(Yicai Global) Dec. 4 -- Netflix Inc. [NASDAQ:NFLX] has acquired the overseas distribution rights to Chinese television series Day and Night, a detective show produced by video platform Youku Inc., making the drama the first China-made web series to be broadcast large-scale overseas as Netflix distributes it more than 190 countries and regions.

The purchase comes amid fierce competition between the online broadcaster, rival Amazon Inc.'s [NASDAQ:AMZN] Prime Video service and other providers, as they look to establish a presence in Asia and tap its huge growth potential. Amazon is currently looking to break India and has already teamed up with Bollywood to co-produce a flagship web-only show, Inside Edge. The company has plans to invest in and produce another 18 original Indian series.

Unlike Chinese video platforms, which generate revenue from advertising, California-based Netflix relies on income from membership fees, which means to increase revenue, it either needs to bump up fees or acquire more subscribers. It had 104 million members in the second quarter of this year, covering almost 75 percent of US families, considerably more than Amazon's penetration rate of around 50 percent.

Netflix hiked its prices in early October, a move that could have resulted in adverse market sentiment and a decline in share price, but actually saw its market cap increase to USD80 billion. Historically, the company's share price has been rocky after increasing rates, but it appears to have won over the market with its vast content library which allows it to move on unaffected following price hikes.

Netflix earned USD1.55 billion in revenue from the US in the first three quarters of this year, and USD1.33 billion from the rest of the world, its financial report shows. The firm had 51.3 million paying members in America and 52.7 million international subscribers as of the end of September, a clear indicator of how important its overseas markets are.