While you were sleeping last night Netflix switched on its much-loved streaming service in 130 countries around the world. There goes a lot of people’s weekends.
The aggressive expansion includes major markets like India, South Korea, Turkey –nevermind, we’ll cut to the chase: According to Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, Netflix is now available in nearly every country on Earth.
Except China of course.
“China is obviously a very large country. There are a billion Chinese that we want to give access to Netflix content,” Hastings said during a lengthy question and answer session following his company’s CES keynote address in Las Vegas.
“In China you need specific permission from the government. We’re continuing to work on that, and we’re very patient.”
Netflix said that it will begin hosting largely home-grown content in many of the regions while staying in line with local content standards and restrictions on certain kinds of content.
We are sad to report that Netflix currently will not seek to push into North Korea, Syria or Crimea because of restrictions on U.S. companies operating in those countries.
