A promotional image of the fantasy romance series "The Journey of Flower," one of the top-grossing shows available on iQiyi's website. (Photo : China Daily)
In its bid to dominate China’s online entertainment sector, online video website iQiyi has set its eyes higher for 2016.
iQiyi founder and CEO Gong Yu said at a press conference in Beijing in the previous week that his teams "would use their resources in their productions."
iQiyi is happy to be a provider of original content rather than just being a broadcaster for others, he said.
According to a recent report by iResearch, a market research firm focusing on China's Internet industry, iQiyi has logged 150 million users daily and 180 million logging devices in September, the highest among all video websites in the country.
Around 190 million hours of content were broadcast on average through iQiyi, the report said.
According to Gong, while intellectual property has become an intrinsic part of Hollywood culture, China doesn't have that much time to develop such a "mature system."
In China's entertainment industry, intellectual property generally refers to popular online content such as novels, games or even songs that can be developed into a potentially successful feature-length film or TV series.
"People born in the 1980s are no longer a major pillar in our user base, but those born in '90s or even after 2000 keep joining the group," said iQiyi Chief Market Officer Wang Xiangjun. "That demands a young production team which shares a language with the viewers."
In 2015, "The Journey of Flower," a 58-episode fantasy romance series adapted from an online novel, was broadcast on iQiyi nearly 7 billion times.
"The Lost Tomb," whose first season was co-produced by and premiered via iQiyi earlier in June, also brought in 3 billion "clicks" from users despite not being aired in any of the local TV channels.
Wang considers the success of the "The Lost Tomb," a 12-episode adventure series adapted from a 2007 bestseller, to be more significant because users had to pay in order to watch the entire season.
"In China, people earlier used for free online resources and pirate websites were rampant," she added. "But now we offer more quality content, so we are asking viewers to pay."
A popular Chinese novella titled "Lao Jiu Men" (Nine Old Gates), which is a loosely connected prequel to "The Lost Tomb," is also slated for production, said Yuxin, general manager of the intellectual property management center at iQiyi.
