BEIJING, Oct. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- iQIYI Inc.
(NASDAQ: IQ) ("iQIYI" or the "Company"), an innovative
market-leading online entertainment service in China, today announced that more than 68
million VIP subscribers tuned in to its wildly popular Mist Theater
2020, which wrapped up on October 1
with the airing of The Long Night.
Mist Theater 2020, a content library of short suspense thrillers
comprising five dramas, generated over 460 trending topics on
Chinese social media platforms and scored an average rating of 8
out of 10 for the five dramas on Douban, an influential Chinese
social media platform known for its movie and TV show reviews.
The high level of subscriber engagement, trending topics and
rave reviews reaffirm that iQIYI is at the vanguard of shifting
from the creation of singular hits to the creation of genre-based
content, and, as a result, is building a huge user base and
business foundation for vertical content to gain traction.
The Mist Theater showcased five suspense dramas in 2020,
comprising: Kidnapping Game, The Bad Kids, Crimson
River, Sisyphus and The Long Night. The first
offering, Kidnapping Game, scored a rating of 8.0 after the
airing of the first episode on Douban, while The Bad Kids
achieved a rating of 8.9 from 800,000 Douban users, and the series
finale The Long Night attained 9.1, the highest score for
the Mist Theater.
iQIYI data shows that Mist Theater not only generated
word-of-mouth recommendations, but also drove an increase in
overall subscriber content consumption. For example, the number of
subscribers that watched The Bad Kids doubled between the
airing of its final episode and the wrap-up of Mist Theater.
Apart from racking up massive success at home, the Mist Theater
lineup has also gained traction in overseas markets, with several
dramas being distributed in Japan,
South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong
Kong and Macau.
Kidnapping Game has aired on Singapore's leading pay-TV network
Singtel TV, which is also planning to
air Sisyphus and The Long
Night soon. The Bad Kids will premiere in
Japan next year
on WOWOW, Japan's leading premium satellite TV
station.
The success of iQIYI's Mist Theater and short dramas is the
result of a long-standing strategy based on innovation. iQIYI
formulated its short drama model and rolled out high-quality dramas
like Tientsin Mystic and Burning Ice in 2017,
attracting numerous viewers and positive reviews. Within three
years, the rapid development of Chinese suspense dramas and
streaming platforms' membership services presented an opportunity
to address and overcome the commercial challenges of short drama
productions and theaters' development.
iQIYI's subscribership has reached 105 million, according to the
financial results for the second quarter of 2020 released on
August 14, 2020. iQIYI founder and
CEO Gong Yu said in the conference call with analysts, "Short
dramas and long dramas are equally effective in pulling in new
subscribers. Despite generating higher production costs per
episode, short dramas have lower total production costs due to
fewer episodes, which led to better ROI."
As for future content creation, Wang
Xiaohui, President of the Professional Content Business
Group (PCG) and Chief Content Officer of iQIYI said, "Short dramas
have achieved very good results in terms of both viewership and the
input-output ratio. In the future, iQIYI will consider more content
focusing on storylines, plots and performances, and ramp up
investment in the creation of short dramas."
About iQIYI, Inc.
iQIYI, Inc. is an innovative market-leading online entertainment
service in China. Its corporate
DNA combines creative talent with technology, fostering an
environment for continuous innovation and the production of
blockbuster content. iQIYI's platform features highly popular
original content, as well as a comprehensive library of other
professionally-produced content, partner-generated content and user
generated content. The Company distinguishes itself in the online
entertainment industry by its leading technology platform powered
by advanced AI, big data analytics and other core proprietary
technologies. iQIYI attracts a massive user base with tremendous
user engagement, and has developed a diversified monetization model
including membership services, online advertising services, content
distribution, live broadcasting, online games, IP licensing, online
literature and e-commerce.
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SOURCE iQIYI, Inc.