BEIJING, April 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Dr. Gong Yu, Founder and CEO of iQIYI, Inc. (NASDAQ:IQ) (“iQIYI” or the “Company”), an innovative market-leading online entertainment company in China, recently attended the Beijing International Film Festival and delivered remarks highlighting the company’s take on challenges and opportunities of the Chinese movie industry in the internet era.
In his speech, Dr. Gong Yu declared an innovative and disruptive age of the Chinese movie industry will soon arrive and will be driven by win-win business models. He noted that since the birth of China’s internet video industry, the movie industry has experienced major changes including bringing the box office online – with 90% of movie tickets now being sold online – and creating the concept of the internet movie. These factors have helped significantly increase the revenue of the online video market, reaching RMB 201.68 billion in 2018. RMB 53.65 billion of that was contributed by content consumption.
“We’ve seen slowing growth in China’s traditional movie industry. Meanwhile, the Chinese internet movie industry is still in early stages and internet users still prefer to watch overseas movies or newly released Chinese movies. All of these factors require continued innovation of the Chinese movie industry,” said Dr. Gong. “As the online entertainment industry is largely based on and benefits from its full online ecosystem and value chain, the traditional movie industry needs to diversify its monetization methods and embrace the combination of online and offline business by adopting win-win business models. The industry must shift away from focusing solely on ticket sales to maximizing revenue from the combined “ticket office plus internet” model. For instance, leveraging additional monetization channels such as the on-demand play on online video platforms as an extension of the traditional movie theatre.
Mr. Yang Xianghua, President of iQIYI’s Membership and Overseas Business Group, echoed Dr. Gong’s remarks. He pointed out that iQIYI’s IP-based ecosystem comprising of advertising, subscription, publishing, distribution, licensing, gaming and e-commerce helps to expand monetization channels, optimize content structure and further improve the company’s capability in content production. “The market volume of online platform and other channels could reach 1.8 times that of the box office. This will create a significant opportunity to intersect internet, movies and TV shows, which will necessitate more quality content and services to meet users’ needs,” said Mr. Yang.
Founded in 2011, the Beijing International Film Festival has become one of the world’s most prominent film festivals. The festival aims to provide a high-profile forum for the interaction between the Chinese and the international film industries. The event is heavily attended by executives, directors, producers and studio heads, as well as filmmakers and actors from all over the world.
About iQIYI, Inc.
iQIYI, Inc. (NASDAQ: IQ) (“iQIYI” or the “Company”) is an innovative market-leading online entertainment service in China. Its corporate DNA combines creative talent with technology, fostering an environment for continuous innovation and the production of blockbuster content. iQIYI’s platform features highly popular original content, as well as a comprehensive library of other professionally-produced content, partner-generated content and user-generated content. The Company distinguishes itself in the online entertainment industry by its leading technology platform powered by advanced AI, big data analytics and other core proprietary technologies. iQIYI attracts a massive user base with tremendous user engagement, and has developed a diversified monetization model including membership services, online advertising services, content distribution, live broadcasting, online games, IP licensing, online literature and e-commerce. For more information on iQIYI, please visit http://ir.iqiyi.com.
SOURCE iQIYI, Inc.