The Great Wall of China was built in ancient times, it’s believed to have opened in 206 BC, and modern-day China has taken inspiration from that man-made wonder to make a similar great wall but this one is for the internet. Nothing moves through that wall, at least officially, without the government’s consent and Netflix is hopeful that China will allow it to pass through its Great Firewall.
At CES 2016 earlier this month, Netflix announced a massive expansion into an additional 130 countries that include the likes of Russia and India. China isn’t on the list though and it’s not like Netflix hasn’t been trying to get access to the People’s Republic.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said that the company has been meeting regulators in China to come to an agreement that will allow Netflix to be streamed in the country. He acknowledges the fact that this won’t happen soon and could end up taking a lot of time. “It may be soon that we have a license in China, or it may take a couple years, but we’re going to be very patient,” says Hastings.
It’s not like there aren’t people in China who don’t already access Netflix. According to some estimates as many as 20 million people based in the People’s Republic regularly use Netflix through VPNs but given the company’s recent crackdown on VPN users, they might be left with no alternative to a Western online video streaming service.
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