Squid Game unlikely to see official release from Tencent, iQiyi or Youku given rampant piracy and strict censorship
- Squid Game has become popular in China through pirated copies, but experts and viewers agree its violence and themes make an official release unlikely
- Rising piracy and the popularity of short video apps like TikTok make it less palatable for tech companies to shell out large sums for shows produced overseas
When 25-year-old Shanghai resident Sherry Zhang was recommended a South Korean drama called Squid Game, she knew exactly where to turn, and it was not the show’s official distributor, Netflix.
“I don’t think the show will be aired in China officially,” said Zhang, who noted that the show’s values do not reflect those of mainstream culture promoted by the government. “It’s kind of in a grey area. If the country really wanted to ban it, we wouldn’t be able to find information related to it online.”
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Zhang is among tens of thousands of Chinese netizens who have found readily available information on where to watch Squid Game in China illegally, which includes illicit video streaming sites, peer-to-peer downloads and cloud storage providers.
This has helped make the show a hot topic on Chinese social media for weeks. Despite Squid Game’s success as the largest launch ever on Netflix, viewed by more than 111 million users to date, no Chinese streamers or broadcasters have dared pick up the domestic distribution rights.
For a foreign television show to be aired in China, such as the hit HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones, it has to first find a Chinese broadcaster willing to pay for it, and then go through an opaque censorship process. The dystopian nature of Squid Game, peppered with violence and sex scenes, makes it one of the most likely to be vetoed by Chinese censors.
Rampant piracy has undermined this business model, making it less appealing to pay large sums up front for shows already released overseas. The rising popularity of short video platforms like Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has also taken time away from other media.
