SINGAPORE — Netflix is coming to four new markets in Asia in early 2016, it said. Viewers in Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan will be able to subscribe and watch TV and movies on connected devices.

Reed Hastings, Netflix chief executive, said these four markets were chosen because they have fast Internet speeds and a proliferation of devices capable of streaming Netflix, like smartphones, tablets and Internet boxes connected to TVs.

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Japan was the first Asian market to get Netflix earlier this month. The American firm teamed up with Japanese carrier Softbank, which has started pre-installing the Netflix app on phones it sells.

Netflix will open an office in Singapore to coordinate its efforts in the region. It opened one in Japan upon launch, which serves its local market.

Netflix managed to get in the market in the nick of time before Singapore-originated rival service Hooq managed to get viewers, uh, Hooqed. The latter service comes from regional telco SingTel, and partners with bigwigs Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros.

The streaming service was announced at the beginning of the year, and has so far beat Netflix to the punch in countries like the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Because these countries don't have Internet speeds like the four in Netflix's announcement, Hooq has an offline viewing feature so users can pre-download content.

According to tech firm Akamai, average connection speeds in the U.S. stand at about 11 Mbps, putting it at 16 on the global chart. The UK is 18 on the list at 10.9 Mbps.

The average speeds in the four Asian countries are much higher. South Korea is top of the world at 22 Mbps, followed by Hong Kong in second place with 16.8 Mbps, then Japan third with 15.2 Mbps. Singapore is 12th with 11.7 Mbps, and Taiwan is 22nd at 10.6 Mbps.

Netflix said in its statement that it will carry a "curated selection" of content in each market. It did not say what that would be, but it's likely that the selection in Singapore at least will be influenced by the Singapore Media Development Agency (MDA).

When Google and Apple opened their streaming services in the country, the censorship board stopped them from offering films rated R21 (for viewers older than 21).

An MDA spokesperson told the Straits Times: "MDA will work with Netflix to familiarise them with Singapore's regulations and media capabilities ahead of their arrival."

Netflix did not specify price plans for the four Asian countries. The company says it has 65 million subscribers across 50 countries, and the service streams about 100 million hours of content to them per day.