North Korea, Syria and Crimea.
Although the company has announced its intention to enter the Chinese market, some have speculated this year that the on-demand video-streaming service may never make it.
Aside from doubts over the demand for such a service – given widely-available free content in mainland China – Netflix would presumably be limited in the proportion of non-Chinese (Western) content it could stream, due to the Central Government’s policy to restrict Western cultural influence and encourage the domestic film and television industry.
Moreover, the only way to satisfy China’s censors is to either work with an existing Chinese company that is already compliant – meaning some sort of profit-sharing arrangement with a local entity – or through its own self-censorship as other companies looking to operate in the country have done in the past. Running individual shows by Chinese censors would be an arduous, almost impossible task.
Some broadcasters in the greater China region conscientiously practice self-censorship to mainland standards, including in Taiwan, because this makes it easier to do business in the People’s Republic of China.
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