RealNetworks hits mother lode in China’s booming market for video streaming

When Google pulled its internet search service out of China in 2010 after deciding to stop complying with the country’s censorship laws, the company’s relationship with Beijing soured. Every Google-affiliated product and service, from Gmail to YouTube, and even Google Docs, have since been blocked.

The absence of the US tech giant in the world’s second-largest economy presented an opportunity for competitors. RealNetworks, the Seattle-based firm that developed RealPlayer, one of the first media players capable of streaming audio and video that became popular in 90s, was willing to fill the gap.

“Google has a complex relationship with the Chinese market, the fact that Google is one of our major competitors may have helped us a little bit in China, that’s hard to say,” said the company’s founder Rob Glaser in an interview in RealNetworks’s office in Beijing.

The provider of streaming digital media’s main operation in China is a licensing business. Last week, RealNetworks announced that digital broadcasting network CIBN Oriental Network (Beijing) Co. will implement RealMedia HD, a video compression technology. CIBN is a venture between state-owned international radio broadcaster China Radio International and other private firms such as Youku-Tudou, which operates China’s most-watched video streaming service. Alibaba Group Holding, owner of Youku-Tudou, also owns the South China Morning Post.

While US firms such as Google and Facebook have been reluctant to partner with local state-associated companies, RealNetworks have done the opposite.

“We are focused on getting our technology used in the broadest possible way in the market. We were not focused on other agenda,” said Glaser.

What’s more, RealNetworks took an unusual step to build the next generation technology in its own research and development centre in Beijing three years ago, he said.