China's 'Day and Night' wins ground-breaking Netflix deal
Netflix has acquired the rights to screen Chinese crime drama series "Day and Night" in a breakthrough deal with Alibaba's online streaming platform Youku Tudou -- the latest sign of the increasing penetration of online Chinese video firms into international markets.
It is the first time that Netflix will distribute a drama produced by the Chinese mainland worldwide. The agreement was announced on Thursday.
The Netflix platform makes the 32-episode "Day and Night" detective series available to more than 109 million subscribers in more than 190 countries and territories.
The deal shows the robust growth of China's creative industries, said Youku Tudou president, Yang Weidong.
In November, 2015, Alibaba bought Youku Tudou in a deal that valued the company at US$4.4 billion.
In China, the series has drawn more than four billion viewers on since its debut on Youku Tudou in August.
China's 2017 online film sales are equal to about 20 percent of offline sales, but online revenue is about 1.8 times box office revenue in the United States.
This highlights the huge market potential, said Yang Xianghua, vice president of iQiyi, told a forum at the Silk Road Film Festival in Fuzhou.
Online platform iQiyi, with more than 200 million users, has acquired substantial overseas content and is also looking at overseas expansion.