Netflix takes over the globe, but still can't crack China

The streaming company expands to another 130 countries, putting in over 190 altogether

When it comes to Internet video, Netflix absolutely dominates the competition, to the tune of over 37 percent of all downstream traffic. YouTube, its closest rival, has less than half of that, with just under 18 percent. Now the company is looking to dominate the entire world in the same way.

At CES in Las Vegas, Netflix announced on Wednesday that it has now launched in 130 new countries, making it available to 190 markets around the globe.

“Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, said in the announcement.

“With this launch, consumers around the world -- from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo -- will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simultaneously -- no more waiting. With the help of the Internet, we are putting power in consumers’ hands to watch whenever, wherever and on whatever device.”

Netflix really is now in literally almost every countryy around the globe, including major markets like India, Russis and Indonesia. It's even countries that you might think wouldn't have much use for Netflix's offerings, like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq. 

In fact, when you look at the map of where Netflix now offers its services, there's only one glaring omission: China. That isn't a surprise, given how much effort Netflix has been making to get into that country, only to have, so far, failed.

Netflix itself has not been shy about its plans to enter the Chinese market. In May Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix, talked openly about how the company would approach this, saying "our intent is not to go into China without a partner, our intent to try to figure out China and how to get there."

"It could be with a partner, it could be with production partners. we’re open to all different models to get there eventually because we want to be fully global, and it’s a pretty big chunk of the world to have an asterisk. We’re definitely working on trying to figure out our entry point," he said. "From a programming standpoint, their tastes don't run that much different. We’re looking forward to figuring that out. [But] there’s not much marginal cost to not being in China. It’s not urgent, it’s not an on-fire issue, but as we try to be more global, we want to be part of China too."

Netflix is said to have been in talks with Wasu Media, and perhaps other big names in the Chinese video streaming market, but so far nothing has come of that.

China's online video market is said to be worth $5.9 billion, and Wasu is one of seven companies to have received  Internet TV licenses from China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. So such a partnership would be necessary for Netflix to work within the government's controls over licensing for online content.

International revenue is extremely important to Netflix. In the third quarter of 2015, it made $516 million from international streaming, up 50 percent from $345 million in the same quarter the year prior. Subscribers are also growing rapidly, to 24 million, up 71 percent from 14 million the year prior.

Domestic streaming, meanwhile, isn't growing anywhere near as fast at this point. The made $1 billion, up only 9 percent from $917 million. It had 42 million paid memberships, only up 16 percent from 36 the year before.

There are obviously a lot more international subscribers for Netflix to tap into, so expect those numbers to absolutely explode in its next quarterly report. 

(Image source: digitaltrends.com)