Jackie Chan drama, celebrity reality show: Chinese streaming giant iQiyi reveals plans for 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.

Also highlighted is a period drama series produced by Jackie Chan and the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. Set in Ming dynasty, The Sleuth of Ming dynasty is touted as a detective story on the ancient Chinese equivalents of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.

Another TV series tipped to be a big hit is Winter Begonia. Set in the Republic of China period, the new show stars Huang Xiaoming and Charmaine Sheh Sze-man.

Besides boosting original programming, Gong Yu said their another goal is to launch more AI-enabled TV entertainment. “In future, AI will be involved in more fields including production. Combining humans and robots in production will boost efficiency and content quality.

“For example, in the making of anime, one second might have to yield, say, 24 anime stills. The first eight of them are drawn by humans, with the remaining drawn by machines … so artists can concentrate on their creations and not [waste time] doing simple repetitive work. AI can do that [now]. We are developing this AI application.”

For iQiyi’s overseas expansion plans, Yang Xianghua, iQiyi’s president of membership and overseas business group, said China-made entertainment content will surpass Korean ones in their overseas influence within five years. “That’s because the quality of Chinese content, especially drama production, is getting better and better.

“So far, iQiyi has authorised overseas third parties to distribute over 2,000 episodes of drama series and 200 films. They are mostly our original content … they were distributed in overseas TV stations, cinemas and digital platforms. There’s a dedicated team, set up three years ago, specialising in overseas distribution. The distribution places are mostly in Asia. But there are also those from Americas and Europe.

“Earlier this year, we set up an iQiyi channel on Malaysia’s Astro TV station to broadcast mainly our original productions. So far, the statistics show that at certain time periods, the iQiyi channel’s viewership rate is similar to the viewership rate of Astro TV’s Chinese language channel. This shows our original programming is very competitive and influential overseas.”