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Chinese company iQiyi rolls out big plans for the next year, keeping original content at the center. Wang Kaihao reports.
As Chinese video website iQiyi seeks to turn into an Internet entertainment conglomerate, it is showing a bigger ambition for 2016.
Gong Yu, the founder and CEO of iQiyi, said at a press conference in Beijing last week that his teams would use their resources in their productions.
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 IQiyi has grown into one of the country's biggest video websites. Popular TV series like The Journey of Flower (top) and The Lost Tomb (above) broadcast on the website have drawn huge audiences. Photos Provided to China Daily |
According to him, the strategy is clear: IQiyi is happy to be a provider of original content rather than just work as a broadcaster for others.
A recent report by iResearch, a major analytical website for the Chinese Internet industry, noted that iQiyi had 150 million daily users and 180 million logging devices in September, the highest among all video websites in the country.
The report also said 190 million hours of content were broadcast on average through iQiyi, another top score in the industry.
Intellectual property, Gong says, has become an intrinsic part of Hollywood culture, but China doesn't have much time to develop such a "mature system".
"Luckily, the Internet has given us a chance to overtake: We can use IP to build more abundant business models," he adds.
In China's entertainment industry, intellectual property largely refers to popular online products such as a novel, game or even a song 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," says Wang Xiangjun, the chief marketing officer for iQiyi.
"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 some 7 billion times.
And, season one of The Lost Tomb, which was coproduced by and premiered via iQiyi in June, attracted 3 billion "clicks" from users, although the series wasn't aired by any of the TV channels.
Wang considers the success of this 12-episode production, which was adapted from a best-seller first published in 2007, to have more significance because users have to pay to watch the entire season.
"In China, people earlier used for free online resources and pirate websites were rampant," she says.
"But now we offer more quality content, so we are asking viewers to pay."
A popular novella collection Lao Jiu Men (Nine Old Gates), which is a loosely connected prequel to The Lost Tomb, will also be adapted, according to Zhang Yuxin, general manager of the intellectual property management center at iQiyi.
Next year will be a peak time for new releases on iQiyi, he adds.
Ice Fantasy (2003) and Critical (2007) - the novels that made Guo Jingming a popular writer in today's China - will be adapted into a TV drama next year.
The classical Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, the prototype of Martin Scorsese's The Departed, will also have its Chinese TV series version on the website, Zhang says.
Nevertheless, TV series is not the end of the company's big plan.
For example, iQiyi recently signed an agreement to get intellectual property of BBC Earth Channel's documentaries in the next three years.
And in sports, it has obtained exclusive rights on the Chinese mainland to broadcast the PGA Tour, a major golf tournament in North America, through 2020.
Season two of Supermodel, a fashion reality TV show made by iQiyi, premiered simultaneously in China and the United Kingdom in October as an important step in the overseas market.
