Welcome to iQIYI’s bi-weekly news round-up! Here you’ll find the latest news and stories from the company, from entertainment, tech to business and from local to regional. If you are interested in learning more about iQIYI, please do not hesitate to reach out to press@qiyi.com .
(Dec. 27, 2021 - Jan. 7, 2022)
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
iQIYI Offers Free Viewing Services to Residents in China’s Locked-down City Xi’an
With the COVID-19 outbreak in the cities of Xi’an and the neighboring city Xianyang in Shaanxi Province, iQIYI announced that it will offer free viewing services to residents in the cities from Jan. 7 to Feb. 6.
The special offer includes over 200 titles in five categories covering films, drama series, variety shows, documentaries, and animation. Residents of Xi’an and Xianyang can access the offer by logging in on the iQIYI platform across devices with their local phone numbers.
iQIYI and Dada Now Organize Charity Event for the Hearing-Impaired
From Dec. 15 to 31, iQIYI and Dada Now, an on-demand delivery platform—worked with six cafes in Beijing and Shanghai that employ hearing-impaired staff to launch a special charity event, the “Silent Cafes.” As part of the initiative, Dada Now provided free intra-city express delivery service for users who place an order with the cafes. Apart from the staff working at the cafes, some delivery staff are also hearing-impaired.
Charity event “Silent Cafes”
On the day of its launch, the event drew nearly 1,500 customers to place orders with the partnering cafes. In addition, it sparked many conversations around the work that hearing- and speech-impaired individuals do in our society. On the day, the topic ranked second on the top Weibo trends in Shanghai, with a total readership of 33.54 million.
According to data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, China has 8.62 million disabled people who are currently in paid employment. Donating the proceeds from the “Silent Cafes” event to the hearing-impaired children at a rehabilitation center for the hearing-impaired in Yushu, Qinghai province, iQIYI hopes to do its part.
CONTENT
The Final Episode of iQIYI Original Luoyang Aires
The final episode of Luoyang, which is a part of the iQIYI Chinese Historic City Universe (iCHCU) of Luoyang, streamed on Dec. 29 for VIP iQIYI subscribers. As a show that spotlights the depth and richness of traditional Chinese culture, Luoyang not only showcases the long history of the city of Luoyang, but also drives the growing appreciation of traditional culture.
With the airing of the show’s final episode, Luoyang’s content popularity index, which iQIYI generates from user viewing, interaction, and sharing and other user activities, reached 9,257, which qualifies as a “national hit” by iQIYI’s standard. Viewers of the show also generated over 30 million bullet comments, marking Luoyang the iQIYI drama series with the most bullet comments so far. Meanwhile, the show topped various rating charts in China, including Dengta, Guduo, and Maoyan, in addition to generating over 2,000 hot searches and achieving the scores of 8.2 and 7 on knowledge-sharing platform Zhihu and film and TV review platform Douban, respectively.
A Poster of “Luoyang”
Luoyang’s cultural depth also earned the show success overseas. The show scored 9.3 on MyDramaList, Asia’s biggest community-based film and TV shows database. Luoyang also trended on Twitter in Singapore, Thailand, and many other regions and areas.
iQIYI officially announced the IP development plan for iCHCU at its iJOY Conference in October last year, as part of the company’s continuous innovation and diversification of its monetization model. iCHCU represents the latest in iQIYI’s attempt to build an IP universe and create an integrated IP development model that offers new kinds of content and fresh opportunities for cultural consumption.
iQIYI Original Film Let Life Be Beautiful Wins Best Children's Film at Golden Rooster Awards
iQIYI’s original film Let Life Be Beautiful was awarded the “Best Children's Film” at the 34th Golden Rooster Awards held in late December of last year, which is recognized as one of China's most prestigious film awards.
Let Life Be Beautiful tells the story of a teenager whose life is dramatically changed by an unexpected event. The film is a new type of coming-of-age film, exploring the energetic and bright side of youth rather than its hardships, while still maintaining a sense of realism. According to the film's creators, the film is based on the story of a real teenager with leukemia who retained optimistic throughout his fight against the disease.
A Poster of “Let Life Be Beautiful”
iQIYI Founder and CEO GONG Yu spoke at the Golden Rooster Awards opening forum and shared a cautiously optimistic outlook on the future of China's film industry. According to Gong, current experiences and trends demonstrate the industry's unlimited potential. Film is a time-honoured art form, and "users won't change their demand," said Gong. However, Gong remains cautious since he sees a shortage in the supply of films available both online or offline, which he thinks can affect users' habit of film watching and weaken their enthusiasm.
Besides Let Life Be Beautiful, several other iQIYI produced films were nominated for this year's Golden Rooster Awards, including Tough Out for “Best Documentary/Science Education Film” and Master Ji Gong for “Best Art Film.”
iQIYI’s The Ideal City Receives Honour from the National Radio and Television Administration
The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) announced on Dec. 27 the results of its 2021 “Excellent Titles for Oversea Markets,” which featured iQIYI Original series The Ideal City. Several other titles that aired on iQIYI also received the honour.
A poster of “The Ideal City”
The drama depicts the journeys of young architects who strive to forge their own paths in the workplace. With its honest portrayals of Chinese society, the series is a salute to young people who stay true to their aspirations.
iQIYI Productions Win Recommendations at the Third China Online Movie Week
At the third China Online Movie Week (COMW) held from Dec. 20 to 22, iQIYI's online productions, including My Heroic Husband, Chinese Fighting Man and Infernal Storm, were recommended as "Online Movies of the Year."
YANG Xianghua, Senior Vice President of iQIYI, reiterated the company's commitment to investing in online movies in the coming year. Determined to provide premium content to viewers, iQIYI is expected to see steady growth in both the number of online productions and the shared revenue generated from online movies. Yang also added that iQIYI is set to create more culturally enriching contents and nurture the next-generation top talent; iQIYI will also take up more social responsibilities to ensure a sound development of the online movie industry as the company creates more content with appeals to young viewers.
Yang Xianghua speaking at the third COMW
The COMW also showcased statistics from the “2021 China Online Movie Industry Annual Report,” which shows that online movie streaming recorded the highest viewership during the Spring Festival, Labor Day, and the National Day holiday.
The third COMW is organized by China Film Association and Chengdu Municipal People's Government. Under the theme of "New Images to the Future", the event explored the future of online movies in China.
BUSINESS
iQIYI Shares Top 2021 Viewing Trends
CHEN Xiao, Senior Vice President of iQIYI, shared the top trends at an event China Media Group hosted on Dec. 31. Chen noted that viewers enjoy creative as well as classic titles, many of which topped iQIYI’s content popularity index. Additionally, Chen noted that iQIYI viewers sent a total of 670 million bullet comments in 2021. For Chen, the statistics showed the strong demand viewers have for immersive and interactive viewing experiences.
Posters of several popular titles at iQIYI
Looking back to 2021, Chen also highlighted how iQIYI continued to leverage technology to make the streaming experience more interesting. For example, Qiguan, an original feature that iQIYI rolled out to allow viewers to identify the information on screen with just one click, was used 2.7 billion times in 2021, which also showed Chinese viewers’ strong interest in interactive viewing technologies.
iQIYI SVP Shares Insights on Digital Marketing
On Dec. 29, the "Morketing Summit 2021" organized by Morketing, a global marketing and business media service platform, was held in Shanghai. CHEN Hongjia, Senior Vice President of iQIYI, attended the event and joined a panel to discuss digital marketing opportunities and trends for 2022. The panel featured representatives from Unilever China, TABULA RASA (consumer products and services brand), Hilti, and The Trade Desk. In the panel discussion, Chen said that marketing efforts should not be swayed by trends. Instead, a brand should take seriously the role and mission of its products or services and focus on the key connection points between itself and the users.
CHEN Hongjia joined a panel discussion
As the uncertainty of the epidemic, brands in 2021 accelerated their drives towards digitizing various marketing efforts. Given the environment, Chen underscored the importance of developing a holistic marketing strategy covering both brand marketing and impact-based marketing as well as the role of technology in striking a balance between them. Chen further noted that advertisers should continue to develop a marketing blueprint covering both brand marketing and impact-based marketing, thereby enabling broader engagement and deeper connection with target audiences. Regarding marketing techniques that are closely related to technology, Chen said that the platform can adjust marketing strategies and techniques in a timely manner to better serve brands and users by making good use of quality content and advanced technological tools.
In addition to the panel, the summit organizer also announced the winners of the annual Morketing Awards, where iQIYI won a number of them.
iQIYI Wins Three Awards at 2021 Effie Greater China Gala
On Dec. 29, 2021 Effie Greater China International Summit, a world-renowned event that spotlights the inspiring marketing practices, was held at the Shanghai Expo Houtan E-sports Center. Among the submissions from iQIYI, the case titled "Precise marketing to turn Leave Me Alone into a phenomenal success" won awards in the category of "Web Service - Social Entertainment" and was recognized as a finalist in the category of "Intelligent Marketing - Data Integration", while another program was shortlisted for awards in the category of "Web Service - Social Entertainment."
The Effie Awards for Performance Marketing spotlights effective, creative marketing in areas of business innovation. In the case of iQIYI's "Precise marketing to turn Leave Me Alone into a phenomenal success", the iQIYI team managed to expand the audience group for a niche piece of content. Considering the social features of films, iQIYI has developed a set of AI-based marketing tools and approaches through its pan-entertainment intelligent effect platform, Qilin, and applied them throughout a film's marketing lifecycle to quickly reach the target audience and drive more conversions.
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