Written by Lai Hsien-ki
Editor/ Chen Dengxin
Typesetting/Annalee
This year, iQiyi, the former "explosive manufacturing camp", seems to have encountered Waterloo. When Tencent Video set off a "four consecutive explosions" from the beginning of the year, Youku Video Mutation Dark Horse also became popular frequently, whether it was a variety show or a long series, iQiyi seemed to be a little difficult.
Although "My Altay" is out of the circle, and even drives local cultural tourism, and the current "King of Comedy Stand-up Season" is also frequently on the hot search, compared with other platforms, iQiyi's hits this year are indeed few, and the popularity is not long-lasting, and it is difficult to recreate the phenomenal hits of previous years.
You may also be able to get a glimpse of it from the data level. On August 22 last year, iQiyi handed over the best second-quarter financial report in history, but the financial report for the same period this year showed that the total revenue in the quarter was 7.4 billion yuan, down 5% year-on-year. The net profit attributable to iQiyi was 68.7 million yuan, compared with a net profit of 365.2 million yuan in the same period in 2023, down 81% year-on-year.
In just half a year, how many billions have iQiyi been robbed of by Tencent and Youku?
The excitement is all theirs, iQiyi "dumb fire"
iQIYI has spent two years in the limelight, and in 2022, with popular dramas such as "The World" and "Canglan Jue", 4 TV series with more than 10,000 popularity were born, driving a significant increase in the number of iQIYI members. As a result, at the beginning of 2023, Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI, said quite confidently in "A Letter to Investors" that in 2022, iQIYI will realize the transformation from "being able to create explosive models" to "explosive manufacturing camps".
In 2023, iQIYI will also take advantage of the victory, relying on the phenomenal hit "Hurricane", with the fault popularity of 10.21 billion effective broadcasts of dramas on the whole network, making iQIYI's total revenue and membership service revenue in the first quarter of that year set a historical record. In addition to "Hurricane", popular dramas such as "Changfeng Crossing", "Lotus Tower", "Ning An Like a Dream" and "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" have also attracted attention one after another.
However, iQiyi in 2024 will suddenly be "dumb".
Specifically, although the popularity of "Wind Chaser" in the first half of the year exceeded 10,000, the show was only 35.71 million effectively played in the cloud collection; "My Altay" successfully broke the circle and effectively drove the local cultural tourism, but with only 8 episodes of mini-series, it was really difficult to keep the popularity sustained, and it was soon robbed of traffic and popularity by popular dramas on other platforms; "Big traffic + big animation IP" costume fantasy drama "Fox Demon Little Red Lady· Moon Red Chapter" tried to confront Tencent Video's "Celebrating More Than Years 2", but the popularity went all the way down, and even caused a lot of complaints, Yunhe data shows that the average V7 effective playback of "Fox Demon" episodes is only 7.36 million; "Tang Dynasty Legends: Westward Journey" actually has a good reputation and broadcast volume, but like the previous "Wind Chaser", it was too late to break 10,000 in popularity...... You must know that "Hurricane" in 2023 will cross the threshold of more than 10,000 popularity within a week of its broadcast.
Image source: Douban
So, when iQiyi is "dumb fire", where does the heat go?
Tencent Video has stolen a lot, as of July 12th, Tencent Video has six dramas with a popularity of more than 30,000: first, with a "Flowers", it ushered in a good start, and the popularity value of the show has exceeded 31,000 in just one week; The subsequent "Walking with the Phoenix" and "Celebrating More Than Years 2" have also become popular dramas one after another, among which "Celebrating More Than Years 2", which returned after five years, exceeded 2 on the night of the premiere......
Image source: Tencent Video
But iQiyi's opponent is not only Tencent Video, but Youku Video, which often fell behind in previous years, has become a dark horse this year, and explosive models are frequent. At present, there are 5 dramas with more than 10,000 popular dramas on Youku, namely "Ink Rain Clouds", "Young White Horse Drunk Spring Breeze", "Spending the Chinese Year", "Cherishing Flowers" and "Flowers Order", among them, in the first half of the year, Youku's "Flowers Order", "Cherish Flowers", and "Ink Rain Clouds" also ushered in three consecutive explosions, of which "Ink Rain Clouds" has a cumulative broadcast volume of more than 2.3 billion, and the average number of episodes is close to Tencent's "Celebrating More Than Years 2".
It is worth mentioning that Youku's "White Night Theater" has three hits in a row, "Faint Fire", "New Life" and "Once Upon a Time by the Water". Among them, "Once Upon a Time on the Side Water" can be regarded as a low start and a high walk, although the popularity was not high when it first started, but it scored 8.3 on Douban at the end - it is the highest score for domestic suspense dramas so far in 2024, and the popularity on Youku has exceeded 10,000.
In contrast, iQiyi's main "Fog Theater" has not performed well this year, and dramas such as "Dislocation", "The Shadow Invisible Boy" and "Unspeakable" have not reproduced the myth of the popular dramas of the Fog Theater in the past.
Finally, look at variety shows, this year iQiyi and Tencent are betting on talk shows. iQIYI launched "The King of Comedy Stand-up Season", which was broadcast first, and Tencent Video competed against it with "Talk Show and Ta's Friends". Although the former does like to mention Weibo hot searches many times, from the perspective of brand transformation, Tencent may be better: iQiyi has a total of 4 brand customers, while Tencent has 6.
Plummeting net profit and undisclosed number of members
Just judging from the performance of popular dramas and variety shows, I can't help but think that iQiyi in the first half of the year has always lived in the shadow of Tencent and Youku, and it was either snatched away as soon as it ushered in a wave of popularity, or it directly bet on mistakes and performed mediocre.
And this is also reflected in iQiyi's recently released financial report to a certain extent. According to the financial report for the second quarter of this year released by iQiyi, the total revenue in the quarter was 7.4 billion yuan, down 5% year-on-year. The net profit attributable to iQiyi was 68.7 million yuan, compared with a net profit of 365.2 million yuan in the same period in 2023, down 81% year-on-year. Non-United States GAAP, net profit attributable to iQIYI was 246.9 million yuan, compared with 594.7 million yuan in the same period in 2023. Before the U.S. stock market on the same day, iQiyi's stock price fell 2.6% to $3.
A discussion of the price increase of shared bicycles on Xiaohongshu
Among them, iQIYI's membership service revenue in the first half of the year was 4.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9%; Online advertising service revenue was 1.5 billion yuan, down 2% year-on-year. As the core business that accounts for the majority of revenue, iQIYI's 9% membership service revenue decline has largely dragged down the company's total revenue and profit.
Regarding the decrease in membership service revenue, iQIYI executives said in the conference call after the release of the earnings report that from the perspective of membership structure, the cornerstone members who represent the basic plate of members remain stable, and the fluctuations are more from tidal members driven by new popular content.
But it is worth mentioning that starting from the last quarter, iQIYI no longer announces the number of members in this quarter. Although Gong Yu explained at the analyst meeting, "the number of members is an indicator that can only partially reflect the operation of the company's membership business, and overemphasizing this number will interfere with our daily work."
Image source: Tidal Business Review
But on the other hand, according to the public financial report, in the first half of this year, the number of paid members of Tencent long video increased by 13% year-on-year to 117 million, and the revenue of Mango Supermedia membership business was 2.486 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.8%.
As for the decline in online advertising service revenue, one of the main reasons is the decline in brand advertising business. In addition to the above-mentioned gap between iQiyi and Tencent's variety show advertising, some clues can also be seen from the number of brand advertisements for popular dramas. iQIYI's bet on "Fox Demon Little Red Lady · Moon Red Chapter" locked 56 brand advertisers before it was launched, but its performance was mediocre; is known as the "work of saving peaches" by the outside world, although the number of advertisements in "Tang Dynasty Tricks" can still maintain 7 per episode when it is launched, there are even 0 advertisements in a few episodes in the middle.
In contrast, according to media statistics: Tencent's "Celebrating More Than Years 2" has a total of 32 "Golden Dads" and 286 advertisements, accounting for about 9 per episode; In addition, according to the incomplete statistics of Douban user "Come to see the moon", Tencent's "Flowers" once had as many as 11 patches and interstitial advertisements after the broadcast, with a total of 300 advertisements, and the number of advertisements in "The Story of Rose" was as high as 310.
In the half year of "disappearing", what does iQiyi rely on to make up for it?
According to previous media reports, in early July, some netizens reported that iQiyi turned off the number of online people in a single episode of the new drama. For a while, netizens had different opinions and questioned the reason for this move: without the falsification of the number of people online, whether it is certified as a hit drama can be customized by the platform.
In this regard, iQIYI customer service explained that because the platform is undergoing functional upgrades and optimizations, the specific number of online users will not be displayed for the time being. At the same time, iQiyi said that in order to enhance the user's viewing experience and sense of companionship, some films will still display the specific number of people, but the specific situation is mainly displayed on the front end.
Previously, netizens discussed the number of people who closed iQiyi online
Although this is just a speculation of public opinion, it can also be seen that the impact of the reduction of explosive models on iQiyi is not only the fluctuation on the books, but also the trust of the public.
Obviously, this made iQiyi unable to sit still.
In the past period, iQIYI has taken many remedial measures, including: let "Yanxi Raiders" be put on the shelves of iQIYI International Edition, and fight "Ink Rain Clouds" in the air; moved out last year's hit drama "Lotus Building", which not only was free to watch online for a limited time, but also launched an event for the first anniversary of the broadcast; When "Talk Show and Ta's Friends" just started, "The King of Comedy's Stand-up Season", which had been on the air for several days, held a program press conference and broadcast it live online simultaneously......
Image source: iQIYI's official Weibo
In addition, for the second half of the year, on the earnings call, iQiyi revealed that the third season of the "Tang Dynasty Legends" series, "Tang Dynasty Legends: Chang'an", will enter the filming stage, and the popular "Fearless" and "Crime Hunting Guide" will be launched one after another, and the second season of "The Legend of Yunxiang" is also in preparation. In addition, on August 6, iQiyi stepped on the tail of the Paris Olympics and launched the spy war drama "Lonely Boat"; The costume light comedy "Sifang Pavilion", adapted from Chen Yan's novel "The Kings of the Western Regions", is also one of iQiyi's key projects in the second half of the year.
However, when the four Aiyou Tengmang are fiercely competing, a slow half beat may mean "one step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time". At least, there is not much time left for iQIYI this year.