Netflix is giving up on a major country

Netflix is big, but investors expect it to be huge.

A big part of that growth is overseas expansion, and that included China -- which could soon rival the U.S. market.

Now, Netflix is walking back expectations about its expansion into the world's second-largest economy. The company announced on Monday as part of its third-quarter earnings report that it is no longer planning to launch its service in China.

"The regulatory environment for foreign digital content services in China has become challenging," the company wrote in its earnings release. "We now plan to license content to existing online service providers in China rather than operate our own service in China in the near term. 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."

That kind of guidance can often lead to a massive slide in a company's stock price.

Instead, Netflix enjoyed a stock increase of 19% in after-hours trading. Investors were cheered by the growth of Netflix in its overseas markets, which have been far more friendly than China.

Netflix added 3.2 million members in non-U.S. markets. That's especially important as growth slows in the U.S., where the company drew only 368,000 new subscribers.

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Netflix also gave some details as to its future content plans. The streaming service has come under some fire for a declining catalogue of movies. In their place, Netflix has been ramping up its own shows, movies and documentaries.

Netflix said it plans to spend $6 billion on content in 2017.