How big data helped ‘China’s Netflix’ iQiyi decide to back The Story of Yanxi Palace, a summer blockbuster about back-stabbing concubines
Runaway hit has surprised many in the industry because of the absence of A-listers in the cast, with Hong Kong actress Charmaine Sheh Sze-man arguably the most famous of the lot for a global audience
iQiyi chief executive Gong Yu recalls trusting veteran producer Yu Zheng to deliver a blockbuster hit with The Story of Yanxi Palace, a 70-episode drama about Qing dynasty imperial concubines back-stabbing each other to gain the emperor’s favour.
After all, his algorithms have concluded that the show, set in the court of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), would likely be a winner, based on big data analysis of past viewership patterns of similarly themed shows.
Both man and machine proved right as Yanxi Palace concluded its run on China’s biggest online video streaming platform, garnering more than 13 billion views so far and smashing the one-day viewership record earlier this month. Big data analysis was again employed to determine the optimal time and pace of releasing new episodes to build up viewer anticipation.
The runaway hit nonetheless surprised many in the industry because of the absence of A-listers in the cast, with Hong Kong actress Charmaine Sheh Sze-man arguably the most famous of the lot for a global audience. Sheh played the role of a virtuous concubine who became one of the show’s most poisonous schemers after being pushed to breaking point by another of the emperor’s concubines, whom she subsequently drove to suicide.
“While many of the cast and crew are young and green, Yu told me I can trust in their performance in making a brilliant drama,” Gong said at a celebration event in Beijing on Sunday. “As a modern-themed drama disguised under period costumes, Yanxi Palace is at its core a tale of how we yearn for kindness and wish sin to be punished.”
Like Netflix in the US, online streaming platforms like iQiyi have increasingly muscled in on the origination and distribution of content that was traditionally the preserve of state-backed national and provincial broadcasters.
