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 .
(Jul.11, 2022-Jul.22, 2022)
CONTENT
iQIYI-Produced Film The Hidden Fox Debuts Online, Presenting New Stories Based on a Classic IP
The iQIYI-produced film The Hidden Fox premiered on iQIYI's Cloud Cinema on Jul. 15. With LU Yang as its executive producer, the film adapted from the famous Wuxia novelist JIN Yong’s novel Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain and tells brand new stories based on the classic IP.
The film revolves around a mysterious treasure map and documents the decade-long fight between different warriors to obtain the map.
Jin first wrote Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain in Hong Kong in 1959. The book was Jin’s fourth novel and the shortest of his 12 long novels. In 1964, the novel was adapted to a film, starring JIANG Han and OU Jiahui. Produced by iQIYI, The Hidden Fox marks the new movie adaption of Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain in nearly 60 years.
iQIYI Anime Launches Online and Offline Activities Over the Summer to Build a Pan- Anime Comics Games (ACG) Entertainment Platform
iQIYI Anime announces a summer campaign recently, which features the release of several new anime series and the launch of various online themed activities and offline events, such as the iQIYI Fun Carnival. To make the most of a fun and festive summer, ACG users can watch the amines and attend the themed activities online, and participate in anime conventions offline.
The latest slate of anime releases features a large variety of content, which includes classic Japanese and new Chinese animes with a wide range of themes. In addition to the exciting list of new releases, iQIYI Anime has also launched an online initiative from Jul. 11 to Aug. 31 to interact with ACG users. During the event, users can win their favorite anime merchandises by participating in a range of interactive activities. In addition, as 2022 marks the seventh anniversary of the showing of One Piece on iQIYI, anime voice actors of the series—including Mayumi Tanaka, Hiroshi Kamiya and Daisuke Namikawa—also crafted a special gift for the show’s fans in China.
Besides, QiBubble, an independent iQIYI brand dedicated to children’s content, also announced a summer content list and launched a series of online and offline activities for children to enjoy.
BUSINESS
iQIYI and Poly Culture Reach Strategic Partnership to Drive Growth with Online and Offline Integration
iQIYI announced on Jul. 19 that it has reached a strategic agreement in Beijing with Poly Culture Group Corporation Limited. As the corporation touches on many aspects of the entertainment content ecology and integrates both companies’ online and offline resources, it helps accelerate innovation and growth across different products and operational paradigms, which will further contribute to the sustainable and healthy development of the cultural and entertainment content ecology in China.
According to the agreement, the corporation between iQIYI and Poly Culture will focus on various areas, including the investment and production of films and television contents, live theatre production, arts and children's education, membership sharing and ticketing, location-based entertainment, cultural real estate, and joint development of virtual idols and other Intellectual Property (IP) derivatives.
“Committed to content and technological innovation, iQIYI has laid a solid foundation that can now be leveraged by both companies to deliver additional value and carve out more opportunities,” said GONG Yu, Founder and CEO of iQIYI, “I look forward to seeing the synergy that will be created as iQIYI and Poly Culture bring out their best through the corporation, which will build a strong basis for future partnerships where the two companies can continue to explore collaborations.”
iQIYI Enters into Content Licensing Cooperation with Douyin
iQIYI announced on Jul. 18 that the Company has entered into a definitive agreement with Douyin, pursuant to which the Company will license select content to Douyin for editing and distribution as short form videos in the formats agreed by the two companies. The Company and Douyin will also cooperate in other operational areas.
"The cooperation between iQIYI and Douyin demonstrates the value recognition of iQIYI's exceptional content portfolio, as well as the strength and longevity of the Company's premium long-form video content. And more importantly, this is a milestone that showcases the mutual respect and collective efforts in protecting intellectual property." commented Mr. Yu Gong, Founder, Director, and Chief Executive Officer of iQIYI. "We believe our cooperation will unlock new opportunities that will enrich the online video ecosystem, increase the value of our existing intellectual property, broaden monetization opportunities, and create win-wins for both platforms, content creators, and our users."
iQIYI Shares the Development of User-Customized, IP-Based Digital Collectibles at an Industry Event
On Jul. 10, iQIYI Vice President XU Yongming attended the first China Digital Collectibles Conference and shared iQIYI’s perspective on digital collectibles.
Xu explained that underpinning iQIYI’s innovations and breakthroughs are the company’s core competitiveness in creating popular IP-based content, its ability to navigate the latest Internet development trends with a forward-looking strategic outlook, and its deep insight into what drives consumer interest.
Xu noted that digital collectibles have social, artistic, and financial value, and it is also a form of cultural consumption. Xu further emphasized that user engagement in the metaverse is centered around the personalized, individual needs of consumers; as such, wearability and usability are among the core consumer demands that users look for in their metaverse experiences. In the future, iQIYI will develop user-customized digital collectibles based on drama series and variety shows and launch marketing campaigns that create a user-centric, IP-based storyline, further maximize IP monetization.
TECHNOLOGY
All iQIYI's Self-Produced Content Can Now be Delivered with Interoperable Master Format (IMF) to Improve Efficiency
Recently, iQIYI upgraded its Interoperable Master Format (IMF) to the third edition, which enhances the content delivery efficiency by at least 50% as compared to the MOV format. With the update, two films can be delivered in the amount of time it used to take one film to deliver approximately.
As opposed to storing images, sounds, etc. in a single file, IMF stores the image, sound, subtitles and other elements into blocks, so that the segment that needs to be removed can be deleted and replaced with new materials directly, which makes content production, file interoperability, version control and other processes convenient and controllable, reducing unnecessary costs.
Since 2020, iQIYI pioneered the use of IMF in China through technology upgrades, dedicated training, and collaboration with world’s leading video software companies such as Filmlight and Colorfront. As of now, all of iQIYI’s self-produced content are delivered through IMF.
As viewers nowadays continue to have growing standards for video quality, the traditional process is struggling to cater to demands around video quality. Any change in content requires tremendous time and resources in the post-production process because content distribution platforms would have to re-submit material. With IMF, the producer can modify the video, subtitles, and other materials in a targeted manner while maintaining a strong, overall grasp on the different versions. As the IMF technology greatly reduces the time cost of replacing, modifying, rendering, and finishing multiple versions, it maximizes the audio-visual quality of the deliverables.
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