After more than a year of trial of the case, the "iQiyi Restricted Screen Projection Case" was finally pronounced in the first instance recently.
The Beijing Internet Court ruled that the plaintiff enjoyed the rights and interests of 720P and 1080P high-definition projection before July 15, 2025, and the iQiyi platform compensated the plaintiff for 41 days of golden VIP membership time. On July 2, the plaintiff Zhu Yuan posted on social platforms that he hoped that all old members could continue the rights and interests of high-definition projection as long as they continued to subscribe, but unfortunately there was no support in the first instance, and it has not yet been determined whether to appeal.
iQIYI was sued in court for "restricting screen casting".
According to previous reports, Zhu Yuan became a member of iQiyi in 2017, and at the time of the incident, he was already a 7-year "old fan" of iQiyi. Not only that, Zhu Yuan has been continuously recharged to become a gold VIP member of the iQiyi platform for more than 5 years.
In the process of using iQiyi before, Zhu Yuan has been using the projection function, and any definition of the projection screen can be selected at that time.
On January 11, 2023, Zhu Yuan found that iQiyi limited the projection resolution of gold VIP members to 480P, and if you need higher definition, you must upgrade to a higher level member.
On January 31, 2023, Zhu Yuan took iQiyi to court.
Zhu Yuan said that he had no intention of stopping and understood iQiyi's adjustment behavior based on changes in the business environment, but as a senior paid member, he did not accept the platform's behavior of restricting the rights and interests of old members. "iQIYI's unilateral forced 'cutting leeks' behavior is a bit ugly."
After communicating with iQIYI's customer service to no avail, Zhu Yuan believed that iQIYI's unilateral change of the terms of the contract had constituted a breach of contract and should bear the liability for breach of contract, so Zhu Yuan sued iQIYI in court.
Zhu Yuan said, "I don't ask for civil compensation, I only ask iQiyi not to restrict the clarity of my projection in any way during the membership period, and not to reduce or limit the original membership rights." ”
Zhu Yuan's experience resonated with many netizens. After the "iQIYI Restricted Screen Projection Case" rushed to the hot search, netizens accused iQIYI of "eating too ugly". In the face of huge public opinion pressure, a month after Zhu Yuan took iQiyi to court, iQiyi issued an announcement.
On February 20, 2023, iQIYI released a statement on the optimization of iQIYI membership services through its official Weibo, adjusting the projection function, and iQIYI gold VIP members who are still in a subscription state will resume 720P and 1080P resolution projection.
iQIYI was sentenced to compensate 41 days of gold VIP members
Today (July 2), it was learned from the plaintiff that the Beijing Internet Court ruled that the plaintiff enjoys 720P and 1080P high-definition projection rights before July 15, 2025, and iQiyi compensates the plaintiff for 41 days of gold VIP membership time.
On the same day, the plaintiff Zhu Yuan posted on social platforms that the core appeal of his lawsuit is that he hopes that all old members can continue the rights and interests of high-definition projection as long as they continue to subscribe, but unfortunately it was not supported in the first instance, and it has not yet been determined whether to appeal.
Screenshot of Zhu Yuan's social platform
Zhu Yuan said that what he asked for was 41 days of compensation, and the court found that iQiyi was in breach of contract and fully supported this compensation request. Because iQiyi will start restrictions on January 11, 2023, and lift the restrictions on February 20 of the same year, he needs to have a compensation statement during this period. "I hope iQIYI can treat all damaged members equally."
On March 1, 2023, iQIYI CEO Gong Yu responded to many criticisms of iQIYI's restriction of screen projection in an interview with the media, saying that there must be its own mistakes, and the membership plan was not thought out clearly at the beginning. After careful study, the core still has to protect the interests and emotions of member consumers, so iQiyi stopped restricting the projection of old members.
He was once in a lawsuit because of "advanced on-demand".
In fact, this is not the first time iQIYI has been involved in a lawsuit.
At the end of 2019, the online drama "Celebrating More Than Years" was on the air, and the calls of netizens for more updates were also very high, and many users recharged on the video platform to become members in order to watch the drama in advance. On December 11 of the same year, iQiyi started advanced on-demand, VIP members spent 50 yuan, and they could watch 6 more episodes than members on each update day. This advanced on-demand event has aroused the keen attention of the industry and netizens. As soon as the news came out, the opposition of netizens once rushed to the hot search.
At the same time that netizens denounced and iQIYI came forward to explain, Wu Shengwei, a full-time lawyer at Shanghai Zhengce Law Firm and a well-known Weibo legal blogger, sued iQIYI in court with a complaint. Wu Shengwei asked the court to order iQiyi, which was operated by the defendant, to cancel the advanced on-demand function.
In 2020, the Beijing Internet Court held four public hearings of the case and finally pronounced its verdict. iQIYI's advance paid on-demand service violated the agreement between it and Wu Shengwei to watch popular dramas first, and iQIYI constituted a breach of contract and should compensate for the relevant liability for breach of contract. The court ordered that within 10 days from the effective date of the judgment, the defendant iQiyi provided the plaintiff Wu Shengwei with the rights and interests of the platform gold VIP membership that Wu Shengwei originally enjoyed for 15 consecutive days, so that he could enjoy the right to watch similar TV series and high-quality self-made dramas that had been updated, and compensated the plaintiff for the loss of notary fees of 1,500 yuan, and rejected the plaintiff's other claims. Since then, major video platforms have issued statements one after another, officially canceling advance on-demand.
Membership revenue continues to decline
iQIYI's 2024 first quarter report shows that in the current period, iQIYI's revenue was 7.927 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.0%; net profit was 655.3 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6%.
Behind the decline in revenue is the contraction of iQIYI's key membership income. In the first quarter, iQIYI's membership business revenue was 4.8 billion yuan, down 13% year-on-year. In addition, from the first quarter of this year, the company no longer discloses the number of users and ARM.
"Because different membership levels correspond to different benefits and prices, this will also bring different economic value. As a result, it is practically incomplete and lacks objectivity to reflect business and financial progress based solely on the number of subscribers at a certain point in time or period. At the current earnings call, Duan Youqiao, senior vice president of iQiyi, explained.
In contrast, in the first quarter, driven by projects such as "Flowers", the number of Tencent Video members increased by 8% year-on-year to 116 million. At the end of 2023, the number of Tencent Video members will be 117 million, and the number of iQiyi members will be 100.3 million in the same period. In view of the 13% decline in iQiyi's membership income, the gap between it and Tencent Video members is likely to widen.
The reason for the decline in membership income is the high base brought by "Hurricane" last year. According to Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI, "Hurricane" is the drama with the largest traffic, the highest income and the greatest influence in the nearly 13 years since iQIYI was established. In the first quarter of 2023, driven by the show, iQIYI's membership revenue will reach 5.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24%. In the current period, iQIYI's total revenue increased by 15% year-on-year to 8.3 billion yuan.
Editor-in-charge: Jiang Saisai
Executive Producer: Zhang Xiaonan
Source: Southern Metropolis Daily, 21st Century Business Herald, Jiupai News, Modern Express