Netflix announced some huge numbers for its third-quarter financials, but the global streaming giant has decided not to launch its service in China, potentially the world’s biggest market, anytime soon.

Netflix announced it had topped $2.3 billion in revenue and added 3.57 million subscribers in the third quarter of the year. Netflix now stands at more than 83 million subscribers across the globe and 47 million in the U.S. alone.

Despite this global expansion, Netflix has decided to distribute its content through a third-party provider in China rather than launch its own service. CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells cited a difficult regulatory environment as the principal cause for this strategic shift:

“The regulatory environment for foreign digital content services in China has become challenging . . . We expect revenue from this licensing will be modest. We still have a long-term desire to serve the Chinese people directly, and hope to launch our service in China eventually.”

How soon, if ever, will we see a standalone Netflix service in China?

[via Home Media Magazine]