Ask HN: What do you guys think about Netflix's expansion strategy to China?
According to their last Q3 report, they are planning to license content existing providers in China rather than offering their own services. How many titles do they actually own that they could license to China, since they don't actually own the rights to some of their popular shows like House of Cards and Orange is the new black?
2 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 19.8 ms ] threadAs you mentioned, they don't have the full right for all of their shows. But they do have the full rights for many of them.
Proceeding the way they are planning to will allow them to penetrate the Chinese market using providers that already have experience serving the market. Assuming that the shows will still carry some Netflix branding, it allows them to build up their brand in China without having to do the huge amount of work that would be required to localize all of their applications.
I assume there will still need to be lots of work done to localize things like subtitles, but there's a good chance the providers they're teaming up with have expertise in that area already.