Rumours of Netflix coming to this region are being put to rest after the company announced that it would be continuing its expansion into the Far East. Four countries are involved in the expansion – Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong – with Malaysia notably missing from the list.
Netflix says that it chose these four countries due to a combination of increasing internet speeds and ubiquity of connected devices. Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix said, “The combination of increasing Internet speeds and ubiquity of connected devices provides consumers with the anytime, anywhere ability to enjoy their favorite TV shows and movies on the Netflix service. These four markets well represent those trends”.
The service will be appearing the chosen countries in early 2016. After which there will be five Asian countries with access to the streaming service with the inclusion of Netflix Japan which began earlier this month.
A rumour that Netflix would soon be appearing in Malaysia appeared last month, mainly fueled by a screenshot from the Android app that indicated that the service would be coming soon to our area. It looks like our area happens to mean this region as a whole.
That being said, the press release appears to indicate that Netflix is on a global rollout, which may indicate that it will arrive in Malaysia at some point. The statement claims that Netflix will complete it global rollout by the end of 2016; and that may still give us Malaysians hope that we will have access to the world’s most watched movie streaming service. Although how it gets past government mandated censorship will be something else to see.
[Souce: Netflix]
