Jackie Chan drama, celebrity reality show: Chinese streaming giant iQiyi reveals plans for 2020
- iQiyi announced its plans for the upcoming year at the annual two-day meeting
- The streaming giant has earmarked more than 20 billion yuan for content development in 2020
A new reality TV series showing how Chinese pop stars run fashion shops and promote Chinese labels in Japan, a period drama series produced by action superstar Jackie Chan and another TV series produced by the same people making the runaway hit The Story of Yanxi Palace – these are among the new releases announced by Chinese streaming giant iQiyi at their annual meeting with the media and public to showcase its development strategies for the upcoming year.
Next year will be the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Nasdaq-listed company, which has earmarked more than 20 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion) for content development for 2020. Tim Gong Yu, iQiyi’s founder and chief executive, who attended the two-day meeting with other top management in Shanghai last week, said boosting their original programming is a main goal.
“Original programming will gradually replace the business model of purchase of copyrighted materials. Making original programming [costs the same as buying copyrighted materials], but it incurs more revenue as the content produced by us suits [viewers] and advertisers better. More people are willing to pay subscription fees. We can get more advertising sponsorship.”
Gong added that currently 50 per cent of their new drama series and most of their entertainment and variety shows are produced by iQiyi. “The [figure] for movies and anime are lower. [But, overall the percentage of our own productions] will get higher and higher.”
Upcoming original productions include FOURTRY, a new reality TV series showing how Chinese superstars manage a Tokyo fashion shop showcasing Chinese labels. The show was produced by Chen Wei, iQiyi’s senior vice-president and executive producer of iQiyi hits The Rap of China and Hot Blood Dance Crew.
Footage shown at the annual meeting showed how stars including Angelababy and Kris Wu managed a fashion shop in Tokyo. From merchandising, product display to persuading passers-by to visit their shop to attain sales target, the stars have to do everything to ensure the shop’s smooth operations.