Netflix is reportedly looking to get involved in the growing online video market in China and bring its service to the country.
The report was followed by a 3.5 percent increase for the media streaming service in pre-market trading on Friday, the highest for the company in 52 weeks, according to The New York Post
The goal for Netflix, responsible for shows like "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black," is to make its content internationally available by the end of 2016. The report mentioned that the company has held preliminary discussions with Chinese firm Wasu Media Holding, backed by Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group and owner of a number of Internet-based businesses in China.
However, such a deal still has issues to overcome before becoming a reality, including Chinese censorship and Netflix being able to provide objectionable content seen in some of its movies and TV shows.
China currently has a population of 1.4 billion people, and joining the Chinese market would give Netflix the chance to experience what is expected to be a significant growth in online television in the country, according to Bloomberg. iResearch, an Internet consulting company in Shanghai, predicts that the Chinese market will grow to 90 billion yuan by 2018, which is three-times what the market is now.
The Chinese government's strict rules for licensing online content present a huge obstacle for Netflix that the company looks to overcome with a local partnership. Such a partner would need to have licenses for content on computers, mobile phones, set-top boxes and other platforms.
