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2021-05-18
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iQiyi's early-day gains widened to 11%, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan.
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21:48","market":"us","language":"zh","title":"iQiyi's early-day gains widened to 11%, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan.","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1183341282","media":"老虎资讯综合","summary":"5月18日，爱奇艺盘初涨幅扩大至11%，公司第一季度营收80亿元，订阅数净增360万。爱奇艺季报图解：营收80亿 会员规模季度增长360万爱奇艺今日公布财报，财报显示，爱奇艺2021年第一季度营收为8","content":"<p>May 18th,<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/IQ\">iQiyi</a>The gains widened to 11% in early trading, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan and a net increase of 3.6 million subscribers.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/aba07754c496fb73dfdd6ab5e1d1c8eb\" tg-width=\"1302\" tg-height=\"833\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p><b>iQiyi's Quarterly Report Infographic: Revenue of 8 Billion Yuan, Membership Growth of 3.6 Million in the Quarter</b></p><p>iQiyi released its financial report today, showing that its revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 8 billion (approximately US$1.2 billion), achieving better-than-expected growth.</p><p>As of the end of the first quarter, iQiyi had 105.3 million subscribers. Influenced by the positive financial report, iQiyi's stock price is currently up more than 4% in pre-market trading.</p><p>“We started with a comprehensive and solid quarterly performance,” said Dr. Gong Yu, founder, director and CEO of iQiyi. “In the first quarter, our subscriber base increased by 3.6 million, and membership service revenue increased by 12% quarter-over-quarter, reaching its peak in the past year in absolute terms. This significant growth is largely attributed to the diverse range of TV series, variety shows, and movies we launched during the quarter.”</p><p>\"In particular, the series 'Son-in-Law' has become another benchmark in terms of ratings and monetization efficiency, which also confirms our exclusive content strategy. On April 22, we celebrated the company's 11th anniversary. Years of fierce competition have given us more confidence to further strengthen our leadership position. We firmly believe that long-form videos are irreplaceable as a form of entertainment, and we are fully prepared to meet the opportunities and challenges of the future.\"</p><p>\"Total revenue in the first quarter exceeded our previous expectations, achieving healthy growth both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year,\" said Wang Xiaodong, Chief Financial Officer of iQiyi. \"This quarter, we launched several popular pieces of content, while improved investment efficiency contributed to a year-on-year decrease in content costs for the third consecutive quarter. We will continue to focus on improving return on investment, driving the development of various businesses including content, technology, and marketing. This will safeguard iQiyi's sustainable long-term development.\"</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 revenue was 8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5cda524aafd93a3ba0a185b6f29bbf9f\" tg-width=\"882\" tg-height=\"443\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi's revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was approximately RMB 8 billion, a 4% increase from RMB 7.65 billion in the same period of the previous year and a 7% increase from RMB 7.46 billion in the previous quarter.</p><p>Gong Yu also released an open letter to investors today, stating that iQiyi's core value is the production and distribution of entertainment content. Entertainment content is a core human need, and iQiyi has already established a leading position in this field and will continue to expand its leading position in the future. The content of interest that Always Focuses on is an emerging market, and iQiyi will develop this business and make it support the company's core entertainment business.</p><p>\"Since content quality is the core and important focus of our entire content ecosystem, we hope to achieve a sufficiently high probability of viral hits by continuously improving content quality. Establishing a sufficient and effective internal studio is an important prerequisite for improving our content quality.\"</p><p>Gong Yu said that in 2018, iQiyi set a goal of establishing 50 internal studios within two years during its IPO roadshow, and iQiyi has now exceeded this goal. According to publicly available information, the number of studios currently exceeds 60. Most of these internal studios are web series and variety show studios, with a small number being film and animation studios.</p><p>\"Increasing the number of film and animation studios in the next two years is an important strategy for our content production, because through internal studios, we can gather outstanding production talents in the industry and acquire a large number of top IPs and works.\"</p><p>Gong Yu pointed out that he believes that through experience accumulation and continuous efforts, the high-quality content exclusively broadcast by iQiyi will form a continuous and stable line of works.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 membership revenue reached 4.3 billion yuan, a 12% increase compared to the previous period.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0c5dae367f8bc4acc4f1e0e0edbfc708\" tg-width=\"892\" tg-height=\"469\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi's membership service revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 4.3 billion (approximately US$658.1 million), a 12% increase quarter-over-quarter. In this quarter, iQiyi achieved a net increase of 3.6 million members, mainly thanks to the strong performance of top content, especially high-quality dramas, coupled with the impact of holidays, which continued to drive up the number of members.</p><p>iQiyi achieved advertising revenue of RMB 1.9 billion (approximately US$292.5 million) in the first quarter of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 25%, thanks to the recovery of the macroeconomy, which led to a rebound in both brand advertising budgets and the number of brand advertisers.</p><p>Excluding membership and advertising revenue, iQiyi's content distribution revenue reached RMB 779.1 million (approximately US$118.9 million) this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 29%, as iQiyi distributed more content to other platforms during the quarter.</p><p>iQiyi's other revenue contributed RMB 961 million (approximately US$146.7 million) in the first quarter of 2021, a 10% increase compared to the same period last year.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 costs were 7.1 billion yuan, a 10% decrease compared to the same period last year.</b></p><p>iQiyi's costs in the first quarter of 2021 were 7.1 billion yuan, a 10% decrease from 7.9 billion yuan in the same period of the previous year. This is mainly due to the decrease in content costs and bandwidth costs.</p><p>Content costs in the first quarter were RMB 5.4 billion (approximately US$829.6 million), an 8% decrease compared to the same period in 2020. The decrease in content costs is mainly due to the decrease in copyrighted content costs.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 gross profit was 860 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 11%.</b></p><p>iQiyi's gross profit in the first quarter of 2021 was 860 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 11%, compared to a gross profit margin of -3% in the same period last year.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 expenses were 1.87 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6%.</b></p><p>iQiyi's expenses for the first quarter of 2021 were RMB 1.87 billion, a 6% decrease from RMB 1.989 billion in the same period of the previous year.</p><p>iQiyi's sales, general and administrative expenses totaled 1.2 billion yuan (approximately US$183.3 million) in the first quarter, a decrease of 8% compared to the same period last year. iQiyi's R&D expenses in the first quarter were 672.3 million yuan (approximately US$102.6 million).</p><p><b>iQiyi reported an operating loss of 1 billion yuan in Q1, with an operating profit margin of -13%.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fd32579df25a17ea99fc71e68ea987ee\" tg-width=\"931\" tg-height=\"449\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi reported an operating loss of RMB 1 billion (approximately US$154.8 million) in the first quarter of 2021, compared to an operating loss of RMB 2.2 billion in the same period last year. The operating loss rate was 13%, compared to 29% in the same period last year. iQiyi's operating profit margin was -13% in the first quarter of 2021. Since the third quarter of 2019, iQiyi's operating losses have been narrowing.</p><p>As of March 31, 2021, the company had cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments totaling RMB13.3 billion (approximately US$2 billion).</p><p>iQiyi has outlooked its results for the second quarter of 2021: total revenue is expected to be between RMB 7.21 billion (approximately US$1.1 billion) and RMB 7.65 billion (approximately US$1.17 billion).</p><p>The following is a letter from iQiyi's Gong Yu to investors:</p><p>Hello, shareholders!</p><p>This is the first time we have communicated with everyone in the form of a shareholder letter. I'd like to share some of our current thoughts on industry competition and content creation planning.</p><p>I. Industry trends and our competitive barriers:</p><p>The online video industry has been developing for over a decade, and there are currently three common views on video genres in the industry.</p><p>The first method divides videos into: long videos and short videos, or long videos, medium videos and short videos, according to video specifications (video length). The second method involves categorizing videos according to the content creator. PPC (professional produced content), PUGC (professional user generated content), UGC (user generated content). PPC is produced by professionals such as screenwriters, directors, photographers, and actors, and their works include movies, TV series, animated films, and variety shows. PUGC is produced by KOLs and MCNs and is less professional than PPC, but can generate revenue through advertising or other monetization methods. UGC is content created by ordinary users, and most of it is not professional content.</p><p>The above two classification methods are relatively common views. There is currently a third viewpoint in the industry, which believes that content is ultimately for users to watch. Why not categorize it based on the user's purpose of watching the video, their mindset when watching the video, and their thoughts on the video content? According to this point of view, videos are classified into: tasty videos, entertainment videos, and interest videos.</p><p>Delicious videos are similar to fast food. Users have a relaxed mindset when making purchases, they are simply killing time and enjoying themselves while watching, without expecting to benefit from them in the long run.</p><p>Entertainment videos refer to video content such as movies, TV series, anime, and variety shows. Excellent films and television works can open the mind to think, leave a deep impression after watching, and trigger continuous and in-depth thinking, and may even influence one's values and life. Among entertainment content, film has been around for over 120 years and is the world's most historical, artistic, and influential work to date. Television content such as TV series and variety shows are also works of art with nearly a century of history and public influence. While bringing joy to the audience, they have also changed people's lifestyles, society, and even the world. Throughout history, humanity has always needed to create romantic, fictional, or sentimental literary and artistic works based on reality. Entertainment content such as movies, TV series, variety shows, and animation is the only form of video to meet this rigid need. We firmly believe that, based on the longer-standing arts such as literature, painting, and music, entertainment video content such as movies, TV series, animation, and variety shows will have greater market potential, especially in a market like China where the overall economy will continue to develop steadily in the future and society will undergo long-term consumption upgrading.</p><p>Interest videos refer to videos that are basically realistic and meet people's various interests and needs, including but not limited to: food, DIY, unboxing, travel, pets, etc. The producers of these videos include MCNs, KOLs, ordinary users who generate electricity for love, and a small number of professionally trained individuals. Interest content and its audience are more segmented and long-tailed. In terms of popularity, each type of interest content is weaker than movies, TV series, anime, and variety shows.</p><p>iQiyi mainly focuses on two video types: entertainment videos and interest videos.</p><p>1) The iQiyi APP focuses on entertainment videos. Our vision is to use technological innovation to make the distribution of entertainment content simpler and provide a better user experience, while also leveraging technological innovation and the wisdom of outstanding artists to create more and better movies, TV series, animation, and variety shows. While providing users with more joy, it also influences their lifestyles, allowing people to conveniently view more, better, and more thought-provoking works of art.</p><p>Currently, the entertainment video industry has formed extremely high entry barriers: its economies of scale require long-term accumulation to achieve; The entire content industry is still in the very early stages of industrialization, and understanding the industry and recognizing talent are crucial at this stage of talent shortage. As China's largest video distribution platform, our years of user data and technological accumulation have given us the deepest understanding of users' needs for entertainment videos. Coupled with its huge funding needs, deep understanding of industry rules, and accumulated relationships with artists such as directors, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, recording artists, and art directors, iQiyi has established a solid leading position in China's entertainment video industry. We are confident in leading the healthy development of the entire industry and providing users with more and better high-quality entertainment content. We firmly believe that in the future, after fully enjoying the pleasure brought by delicious content, more and more Chinese users will pursue entertainment content with higher spiritual value and more artistic value. This is a process of upgrading cultural consumption.</p><p>2) The iQiyi Suike APP mainly focuses on interest videos, and Suike's content will also be distributed on the iQiyi main platform. The characteristics of interest content are that the topics are very dispersed, and the content and the corresponding users have a very long tail. The barrier to entry for users is high, but user stickiness is stronger. The overall market for interest-based videos is not small, but it is not easy for a single media platform to gain a large market share. We believe that in the future, China's interest content media platforms will be fragmented, and user demand and content supply will also be fragmented. This model is still in its early stages in China, and iQiyi has a great opportunity to leverage its existing resources to explore this new market.</p><p>In short, iQiyi's core value lies in the production and distribution of entertainment content. Entertainment content is a core human need, and iQiyi has already established a leading position in this field and will continue to expand its leading position in the future. The content of interest that Always Focuses on is an emerging market, and iQiyi will develop this business and make it support the company's core entertainment business.</p><p>II. Core Issues and Our Planning Strategies:</p><p>As is well known, after 10 years of development, membership business has become the company's largest source of revenue. Although we are currently facing some challenges that may lead to slower growth or fluctuations in the number of members retained, we still firmly believe that the membership business has huge market potential. Two pieces of data that can be corroborated are: 1) As of the end of Q1 2021, iQiyi's cumulative number of paid accounts had exceeded 490 million; 2) In Q1 2021, the average number of members with membership rights on any given day of the month was nearly 160 million, indicating that the user base willing to pay for high-quality content is extremely large. The industry generally believes that the slowdown in membership business growth is due to the squeeze on users' time spent by short videos and other diverse forms of entertainment. We acknowledge the impact of this, but we have observed that users' viewing mindset regarding various videos is gradually becoming clearer.</p><p>Meanwhile, based on our data and analysis, we believe that the root cause of entertainment videos being squeezed by other forms is still the current lack of high-quality content. Even with the abundance of entertainment options available today, high-quality entertainment video content remains a core factor that plays a significant role in boosting user traffic and time spent there. A recent example is that we launched the hit exclusive drama \"Son-in-Law\" in February this year. During its run, the drama was played on more than 180 million devices, and by the end of the season, the number of member accounts had exceeded 64 million, pushing the peak number of members this quarter to approach the level during the pandemic at the end of Q1 last year.</p><p>Consistently producing high-quality content is key to increasing user and member loyalty. We believe that the current shortage of high-quality content is mainly due to two factors: 1) The number of copyrighted content obtained from traditional channels is decreasing. On the one hand, the number of copyrighted TV dramas has decreased accordingly as the market share of the traditional TV industry has shrunk; On the other hand, due to the impact of the pandemic, the number of theatrical films, especially Hollywood films shown in Chinese cinemas, which play a crucial role in attracting and retaining members, has decreased sharply.</p><p>According to our analysis, the number of films released using the SVOD model that grossed over 100 million yuan in 2020 and from January to April 2021 decreased by about half compared to the same period in 2019, with the number of overseas films, mainly Hollywood films, decreasing by more than half. 2) Currently, the quantity and quality of self-produced content cannot meet the needs. Breakthroughs in self-created content require us to find the best talent and the highest quality partners in the industry, build a strong content ecosystem, and create the best works. However, improving the ecosystem takes time to refine.</p><p>Regarding how to solve the problem of \"lack of high-quality content\", I would like to talk about iQiyi's future plans and programs.</p><p>Since content quality is the core and important focus of our entire content ecosystem, we hope to achieve a sufficiently high probability of blockbuster content by continuously improving content quality. Establishing a sufficient and effective internal studio is an important prerequisite for improving the quality of our content. In 2018, during our IPO roadshow, we set a goal of establishing 50 in-house studios within two years, and we have now exceeded this goal. Most of these internal studios are web series and variety show studios, with a small number being film and animation studios. Increasing the number of film and animation studios in the next two years is an important strategy for our content production, because through internal studios, we can gather outstanding production talents in the industry and acquire a large number of top IPs and works.</p><p>As we have more and more internal studios, we will continue to adhere to the development of multiple content categories and cultivate vertical tracks. Since our successful launch of Mist Theater last year, the format of short series and the quality of our content have been widely recognized by users and the market. It is believed that through experience accumulation and continuous efforts, the high-quality content exclusively broadcast by iQiyi will form a continuous and stable line of works.</p><p>The content creation industry also faces various problems, such as long and uncontrollable content creation cycles, low success rates, a large workload of simple and repetitive tasks, a lack of objective evaluation standards, and significant financial risks. In response to these difficulties and challenges, we believe the solution lies in the industrialization of film and television.</p><p>The industrialization of film and television includes the restructuring of industry rules and intelligent production. Intelligent manufacturing is a key focus. This is because although China's film and television industry has been undergoing industrialization for two or three decades, it has not achieved qualitative changes. One important reason is the lack of technological support. Intelligent manufacturing is a key factor in solving the problem. Thanks to the development and support of technologies such as 5G, AI, blockchain, DRM, VR/AR, and virtual shooting, our intelligent production system is gradually being improved.</p><p>Our planned and ongoing intelligent production includes: 1) producing a business intelligence system for post-broadcast business metric analysis and broadcast business metric forecasting at various production stages before broadcast; 2) Intelligent integrated production system, with artificial intelligence as the core, integrates and standardizes the management of people, equipment and materials in the film and television production process; 3) Intelligent production toolset, which uses artificial intelligence technology, computer graphics and other technologies to realize a multi-faceted production toolset for film and television production from the beginning to the end, improving work efficiency and user experience. We are using these systems and tools to enhance the controllability of production schedules, content quality, and financial risks, thereby further reducing costs and improving efficiency. We believe that by leveraging iQiyi's industry leadership to change unreasonable rules in the industry, and using intelligent production to assist in optimizing these industry rules and improving production efficiency, future content production will be more stable, continuous, efficient, and produce a frequent stream of blockbuster content.</p><p>Looking back at iQiyi's continuous development over the past decade, in terms of business operations, we are gradually establishing a win-win ecosystem and a \"one fish eats many things\" business model. In terms of content, we have gained recognition from artists from all walks of life and a wide range of users; In the field of technology, we continuously innovate to enhance users' audio-visual experience and improve efficiency. We believe that the valuable knowledge wealth accumulated by the Company through years of fierce competition in the video industry will further solidify our market leadership position. We firmly believe that long-form video film and television entertainment is irreplaceable as an important form of entertainment. We hope to empower content production through continuous technological innovation, increase the probability of content becoming a hit, thereby generating greater commercial value, expanding the stage for dreaming and imagination for the next generation of entertainment, and looking forward to bringing more surprises to our shareholders.</p><p>Company Note: We will not be reading this letter during the conference call later today to allow more time to communicate with investors during the Q&A session.</p><p>Appendix: Our Q1 Performance and Outlook</p><p>This quarter, thanks to the high-quality content we launched, our overall revenue in the first quarter of the year exceeded the company's previous guidance, achieving growth both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, in recent quarters, with relatively stable revenue, our content costs have been effectively controlled, and losses have been continuously narrowing. We also maintained our industry leadership position, ranking first in the industry in daily active users, monthly active users, and monthly usage time, according to QuestMobile data.</p><p>Members:</p><p>First is the membership business. As of March 31, the company had a total of 105.3 million subscribers, with a net increase of approximately 3.6 million in the quarter. Membership revenue increased by 12% quarter-on-quarter to RMB 4.31 billion.</p><p>The growth in membership was mainly due to: 1) The strong performance of top-tier content, especially high-quality dramas, which continued to drive up membership. For example, the top drama \"The Son-in-Law\" became a hit during the Spring Festival, achieving extremely high monetization efficiency with a relatively short number of episodes, ranking first in daily consumption history, surpassing \"Story of Yanxi Palace\". Meanwhile, several theatrical films were released this quarter, including \"The King of Bathing,\" \"Eliminating Violence,\" and \"Bomb Disposal Expert 2,\" while online films such as \"Diary of a Fortune\" and \"The Legend of the Treasure of Shaolin Temple\" also performed well. 2) During the Spring Festival, users spent more time on long-form video consumption, resulting in an increase in overall platform traffic, with both mobile MAU and DAU increasing month-on-month. 3) The company launched a variety of innovative marketing initiatives for the holiday season, including an \"incentive-based task system\" and optimization of membership products and services, which significantly improved user engagement and member loyalty.</p><p>In addition to the increase in membership numbers, the quarter-on-quarter increase in membership revenue this quarter was also due to: 1) the increase in users' willingness to pay, mainly due to our high-quality content and the company's continuous exploration of business model innovation: including advanced on-demand and PVOD models. For example, the exclusive drama \"The Son-in-Law\" broke the stereotype of period dramas with its light comedy feel, attracting a large number of members to purchase advance on-demand to unlock the plot. The movie \"Get Rich Diary\" set a new record for viewership and on-demand revenue under the PVOD model. 2) Membership price adjustments boosted Q1 ARPU both year-on-year and month-on-month.</p><p>At the same time, the company is further expanding the total addressable market through two aspects. a) In late February, the company launched a new Express VIP membership package, which targets lower-tier users and uses more targeted content and membership benefits to promote paid conversion of lower-tier vertical users. b) The company's overseas exploration also continued to progress steadily. In Q1 2021, the overall MAU increased by 77% compared with the previous quarter, and the number of new downloads remained in the top 5 in many Southeast Asian countries and regions, especially in countries and regions such as Thailand and Malaysia, where it has maintained the number one position for a long time. The frequent emergence of blockbuster international content has driven the continuous improvement of iQiyi's international brand awareness.</p><p>Although we still expect the number of subscribers to fluctuate in the short term, we remain confident in the medium- to long-term development of our membership business, thanks to the company's continued development of high-quality content and the continuous improvement of the company's original content ecosystem and self-production capabilities. We are pleased to see that the content production standards of domestic video websites are gradually approaching those of their international counterparts. It has become the norm for users to pay for high-quality content. We have also noticed that some competitors have followed us in adjusting membership prices, which also demonstrates the industry's long-term profitability.</p><p>advertising</p><p>China's overall advertising market continued to recover this quarter. Our advertising services revenue increased by 25% year-on-year. Despite Q1 being the traditional off-season for advertising, stable year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth was achieved. Similar to the trend in Q4 2020, the growth is mainly attributed to the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter increase in content marketing revenue driven by high-quality variety shows and major dramas in Q1 this year. Content marketing revenue accounts for approximately 64% of brand advertising revenue, the highest point in recent quarters, once again demonstrating advertisers' recognition of our platform's high-quality content.</p><p>In terms of brand advertising, against the backdrop of macroeconomic recovery, brand advertising revenue continued to stabilize, thanks to the recovery of advertiser budgets and the growth in the number of advertisers. In Q1, high-quality content prompted some leading advertisers to increase their spending, resulting in an increase in ARPU for leading clients. From an industry perspective, the food and beverage and cosmetics and bathroom fixtures sectors supported the growth in Q1. In terms of performance-based advertising, the quarter-on-quarter increase in consumption this quarter was driven by traffic during holidays and contributions from key industries such as online service apps, e-commerce, online film and television, and games.</p><p>Contents:</p><p>In terms of content, iQiyi's TV series, variety shows, animation, and children's channels continued to lead the entire internet in terms of the number of top content and total broadcast volume in Q1. Third-party data shows that in Q1, iQiyi's TV series and variety shows both had a market share of nearly 40% in effective viewership, while its animation (including children's animation) and movies had market shares of over 40% and 50% respectively, both ranking first in the market.</p><p>iQiyi continues to launch high-quality exclusive content to meet user needs and continues to promote the serialized development and stylistic innovation of its IPs.</p><p>1) In terms of drama, iQiyi's exclusive period drama \"The Son-in-Law\" became a hit this quarter, making beneficial innovations in theme and content style and providing new ideas for future period drama creation. In addition, we have also launched several original dramas on realistic themes, such as \"Golden Years\", \"My Era, Your Era\", and \"Warm Holidays\".</p><p>2) In terms of variety shows, iQiyi continues to innovate original content in different variety show tracks. Original variety show IPs such as \"Drama New Life\", \"Qipa Talk 7\", \"Trend Partners 2\", and \"Sisters' Tea Party\" were popular during the quarter.</p><p>3) In terms of original films, the original film \"The Battle Against Organized Crime\" produced by iQiyi has been released in theaters, grossing over 300 million RMB and receiving high ratings on various platforms. Two movies produced by iQiyi began filming in Q1 2021. Three films are in post-production and will be released this year. There are also 18 iQIYI Original Films in development.</p><p>In Q2 2021, our key dramas included \"Little Shede\", \"Farewell Song\", \"North and South\", \"The Rebel\", and \"Lai Mao's Lion Reflection\". Among them, \"Little Shede\" and \"Farewell Song Journey\" were broadcast in April and were well-received by users. Our theatrical operations will continue to advance. Love Theater is scheduled to premiere on May 20th, and we will continue to launch new content for Mist Theater at the end of this year. In terms of anime and television, content such as \"I Have No Choice but to Betray Earth\" and \"Ice and Snow Guardians\" will be released, as well as the light anime \"Immortal Dad Becomes a Son-in-Law 3\".</p><p>We anticipate some uncertainty in content scheduling in the coming months, and we have made advance arrangements for diverse content themes, especially self-produced dramas, to mitigate the related impact.</p><p>Technology:</p><p>We continue to empower the entertainment industry with technology and build an industrialized film and television production system. Notable developments in technology applications this quarter include:</p><p>1. In terms of intelligent production: iQiyi's \"Virtual and Real City\" XR Cloud Performance: The entire concert adopts globally leading XR virtual production technology, surpassing similar foreign performances in terms of the diversity of virtual scenes and the number of online interactive users, expanding the ceiling of live interactive experience programs and virtual performance programs for everyone.</p><p>2. In terms of products and features, iQiyi Express Edition, which targets users in lower-tier cities, was officially released in January this year. It is currently performing well in terms of user interaction, with indicators such as average time per user and average views exceeding those of the iQiyi main App.</p>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>iQiyi's early-day gains widened to 11%, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan.</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 12.5px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\niQiyi's early-day gains widened to 11%, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan.\n</h2>\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n<a class=\"head\" href=\"https://laohu8.com/wemedia/102\">\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">老虎资讯综合 </p>\n<p class=\"h-time smaller\">2021-05-18 21:48</p>\n</div>\n</a>\n</h4>\n</header>\n<article>\n<p>May 18th,<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/IQ\">iQiyi</a>The gains widened to 11% in early trading, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan and a net increase of 3.6 million subscribers.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/aba07754c496fb73dfdd6ab5e1d1c8eb\" tg-width=\"1302\" tg-height=\"833\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p><b>iQiyi's Quarterly Report Infographic: Revenue of 8 Billion Yuan, Membership Growth of 3.6 Million in the Quarter</b></p><p>iQiyi released its financial report today, showing that its revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 8 billion (approximately US$1.2 billion), achieving better-than-expected growth.</p><p>As of the end of the first quarter, iQiyi had 105.3 million subscribers. Influenced by the positive financial report, iQiyi's stock price is currently up more than 4% in pre-market trading.</p><p>“We started with a comprehensive and solid quarterly performance,” said Dr. Gong Yu, founder, director and CEO of iQiyi. “In the first quarter, our subscriber base increased by 3.6 million, and membership service revenue increased by 12% quarter-over-quarter, reaching its peak in the past year in absolute terms. This significant growth is largely attributed to the diverse range of TV series, variety shows, and movies we launched during the quarter.”</p><p>\"In particular, the series 'Son-in-Law' has become another benchmark in terms of ratings and monetization efficiency, which also confirms our exclusive content strategy. On April 22, we celebrated the company's 11th anniversary. Years of fierce competition have given us more confidence to further strengthen our leadership position. We firmly believe that long-form videos are irreplaceable as a form of entertainment, and we are fully prepared to meet the opportunities and challenges of the future.\"</p><p>\"Total revenue in the first quarter exceeded our previous expectations, achieving healthy growth both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year,\" said Wang Xiaodong, Chief Financial Officer of iQiyi. \"This quarter, we launched several popular pieces of content, while improved investment efficiency contributed to a year-on-year decrease in content costs for the third consecutive quarter. We will continue to focus on improving return on investment, driving the development of various businesses including content, technology, and marketing. This will safeguard iQiyi's sustainable long-term development.\"</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 revenue was 8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5cda524aafd93a3ba0a185b6f29bbf9f\" tg-width=\"882\" tg-height=\"443\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi's revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was approximately RMB 8 billion, a 4% increase from RMB 7.65 billion in the same period of the previous year and a 7% increase from RMB 7.46 billion in the previous quarter.</p><p>Gong Yu also released an open letter to investors today, stating that iQiyi's core value is the production and distribution of entertainment content. Entertainment content is a core human need, and iQiyi has already established a leading position in this field and will continue to expand its leading position in the future. The content of interest that Always Focuses on is an emerging market, and iQiyi will develop this business and make it support the company's core entertainment business.</p><p>\"Since content quality is the core and important focus of our entire content ecosystem, we hope to achieve a sufficiently high probability of viral hits by continuously improving content quality. Establishing a sufficient and effective internal studio is an important prerequisite for improving our content quality.\"</p><p>Gong Yu said that in 2018, iQiyi set a goal of establishing 50 internal studios within two years during its IPO roadshow, and iQiyi has now exceeded this goal. According to publicly available information, the number of studios currently exceeds 60. Most of these internal studios are web series and variety show studios, with a small number being film and animation studios.</p><p>\"Increasing the number of film and animation studios in the next two years is an important strategy for our content production, because through internal studios, we can gather outstanding production talents in the industry and acquire a large number of top IPs and works.\"</p><p>Gong Yu pointed out that he believes that through experience accumulation and continuous efforts, the high-quality content exclusively broadcast by iQiyi will form a continuous and stable line of works.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 membership revenue reached 4.3 billion yuan, a 12% increase compared to the previous period.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0c5dae367f8bc4acc4f1e0e0edbfc708\" tg-width=\"892\" tg-height=\"469\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi's membership service revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 4.3 billion (approximately US$658.1 million), a 12% increase quarter-over-quarter. In this quarter, iQiyi achieved a net increase of 3.6 million members, mainly thanks to the strong performance of top content, especially high-quality dramas, coupled with the impact of holidays, which continued to drive up the number of members.</p><p>iQiyi achieved advertising revenue of RMB 1.9 billion (approximately US$292.5 million) in the first quarter of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 25%, thanks to the recovery of the macroeconomy, which led to a rebound in both brand advertising budgets and the number of brand advertisers.</p><p>Excluding membership and advertising revenue, iQiyi's content distribution revenue reached RMB 779.1 million (approximately US$118.9 million) this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 29%, as iQiyi distributed more content to other platforms during the quarter.</p><p>iQiyi's other revenue contributed RMB 961 million (approximately US$146.7 million) in the first quarter of 2021, a 10% increase compared to the same period last year.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 costs were 7.1 billion yuan, a 10% decrease compared to the same period last year.</b></p><p>iQiyi's costs in the first quarter of 2021 were 7.1 billion yuan, a 10% decrease from 7.9 billion yuan in the same period of the previous year. This is mainly due to the decrease in content costs and bandwidth costs.</p><p>Content costs in the first quarter were RMB 5.4 billion (approximately US$829.6 million), an 8% decrease compared to the same period in 2020. The decrease in content costs is mainly due to the decrease in copyrighted content costs.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 gross profit was 860 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 11%.</b></p><p>iQiyi's gross profit in the first quarter of 2021 was 860 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 11%, compared to a gross profit margin of -3% in the same period last year.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 expenses were 1.87 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6%.</b></p><p>iQiyi's expenses for the first quarter of 2021 were RMB 1.87 billion, a 6% decrease from RMB 1.989 billion in the same period of the previous year.</p><p>iQiyi's sales, general and administrative expenses totaled 1.2 billion yuan (approximately US$183.3 million) in the first quarter, a decrease of 8% compared to the same period last year. iQiyi's R&D expenses in the first quarter were 672.3 million yuan (approximately US$102.6 million).</p><p><b>iQiyi reported an operating loss of 1 billion yuan in Q1, with an operating profit margin of -13%.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fd32579df25a17ea99fc71e68ea987ee\" tg-width=\"931\" tg-height=\"449\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi reported an operating loss of RMB 1 billion (approximately US$154.8 million) in the first quarter of 2021, compared to an operating loss of RMB 2.2 billion in the same period last year. The operating loss rate was 13%, compared to 29% in the same period last year. iQiyi's operating profit margin was -13% in the first quarter of 2021. Since the third quarter of 2019, iQiyi's operating losses have been narrowing.</p><p>As of March 31, 2021, the company had cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments totaling RMB13.3 billion (approximately US$2 billion).</p><p>iQiyi has outlooked its results for the second quarter of 2021: total revenue is expected to be between RMB 7.21 billion (approximately US$1.1 billion) and RMB 7.65 billion (approximately US$1.17 billion).</p><p>The following is a letter from iQiyi's Gong Yu to investors:</p><p>Hello, shareholders!</p><p>This is the first time we have communicated with everyone in the form of a shareholder letter. I'd like to share some of our current thoughts on industry competition and content creation planning.</p><p>I. Industry trends and our competitive barriers:</p><p>The online video industry has been developing for over a decade, and there are currently three common views on video genres in the industry.</p><p>The first method divides videos into: long videos and short videos, or long videos, medium videos and short videos, according to video specifications (video length). The second method involves categorizing videos according to the content creator. PPC (professional produced content), PUGC (professional user generated content), UGC (user generated content). PPC is produced by professionals such as screenwriters, directors, photographers, and actors, and their works include movies, TV series, animated films, and variety shows. PUGC is produced by KOLs and MCNs and is less professional than PPC, but can generate revenue through advertising or other monetization methods. UGC is content created by ordinary users, and most of it is not professional content.</p><p>The above two classification methods are relatively common views. There is currently a third viewpoint in the industry, which believes that content is ultimately for users to watch. Why not categorize it based on the user's purpose of watching the video, their mindset when watching the video, and their thoughts on the video content? According to this point of view, videos are classified into: tasty videos, entertainment videos, and interest videos.</p><p>Delicious videos are similar to fast food. Users have a relaxed mindset when making purchases, they are simply killing time and enjoying themselves while watching, without expecting to benefit from them in the long run.</p><p>Entertainment videos refer to video content such as movies, TV series, anime, and variety shows. Excellent films and television works can open the mind to think, leave a deep impression after watching, and trigger continuous and in-depth thinking, and may even influence one's values and life. Among entertainment content, film has been around for over 120 years and is the world's most historical, artistic, and influential work to date. Television content such as TV series and variety shows are also works of art with nearly a century of history and public influence. While bringing joy to the audience, they have also changed people's lifestyles, society, and even the world. Throughout history, humanity has always needed to create romantic, fictional, or sentimental literary and artistic works based on reality. Entertainment content such as movies, TV series, variety shows, and animation is the only form of video to meet this rigid need. We firmly believe that, based on the longer-standing arts such as literature, painting, and music, entertainment video content such as movies, TV series, animation, and variety shows will have greater market potential, especially in a market like China where the overall economy will continue to develop steadily in the future and society will undergo long-term consumption upgrading.</p><p>Interest videos refer to videos that are basically realistic and meet people's various interests and needs, including but not limited to: food, DIY, unboxing, travel, pets, etc. The producers of these videos include MCNs, KOLs, ordinary users who generate electricity for love, and a small number of professionally trained individuals. Interest content and its audience are more segmented and long-tailed. In terms of popularity, each type of interest content is weaker than movies, TV series, anime, and variety shows.</p><p>iQiyi mainly focuses on two video types: entertainment videos and interest videos.</p><p>1) The iQiyi APP focuses on entertainment videos. Our vision is to use technological innovation to make the distribution of entertainment content simpler and provide a better user experience, while also leveraging technological innovation and the wisdom of outstanding artists to create more and better movies, TV series, animation, and variety shows. While providing users with more joy, it also influences their lifestyles, allowing people to conveniently view more, better, and more thought-provoking works of art.</p><p>Currently, the entertainment video industry has formed extremely high entry barriers: its economies of scale require long-term accumulation to achieve; The entire content industry is still in the very early stages of industrialization, and understanding the industry and recognizing talent are crucial at this stage of talent shortage. As China's largest video distribution platform, our years of user data and technological accumulation have given us the deepest understanding of users' needs for entertainment videos. Coupled with its huge funding needs, deep understanding of industry rules, and accumulated relationships with artists such as directors, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, recording artists, and art directors, iQiyi has established a solid leading position in China's entertainment video industry. We are confident in leading the healthy development of the entire industry and providing users with more and better high-quality entertainment content. We firmly believe that in the future, after fully enjoying the pleasure brought by delicious content, more and more Chinese users will pursue entertainment content with higher spiritual value and more artistic value. This is a process of upgrading cultural consumption.</p><p>2) The iQiyi Suike APP mainly focuses on interest videos, and Suike's content will also be distributed on the iQiyi main platform. The characteristics of interest content are that the topics are very dispersed, and the content and the corresponding users have a very long tail. The barrier to entry for users is high, but user stickiness is stronger. The overall market for interest-based videos is not small, but it is not easy for a single media platform to gain a large market share. We believe that in the future, China's interest content media platforms will be fragmented, and user demand and content supply will also be fragmented. This model is still in its early stages in China, and iQiyi has a great opportunity to leverage its existing resources to explore this new market.</p><p>In short, iQiyi's core value lies in the production and distribution of entertainment content. Entertainment content is a core human need, and iQiyi has already established a leading position in this field and will continue to expand its leading position in the future. The content of interest that Always Focuses on is an emerging market, and iQiyi will develop this business and make it support the company's core entertainment business.</p><p>II. Core Issues and Our Planning Strategies:</p><p>As is well known, after 10 years of development, membership business has become the company's largest source of revenue. Although we are currently facing some challenges that may lead to slower growth or fluctuations in the number of members retained, we still firmly believe that the membership business has huge market potential. Two pieces of data that can be corroborated are: 1) As of the end of Q1 2021, iQiyi's cumulative number of paid accounts had exceeded 490 million; 2) In Q1 2021, the average number of members with membership rights on any given day of the month was nearly 160 million, indicating that the user base willing to pay for high-quality content is extremely large. The industry generally believes that the slowdown in membership business growth is due to the squeeze on users' time spent by short videos and other diverse forms of entertainment. We acknowledge the impact of this, but we have observed that users' viewing mindset regarding various videos is gradually becoming clearer.</p><p>Meanwhile, based on our data and analysis, we believe that the root cause of entertainment videos being squeezed by other forms is still the current lack of high-quality content. Even with the abundance of entertainment options available today, high-quality entertainment video content remains a core factor that plays a significant role in boosting user traffic and time spent there. A recent example is that we launched the hit exclusive drama \"Son-in-Law\" in February this year. During its run, the drama was played on more than 180 million devices, and by the end of the season, the number of member accounts had exceeded 64 million, pushing the peak number of members this quarter to approach the level during the pandemic at the end of Q1 last year.</p><p>Consistently producing high-quality content is key to increasing user and member loyalty. We believe that the current shortage of high-quality content is mainly due to two factors: 1) The number of copyrighted content obtained from traditional channels is decreasing. On the one hand, the number of copyrighted TV dramas has decreased accordingly as the market share of the traditional TV industry has shrunk; On the other hand, due to the impact of the pandemic, the number of theatrical films, especially Hollywood films shown in Chinese cinemas, which play a crucial role in attracting and retaining members, has decreased sharply.</p><p>According to our analysis, the number of films released using the SVOD model that grossed over 100 million yuan in 2020 and from January to April 2021 decreased by about half compared to the same period in 2019, with the number of overseas films, mainly Hollywood films, decreasing by more than half. 2) Currently, the quantity and quality of self-produced content cannot meet the needs. Breakthroughs in self-created content require us to find the best talent and the highest quality partners in the industry, build a strong content ecosystem, and create the best works. However, improving the ecosystem takes time to refine.</p><p>Regarding how to solve the problem of \"lack of high-quality content\", I would like to talk about iQiyi's future plans and programs.</p><p>Since content quality is the core and important focus of our entire content ecosystem, we hope to achieve a sufficiently high probability of blockbuster content by continuously improving content quality. Establishing a sufficient and effective internal studio is an important prerequisite for improving the quality of our content. In 2018, during our IPO roadshow, we set a goal of establishing 50 in-house studios within two years, and we have now exceeded this goal. Most of these internal studios are web series and variety show studios, with a small number being film and animation studios. Increasing the number of film and animation studios in the next two years is an important strategy for our content production, because through internal studios, we can gather outstanding production talents in the industry and acquire a large number of top IPs and works.</p><p>As we have more and more internal studios, we will continue to adhere to the development of multiple content categories and cultivate vertical tracks. Since our successful launch of Mist Theater last year, the format of short series and the quality of our content have been widely recognized by users and the market. It is believed that through experience accumulation and continuous efforts, the high-quality content exclusively broadcast by iQiyi will form a continuous and stable line of works.</p><p>The content creation industry also faces various problems, such as long and uncontrollable content creation cycles, low success rates, a large workload of simple and repetitive tasks, a lack of objective evaluation standards, and significant financial risks. In response to these difficulties and challenges, we believe the solution lies in the industrialization of film and television.</p><p>The industrialization of film and television includes the restructuring of industry rules and intelligent production. Intelligent manufacturing is a key focus. This is because although China's film and television industry has been undergoing industrialization for two or three decades, it has not achieved qualitative changes. One important reason is the lack of technological support. Intelligent manufacturing is a key factor in solving the problem. Thanks to the development and support of technologies such as 5G, AI, blockchain, DRM, VR/AR, and virtual shooting, our intelligent production system is gradually being improved.</p><p>Our planned and ongoing intelligent production includes: 1) producing a business intelligence system for post-broadcast business metric analysis and broadcast business metric forecasting at various production stages before broadcast; 2) Intelligent integrated production system, with artificial intelligence as the core, integrates and standardizes the management of people, equipment and materials in the film and television production process; 3) Intelligent production toolset, which uses artificial intelligence technology, computer graphics and other technologies to realize a multi-faceted production toolset for film and television production from the beginning to the end, improving work efficiency and user experience. We are using these systems and tools to enhance the controllability of production schedules, content quality, and financial risks, thereby further reducing costs and improving efficiency. We believe that by leveraging iQiyi's industry leadership to change unreasonable rules in the industry, and using intelligent production to assist in optimizing these industry rules and improving production efficiency, future content production will be more stable, continuous, efficient, and produce a frequent stream of blockbuster content.</p><p>Looking back at iQiyi's continuous development over the past decade, in terms of business operations, we are gradually establishing a win-win ecosystem and a \"one fish eats many things\" business model. In terms of content, we have gained recognition from artists from all walks of life and a wide range of users; In the field of technology, we continuously innovate to enhance users' audio-visual experience and improve efficiency. We believe that the valuable knowledge wealth accumulated by the Company through years of fierce competition in the video industry will further solidify our market leadership position. We firmly believe that long-form video film and television entertainment is irreplaceable as an important form of entertainment. We hope to empower content production through continuous technological innovation, increase the probability of content becoming a hit, thereby generating greater commercial value, expanding the stage for dreaming and imagination for the next generation of entertainment, and looking forward to bringing more surprises to our shareholders.</p><p>Company Note: We will not be reading this letter during the conference call later today to allow more time to communicate with investors during the Q&A session.</p><p>Appendix: Our Q1 Performance and Outlook</p><p>This quarter, thanks to the high-quality content we launched, our overall revenue in the first quarter of the year exceeded the company's previous guidance, achieving growth both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, in recent quarters, with relatively stable revenue, our content costs have been effectively controlled, and losses have been continuously narrowing. We also maintained our industry leadership position, ranking first in the industry in daily active users, monthly active users, and monthly usage time, according to QuestMobile data.</p><p>Members:</p><p>First is the membership business. As of March 31, the company had a total of 105.3 million subscribers, with a net increase of approximately 3.6 million in the quarter. Membership revenue increased by 12% quarter-on-quarter to RMB 4.31 billion.</p><p>The growth in membership was mainly due to: 1) The strong performance of top-tier content, especially high-quality dramas, which continued to drive up membership. For example, the top drama \"The Son-in-Law\" became a hit during the Spring Festival, achieving extremely high monetization efficiency with a relatively short number of episodes, ranking first in daily consumption history, surpassing \"Story of Yanxi Palace\". Meanwhile, several theatrical films were released this quarter, including \"The King of Bathing,\" \"Eliminating Violence,\" and \"Bomb Disposal Expert 2,\" while online films such as \"Diary of a Fortune\" and \"The Legend of the Treasure of Shaolin Temple\" also performed well. 2) During the Spring Festival, users spent more time on long-form video consumption, resulting in an increase in overall platform traffic, with both mobile MAU and DAU increasing month-on-month. 3) The company launched a variety of innovative marketing initiatives for the holiday season, including an \"incentive-based task system\" and optimization of membership products and services, which significantly improved user engagement and member loyalty.</p><p>In addition to the increase in membership numbers, the quarter-on-quarter increase in membership revenue this quarter was also due to: 1) the increase in users' willingness to pay, mainly due to our high-quality content and the company's continuous exploration of business model innovation: including advanced on-demand and PVOD models. For example, the exclusive drama \"The Son-in-Law\" broke the stereotype of period dramas with its light comedy feel, attracting a large number of members to purchase advance on-demand to unlock the plot. The movie \"Get Rich Diary\" set a new record for viewership and on-demand revenue under the PVOD model. 2) Membership price adjustments boosted Q1 ARPU both year-on-year and month-on-month.</p><p>At the same time, the company is further expanding the total addressable market through two aspects. a) In late February, the company launched a new Express VIP membership package, which targets lower-tier users and uses more targeted content and membership benefits to promote paid conversion of lower-tier vertical users. b) The company's overseas exploration also continued to progress steadily. In Q1 2021, the overall MAU increased by 77% compared with the previous quarter, and the number of new downloads remained in the top 5 in many Southeast Asian countries and regions, especially in countries and regions such as Thailand and Malaysia, where it has maintained the number one position for a long time. The frequent emergence of blockbuster international content has driven the continuous improvement of iQiyi's international brand awareness.</p><p>Although we still expect the number of subscribers to fluctuate in the short term, we remain confident in the medium- to long-term development of our membership business, thanks to the company's continued development of high-quality content and the continuous improvement of the company's original content ecosystem and self-production capabilities. We are pleased to see that the content production standards of domestic video websites are gradually approaching those of their international counterparts. It has become the norm for users to pay for high-quality content. We have also noticed that some competitors have followed us in adjusting membership prices, which also demonstrates the industry's long-term profitability.</p><p>advertising</p><p>China's overall advertising market continued to recover this quarter. Our advertising services revenue increased by 25% year-on-year. Despite Q1 being the traditional off-season for advertising, stable year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth was achieved. Similar to the trend in Q4 2020, the growth is mainly attributed to the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter increase in content marketing revenue driven by high-quality variety shows and major dramas in Q1 this year. Content marketing revenue accounts for approximately 64% of brand advertising revenue, the highest point in recent quarters, once again demonstrating advertisers' recognition of our platform's high-quality content.</p><p>In terms of brand advertising, against the backdrop of macroeconomic recovery, brand advertising revenue continued to stabilize, thanks to the recovery of advertiser budgets and the growth in the number of advertisers. In Q1, high-quality content prompted some leading advertisers to increase their spending, resulting in an increase in ARPU for leading clients. From an industry perspective, the food and beverage and cosmetics and bathroom fixtures sectors supported the growth in Q1. In terms of performance-based advertising, the quarter-on-quarter increase in consumption this quarter was driven by traffic during holidays and contributions from key industries such as online service apps, e-commerce, online film and television, and games.</p><p>Contents:</p><p>In terms of content, iQiyi's TV series, variety shows, animation, and children's channels continued to lead the entire internet in terms of the number of top content and total broadcast volume in Q1. Third-party data shows that in Q1, iQiyi's TV series and variety shows both had a market share of nearly 40% in effective viewership, while its animation (including children's animation) and movies had market shares of over 40% and 50% respectively, both ranking first in the market.</p><p>iQiyi continues to launch high-quality exclusive content to meet user needs and continues to promote the serialized development and stylistic innovation of its IPs.</p><p>1) In terms of drama, iQiyi's exclusive period drama \"The Son-in-Law\" became a hit this quarter, making beneficial innovations in theme and content style and providing new ideas for future period drama creation. In addition, we have also launched several original dramas on realistic themes, such as \"Golden Years\", \"My Era, Your Era\", and \"Warm Holidays\".</p><p>2) In terms of variety shows, iQiyi continues to innovate original content in different variety show tracks. Original variety show IPs such as \"Drama New Life\", \"Qipa Talk 7\", \"Trend Partners 2\", and \"Sisters' Tea Party\" were popular during the quarter.</p><p>3) In terms of original films, the original film \"The Battle Against Organized Crime\" produced by iQiyi has been released in theaters, grossing over 300 million RMB and receiving high ratings on various platforms. Two movies produced by iQiyi began filming in Q1 2021. Three films are in post-production and will be released this year. There are also 18 iQIYI Original Films in development.</p><p>In Q2 2021, our key dramas included \"Little Shede\", \"Farewell Song\", \"North and South\", \"The Rebel\", and \"Lai Mao's Lion Reflection\". Among them, \"Little Shede\" and \"Farewell Song Journey\" were broadcast in April and were well-received by users. Our theatrical operations will continue to advance. Love Theater is scheduled to premiere on May 20th, and we will continue to launch new content for Mist Theater at the end of this year. In terms of anime and television, content such as \"I Have No Choice but to Betray Earth\" and \"Ice and Snow Guardians\" will be released, as well as the light anime \"Immortal Dad Becomes a Son-in-Law 3\".</p><p>We anticipate some uncertainty in content scheduling in the coming months, and we have made advance arrangements for diverse content themes, especially self-produced dramas, to mitigate the related impact.</p><p>Technology:</p><p>We continue to empower the entertainment industry with technology and build an industrialized film and television production system. Notable developments in technology applications this quarter include:</p><p>1. In terms of intelligent production: iQiyi's \"Virtual and Real City\" XR Cloud Performance: The entire concert adopts globally leading XR virtual production technology, surpassing similar foreign performances in terms of the diversity of virtual scenes and the number of online interactive users, expanding the ceiling of live interactive experience programs and virtual performance programs for everyone.</p><p>2. In terms of products and features, iQiyi Express Edition, which targets users in lower-tier cities, was officially released in January this year. It is currently performing well in terms of user interaction, with indicators such as average time per user and average views exceeding those of the iQiyi main App.</p>\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/1381fbe767d2d5a2d71590c11e4464d5","relate_stocks":{"IQ":"爱奇艺"},"is_english":false,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1183341282","content_text":"5月18日，爱奇艺盘初涨幅扩大至11%，公司第一季度营收80亿元，订阅数净增360万。爱奇艺季报图解：营收80亿 会员规模季度增长360万爱奇艺今日公布财报，财报显示，爱奇艺2021年第一季度营收为80亿元(约12亿美元)，实现超预期增长。截至一季度末，爱奇艺订阅会员规模达到1.053亿。受财报利好的影响，爱奇艺目前股价盘前上涨超过4%。“我们以全面、稳健的季度表现开局。”爱奇艺创始人，董事兼首席执行官龚宇博士表示：“第一季度我们的订阅会员增长了360万，会员服务收入环比增长12％，以绝对金额来看达到过去一年以来的峰值。显著的增长在很大程度上要归功于我们本季度内推出了类型丰富的剧集、综艺以及电影等内容。”“特别是剧集《赘婿》，在收视率和货币化效率方面都成为另一个标杆，这也印证了我们的独家内容策略。4月22日，我们庆祝公司成立11周年。多年来的激烈竞争让我们更有信心进一步加强领导地位。我们坚信，长视频作为一种娱乐形态是不可取代的，我们也已经做好充分准备应对未来的机遇和挑战。”“第一季度的总营收超出我们此前预期，环比和同比均实现了健康增长。”爱奇艺首席财务官王晓东表示：“在本季度，我们推出了多个广受欢迎的内容，同时投资效率提升助推内容成本连续三季度实现同比下降。我们将一如既往的贯彻以提升投资回报率为目标，驱动包括内容、技术和市场营销等不同业务发展。这为爱奇艺可持续的长期发展保驾护航。爱奇艺Q1营收80亿 同比增长4%爱奇艺2021年第一季度营收约80亿元，较上年同期的76.5亿元增长4%，较上一季度的74.6亿元增长7%。龚宇今日还发布致投资人公开信，称爱奇艺的核心价值是娱乐内容的制作和分发。娱乐内容是人类的核心刚性需求，爱奇艺在这个领域已具有领导地位，并将在未来继续扩大领先地位。而随刻聚焦的兴趣内容是一个新兴市场，爱奇艺将发展这一业务，并使其对公司的核心娱乐业务起到支撑作用。“由于内容质量是我们整个内容生态系统的核心和重要落脚点，我们希望通过不断提升内容质量达到足够高的爆款概率。而建立足够且具有战斗力的内部工作室是我们内容质量提升的重要前提。”龚宇说，2018年，爱奇艺在IPO路演时提出了2年建立50个内部工作室的目标，目前爱奇艺已经超额完成了这个目标。根据公开信息，目前工作室数量已经超过60个。这些内部工作室大部分是网剧和综艺工作室，少量是电影和动漫工作室。“未来2年大量增加电影、动漫工作室是我们内容制作的重要策略，因为通过内部工作室，可以聚集行业优秀的制作人才，获取大量头部的IP和作品。”龚宇指出，相信通过经验积累和持续努力，爱奇艺独家播出的优质内容将会形成持续、稳定的作品线。爱奇艺Q1会员收入43亿 环比增长12%爱奇艺2021年第一季度会员服务收入43亿元（约6.581亿美元），环比增长12%。这一个季度内，爱奇艺会员规模实现360万的净增长，主要归功于头部内容，尤其是优质剧集内容表现强劲叠加假期的影响，持续拉动会员数上涨。爱奇艺2021年第一季度广告营收实现收19亿元（约2.925亿美元），同比增长25%，得益于宏观经济的复苏，品牌广告预算和品牌广告主的数量都出现了反弹。在会员与广告收入之外，本季度爱奇艺的内容发行实现收入 7.791亿元（约1.189亿美元），同比增长29%，这是因为在本季度爱奇艺向其他平台发行了更多的内容。爱奇艺2021年第一季度其他营收第一季度贡献收入9.610亿元（约1.467亿美元），相比上年同期增长了10%。爱奇艺Q1成本71亿 较上年同期下降10%爱奇艺2021年第一季度成本为71亿元，较上年同期的79亿元下降10%。这主要归因于内容成本和带宽成本的下降。其中，第一季度内容成本为54亿元（约8.296亿美元），较2020年同期下降8%。内容成本下降主要源于版权内容成本的下降。爱奇艺Q1毛利8.6亿 毛利率11%爱奇艺2021年第一季毛利8.6亿元，毛利率11%，上年同期的毛利率为-3%。爱奇艺Q1费用18.7亿 同比下降6%爱奇艺2021年第一季度费用为18.7亿元，较上年同期的19.89亿元下降6%。其中，爱奇艺第一季度销售、总务与行政开支共计为12亿（约1.833亿美元），比上年同期下滑8%。爱奇艺第一季度研发开支为6.723亿元（约1.026亿美元）。爱奇艺Q1运营亏损10亿 运营利润率为-13%爱奇艺2021年第一季度运营亏损为10亿元（约1.548亿美元），上年同期运营亏损为22亿元；运营亏损率为13%，上年同期运营亏损率为29%。爱奇艺2021年第一季度运营利润率为-13%，自从2019年第三季度以来，爱奇艺的运营亏损在持续收窄。截至2021年3月31日，公司拥有现金、现金等价物，限制性用途现金和短期投资共计133亿元(约20亿美元)。爱奇艺展望了2021年第二季度的业绩：预计总收入介于72.1亿元（约 11亿美元）和76.5亿元（约11.7亿美元）之间。以下是爱奇艺龚宇致投资人信：各位股东好！这是第一次以股东信的形式与大家交流。我想和大家分享下我们目前对行业竞争和内容制作规划的一些思考。一、行业态势和我们的竞争壁垒：在线视频行业已经有十几年的发展历史，现在行业对视频类型有三种普遍的观点。第一种，按照视频规格（视频长度）把视频划分为：长视频和短视频，或长视频、中视频和短视频。第二种，按照内容创作者将视频划分为PPC（professional produced content）、PUGC（professional user generated content）、UGC（user generated content）。PPC由编剧、导演、摄影、演员等专业人士制作，作品包括电影、剧集、动画片和综艺节目等。PUGC由KOL和MCN制作，专业度低于PPC，但可以通过广告或其他变现方式获得收入。UGC是普通用户制作的内容，绝大部分不是专业内容。以上两种分类方法是比较普遍的观点。目前行业还有第三种观点，认为内容最终是为了用户观看，为何不用用户观看视频的目的，观看视频时的心态以及对视频内容的思考做分类呢？按照这种观点视频被分类为：可口视频、娱乐视频和兴趣视频。可口视频类似于快餐，用户消费时的心态轻松，只是简单地消磨时间，看的时候开心就好，并不期望看后长久受益。娱乐视频就是电影、剧集、动漫、综艺等视频内容。优秀的影视作品能令头脑开启思考，并在观看后留下深刻印象和引发持续深度思考，甚至会影响自己的价值观和一生。娱乐内容中，电影诞生了120多年，是迄今世界上最有历史、最有艺术水平，也是最具大众影响力的作品。剧集和综艺等电视内容也是具有近百年历史和大众影响力的文艺作品。他们在给观众提供快乐的同时，也曾改变了人们的生活习惯、改变了社会甚至世界。人类在历史上一直需要在现实基础上延展出浪漫、虚构或者具有情怀的文艺作品，电影、剧集、综艺、动漫等娱乐内容就是满足这种刚性需求的唯一影像形式。我们深信在文学、绘画、音乐等历史更加悠久的艺术基础之上，电影、剧集、动漫、综艺这些娱乐视频内容将具有更大的市场空间，特别是对于中国这种未来经济整体持续稳定发展、社会长期处于消费升级的市场。兴趣视频是指基本以写实为主，满足人们各种兴趣需要的视频，包括但不限于：美食、DIY、开箱、旅游、宠物等等。这类视频的生产者有MCN、KOL，也有为爱发电的普通用户和少量受过专业训练的人士。兴趣内容和它的观众更加分众和长尾。在大众性方面，每类兴趣内容相对于电影、剧集、动漫、综艺弱一些。爱奇艺主要专注于两个视频类型，一是娱乐视频，二是兴趣视频。1）爱奇艺APP专注于娱乐视频。我们的愿景是用科技创新让娱乐内容的分发更加简单、用户体验更好，同时也利用技术创新和优秀艺术家的智慧，创作更多、更优秀的电影、剧集、动漫和综艺节目。在为用户提供更多快乐的同时，也影响用户的生活方式，让人们可以便捷地观看更多、更好、更有思想性的文艺作品。目前娱乐视频这一领域已形成极高的准入门槛：其规模效应需要长期积累达成；整个内容产业仍处在工业化的非常早期, 对行业的理解和人才的认知在这个人才稀缺的阶段是至关重要的。而同时作为中国最大的视频分发平台, 多年的用户数据和技术积累使得我们对用户对娱乐视频的需求有着最深刻的理解。加上巨大的资金需求，对行业规则的深度理解, 与导演、演员、编剧、摄影、录音、美术等艺术家的关系积累，爱奇艺已在中国的娱乐视频领域确立了稳固的领导地位。我们有信心带领整个行业健康发展, 提供给用户更多更好的优质娱乐内容。我们深信未来越来越多的中国用户在充分享受可口内容带来的愉悦之后，一定会追求具有更高精神价值和更具艺术性的娱乐内容。这是一个文化消费升级的过程。2）爱奇艺随刻APP主要专注于兴趣视频，随刻的内容也会在爱奇艺主平台做分发。兴趣内容的特点是主题非常分散，内容和对应的用户都非常长尾。用户进入门槛高，但用户粘性更强。兴趣视频的总体市场不小，但单个媒体平台不容易获得很大的市场占有率。我们认为未来中国的兴趣内容媒体平台会是分散的，用户需求和内容供给也是分散的。目前这个模式在中国还处于初级阶段，爱奇艺在利用已有资源来开拓这一新市场上很有机会。总之，爱奇艺的核心价值是娱乐内容的制作和分发。娱乐内容是人类的核心刚性需求，爱奇艺在这个领域已具有领导地位，并将在未来继续扩大领先地位。而随刻聚焦的兴趣内容是一个新兴市场，爱奇艺将发展这一业务，并使其对公司的核心娱乐业务起到支撑作用。二、核心问题和我们的规划对策：众所周知，历经10年的发展，会员业务已经发展成为公司第一大收入来源。尽管目前我们面临一些挑战，导致会员业务增长放缓或者留存会员数出现波动，我们仍然坚信会员业务拥有巨大的市场潜力。两个可以佐证的数据是，1）截至2021年Q1末爱奇艺累计付费账号数已超过4.9亿；2）在21Q1，平均一个月里有任何一天会员权益的会员数为将近1.6亿，这表明具有为优质内容付费的意愿的用户群体是极其庞大的。而对于会员业务增长放缓，行业内普遍认为短视频及其他多样性娱乐方式对用户时长的挤压是重要原因。我们承认这方面的影响，但是我们观察到用户对于各种视频的观影心智逐渐清晰。同时根据我们的数据和分析，我们相信娱乐视频受其他形式挤压的根源仍然是目前自身的优质内容仍较为匮乏。即使在娱乐方式极大丰富的现在，优质的娱乐视频内容仍然是对用户流量和时长拉动起到巨大的作用核心因素。一个最近的案例是，我们在今年2月上线了爆款独播剧《赘婿》，热播期内该剧在超过1.8亿台设备上播放过，截至收官追剧会员账号数超过6400万，推动本季度的峰值会员数升至接近去年Q1末疫情期间水平。持续不断的产出高质量的内容是提升用户和会员忠诚度的核心。我们认为当前优质内容的匮乏主要是两方面因素导致：1）从传统渠道获取的版权内容正在减少。一方面，版权电视剧随着传统电视行业市场份额的萎缩相应减少；另一方面，受疫情影响，对会员拉新和留存起到至关作用的院线电影，特别是在中国电影院上映的好莱坞电影的数量急剧减少。根据我们的分析，2020年和2021年1-4月以SVOD模式上线的票房过亿的电影的数量相比2019年同期分别下降约一半，其中以好莱坞电影为主的海外电影数量分别下降超过一半。2）目前自制内容的数量和质量都还不能满足需要。自制内容的突破性进展需要我们找到行业最优秀的人才以及最优质的合作伙伴，建立强大的内容生态系统，去做最优秀的作品，而生态系统的完善需要时间来打磨。针对如何解决“优质内容匮乏”这一课题，我想谈一下爱奇艺未来的计划和规划。由于内容质量是我们整个内容生态系统的核心和重要落脚点，我们希望通过不断提升内容质量达到足够高的爆款概率。而建立足够且具有战斗力的内部工作室是我们内容质量提升的重要前提。2018年我们在IPO路演时提出了2年建立50个内部工作室的目标，目前我们已经超额完成了这个目标。这些内部工作室大部分是网剧和综艺工作室，少量是电影和动漫工作室。未来2年大量增加电影、动漫工作室是我们内容制作的重要策略，因为通过内部工作室，可以聚集行业优秀的制作人才，获取大量头部的IP和作品。随着内部工作室越来越多，我们将继续坚持多内容品类发展，深耕垂直赛道。自去年我们推出迷雾剧场大获成功以来，短剧集的形式和我们内容质量得到了用户和市场的广泛认可。相信通过经验积累和持续努力，爱奇艺独家播出的优质内容将会形成持续、稳定的作品线。在内容制作行业也面临种种问题，例如内容制作周期较长且不可控，作品成功率较低，简单重复性的工作量很大，缺乏客观评价标准以及财务风险较大等等。针对这些困难和挑战，我们认为破局之道在于影视工业化。影视工业化包括行业规则重构和智能制作。其中智能制作是重点。这是因为虽然中国影视行业实践工业化进程已经二三十年，但是并没有取得质的改变，其中一个重要原因是缺少科技手段的支持。而智能制作是解决问题的关键因素。得益于5G、AI、区块链、DRM、VR/AR、虚拟拍摄等技术的发展和支持，我们的智能制作系统正在逐步完善。我们规划中和正在实施的智能制作包括：1）制作商业智能系统，用于播出后商业指标分析以及播出前各个制作阶段的播出商业指标预测；2）智能集成制作系统，以人工智能为核心将影视制作流程中的人、设备、物料集成起来并规范管理；3）智能制作工具集，利用人工智能技术、计算机图形学等技术实现影视制作从前期到后期多方面的制作工具集，提升工作效率和用户体验。我们正在通过这些系统和工具增强制作进度、内容质量和财务风险的可控性，从而进一步降低成本、提高效率。我们相信用爱奇艺的行业领导地位改变行业中的不合理规则，用智能制作协助这种行业规则的优化以及提升制作效率，未来的内容制作工作将更加稳定、持续、高效率及爆款内容频出。纵观爱奇艺不断发展的十几年，在商业运营方面，我们正在逐步建立多赢的生态系统和“一鱼多吃”的商业模式；在内容方面，我们得到了各行各业的艺术家和广大用户的认可；在科技领域，我们不断开拓创新以提高用户视听体验和提升效率。我们相信公司在视频行业多年的激烈竞争中积累的宝贵知识财富将进一步巩固我们的市场领导地位。我们始终坚信长视频影视娱乐作为重要的娱乐形式具有不可替代性。我们希望通过持续不断的科技创新赋能内容制作，提高内容爆款概率，从而催生出更大的商业价值，为下一代娱乐拓展更大的造梦舞台和想象空间，也期待为各位股东带来更多惊喜。公司注：我们不会在今天晚些时候的电话会议上读这封信，以便留出更多时间在问答环节与投资者交流。附录：我们Q1的表现和展望本季度，得益于上线的优质内容，我们开年首个季度整体收入超出公司之前指引，同环比均取得增长。同时，近几个季度以来，在收入相对稳定的情况下，我们内容成本得到了有效的控制，亏损不断收窄。我们也延续了我们的行业领先地位，根据QuestMobile数据，我们的日活、月活和月度使用时长均行业排名第一。会员：首先是会员业务。截至3月31日，公司总订阅会员数达1.053亿，季度净新增约360万。会员收入环比增长12%至43.1亿元人民币。会员数的增长主要得益于：1）头部内容，尤其是优质剧集内容表现强劲，持续拉动会员数上涨。例如，头部剧集《赘婿》成为春节爆款，以较短的集数实现了极高的变现效率，日均消费历史top1，超越《延禧攻略》。同时，本季度上线了《沐浴之王》《除暴》《拆弹专家2》等多部院线电影，网络电影《发财日记》《少林寺之得宝传奇》等也表现良好。2）春节期间用户花费更多时间在长视频消费上，平台整体大盘流量上涨，移动端MAU和DAU均环比上涨。3）公司针对假日季推出了多种创新营销举措，包括“激励型任务体系”和会员产品及服务优化等，使用户参与率、会员忠诚度显著提升。除会员数的增长外，本季度会员收入环比增长还得益于：1）用户付费意愿的提升，主要得益于我们的优质内容以及公司在商业模式创新方面的持续探索：包括超前点播和PVOD模式。例如，独播剧《赘婿》凭借其轻喜剧质感打破古装剧刻板印象，吸引大量会员购买超前点播解锁剧情。电影《发财日记》创造了PVOD模式下观影人次和点播收入新高。2）会员价格调整拉动Q1 ARPU值同比和环比提升。同时公司通过两方面来进一步扩展total addressable market。a）2月下旬公司新推出了极速版VIP会员套餐，该套餐针对低线用户，用更有针对性的内容和会员权益促进低线垂类用户的付费转化。b）公司的海外探索也继续稳步推进，2021Q1整体MAU较上季度增长77%，新增下载量在东南亚多个国家和地区稳居TOP5，特别是在泰国、马来西亚等国家和地区长期保持第一。国际版内容爆款频出，推动爱奇艺国际版品牌认知度持续提升。尽管我们目前仍预期订阅会员数会在短期内存在波动，但得益于公司对优质内容的持续深耕，以及公司原创内容生态和自制能力的不断提升，我们对会员业务的中长期发展依然有信心。我们欣喜地看到，国内视频网站的内容制作水准逐渐向国际同行靠拢。而用户为优质内容付费已经成为常态。我们也注意到有同行跟随我们调整了会员价格，这也表明了行业的长期盈利能力。广告本季度中国整体广告市场继续恢复。我们的广告服务收入同比增长25%。在Q1是传统的广告淡季的前提下实现了稳定的同比、环比增长。和20年Q4趋势类似，增长主要归功于今年Q1优质综艺及大剧带动内容营销收入同环比提升。内容营销收入贡献占品牌广告收入的比例达64%左右，为最近几个季度的最高点，再一次验证了广告主对我们平台优质内容的认可。品牌广告方面，在宏观经济恢复的大背景下，得益于广告主预算的恢复以及广告主数量的增长，品牌广告收入继续企稳。Q1优质内容带动一些头部广告主加大了投放，头部客户ARPU提升。行业上看，食品饮料和化妆卫浴两个行业撑起了Q1的增长。效果广告方面，本季度消费环比上涨得益于节假日的流量带动以及重点行业如网服app、电商、网络影视、游戏的贡献。内容：内容方面，爱奇艺剧集、综艺、动漫、儿童等频道头部内容的数量及播出总量在Q1继续领先全网。第三方数据显示，Q1爱奇艺的剧集和综艺分别的正片有效播放量市场份额均接近40%，动漫（含儿童动画）和电影的正片有效播放量市场份额分别超过40%和50%，均为市场第一。爱奇艺持续推出高品质独播内容来满足用户需求，并持续推进IP的系列化开发和风格化创新。1）戏剧方面，爱奇艺本季度独播的古装大剧《赘婿》成为爆款，在题材和内容风格方面做了有益创新，为未来古装剧创作提供了新思路。此外，我们也在现实主义题材方面推出了《流金岁月》、《我的时代，你的时代》、《假日暖洋洋》等多部原创大剧。2）综艺方面，爱奇艺持续在不同综艺赛道进行原创内容创新。综艺新IP《戏剧新生活》、《奇葩说7》、《潮流合伙人2》、《姐妹们的茶话会》等原创作品在季度内热播。3）原创电影方面，由爱奇艺出品的原创电影《扫黑·决战》已于院线上映，票房超过三亿人民币，并获得各个平台的高评分。2021Q1爱奇艺出品的2部电影开机拍摄。3部电影处于后期制作之中，将于今年上映。还有18部爱奇艺出品电影（iQIYI Original Film）正在开发中。2021Q2，我们的重点戏剧内容包括《小舍得》、《骊歌行》、《北辙南辕》、《叛逆者》、《赖猫的狮子倒影》等。其中《小舍得》《骊歌行》已于4月播出，受到用户喜爱。我们的剧场化运营也将持续推进，恋恋剧场计划在5月20日开播，今年年底我们还将继续推出迷雾剧场新内容。动漫和动画方面，将上线《只好背叛地球了》、《冰雪守护者》，轻动画《仙尊奶爸当赘婿3》等内容。我们预计未来几个月的内容排播会面临一些不确定性，对此我们已提前布局了题材多样的内容，特别是自制大剧，以降低相关影响。技术:我们持续以技术赋能娱乐行业，建设影视制作工业化体系。本季度值得强调的技术应用方面的进展包括：1.在智能制作方面：爱奇艺“虚实之城”XR云演出：演唱会整场采用全球领先的XR虚拟制作技术，在虚拟场景的多样性和线上互动用户数等方面超越国外同类演出，为大家拓展了直播互动体验节目和虚拟演出节目新的天花板。2.产品和功能方面，今年1月针对低线城市用户的爱奇艺极速版正式发布，目前在用户互动方面表现良好，人均时长、人均播放VV等指标超过爱奇艺主站App。","news_type":1,"symbols_score_info":{"IQ":0.9}},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":4011,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0}],"hots":[{"id":194106176,"gmtCreate":1621346284895,"gmtModify":1704356169156,"author":{"id":"3584143177731402","authorId":"3584143177731402","name":"Jennie95","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/1dda05a46e34c050636a146a70383324","crmLevel":11,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3584143177731402","authorIdStr":"3584143177731402"},"themes":[],"title":"","htmlText":"nice","listText":"nice","text":"nice","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":3,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/194106176","repostId":"1183341282","repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"1183341282","kind":"news","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"为用户提供金融资讯、行情、数据，旨在帮助投资者理解世界，做投资决策。","home_visible":1,"media_name":"老虎资讯综合","id":"102","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba"},"pubTimestamp":1621345715,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1183341282?lang=en_US&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2021-05-18 21:48","market":"us","language":"zh","title":"iQiyi's early-day gains widened to 11%, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan.","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1183341282","media":"老虎资讯综合","summary":"5月18日，爱奇艺盘初涨幅扩大至11%，公司第一季度营收80亿元，订阅数净增360万。爱奇艺季报图解：营收80亿 会员规模季度增长360万爱奇艺今日公布财报，财报显示，爱奇艺2021年第一季度营收为8","content":"<p>May 18th,<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/IQ\">iQiyi</a>The gains widened to 11% in early trading, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan and a net increase of 3.6 million subscribers.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/aba07754c496fb73dfdd6ab5e1d1c8eb\" tg-width=\"1302\" tg-height=\"833\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p><b>iQiyi's Quarterly Report Infographic: Revenue of 8 Billion Yuan, Membership Growth of 3.6 Million in the Quarter</b></p><p>iQiyi released its financial report today, showing that its revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 8 billion (approximately US$1.2 billion), achieving better-than-expected growth.</p><p>As of the end of the first quarter, iQiyi had 105.3 million subscribers. Influenced by the positive financial report, iQiyi's stock price is currently up more than 4% in pre-market trading.</p><p>“We started with a comprehensive and solid quarterly performance,” said Dr. Gong Yu, founder, director and CEO of iQiyi. “In the first quarter, our subscriber base increased by 3.6 million, and membership service revenue increased by 12% quarter-over-quarter, reaching its peak in the past year in absolute terms. This significant growth is largely attributed to the diverse range of TV series, variety shows, and movies we launched during the quarter.”</p><p>\"In particular, the series 'Son-in-Law' has become another benchmark in terms of ratings and monetization efficiency, which also confirms our exclusive content strategy. On April 22, we celebrated the company's 11th anniversary. Years of fierce competition have given us more confidence to further strengthen our leadership position. We firmly believe that long-form videos are irreplaceable as a form of entertainment, and we are fully prepared to meet the opportunities and challenges of the future.\"</p><p>\"Total revenue in the first quarter exceeded our previous expectations, achieving healthy growth both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year,\" said Wang Xiaodong, Chief Financial Officer of iQiyi. \"This quarter, we launched several popular pieces of content, while improved investment efficiency contributed to a year-on-year decrease in content costs for the third consecutive quarter. We will continue to focus on improving return on investment, driving the development of various businesses including content, technology, and marketing. This will safeguard iQiyi's sustainable long-term development.\"</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 revenue was 8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5cda524aafd93a3ba0a185b6f29bbf9f\" tg-width=\"882\" tg-height=\"443\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi's revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was approximately RMB 8 billion, a 4% increase from RMB 7.65 billion in the same period of the previous year and a 7% increase from RMB 7.46 billion in the previous quarter.</p><p>Gong Yu also released an open letter to investors today, stating that iQiyi's core value is the production and distribution of entertainment content. Entertainment content is a core human need, and iQiyi has already established a leading position in this field and will continue to expand its leading position in the future. The content of interest that Always Focuses on is an emerging market, and iQiyi will develop this business and make it support the company's core entertainment business.</p><p>\"Since content quality is the core and important focus of our entire content ecosystem, we hope to achieve a sufficiently high probability of viral hits by continuously improving content quality. Establishing a sufficient and effective internal studio is an important prerequisite for improving our content quality.\"</p><p>Gong Yu said that in 2018, iQiyi set a goal of establishing 50 internal studios within two years during its IPO roadshow, and iQiyi has now exceeded this goal. According to publicly available information, the number of studios currently exceeds 60. Most of these internal studios are web series and variety show studios, with a small number being film and animation studios.</p><p>\"Increasing the number of film and animation studios in the next two years is an important strategy for our content production, because through internal studios, we can gather outstanding production talents in the industry and acquire a large number of top IPs and works.\"</p><p>Gong Yu pointed out that he believes that through experience accumulation and continuous efforts, the high-quality content exclusively broadcast by iQiyi will form a continuous and stable line of works.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 membership revenue reached 4.3 billion yuan, a 12% increase compared to the previous period.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0c5dae367f8bc4acc4f1e0e0edbfc708\" tg-width=\"892\" tg-height=\"469\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi's membership service revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 4.3 billion (approximately US$658.1 million), a 12% increase quarter-over-quarter. In this quarter, iQiyi achieved a net increase of 3.6 million members, mainly thanks to the strong performance of top content, especially high-quality dramas, coupled with the impact of holidays, which continued to drive up the number of members.</p><p>iQiyi achieved advertising revenue of RMB 1.9 billion (approximately US$292.5 million) in the first quarter of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 25%, thanks to the recovery of the macroeconomy, which led to a rebound in both brand advertising budgets and the number of brand advertisers.</p><p>Excluding membership and advertising revenue, iQiyi's content distribution revenue reached RMB 779.1 million (approximately US$118.9 million) this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 29%, as iQiyi distributed more content to other platforms during the quarter.</p><p>iQiyi's other revenue contributed RMB 961 million (approximately US$146.7 million) in the first quarter of 2021, a 10% increase compared to the same period last year.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 costs were 7.1 billion yuan, a 10% decrease compared to the same period last year.</b></p><p>iQiyi's costs in the first quarter of 2021 were 7.1 billion yuan, a 10% decrease from 7.9 billion yuan in the same period of the previous year. This is mainly due to the decrease in content costs and bandwidth costs.</p><p>Content costs in the first quarter were RMB 5.4 billion (approximately US$829.6 million), an 8% decrease compared to the same period in 2020. The decrease in content costs is mainly due to the decrease in copyrighted content costs.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 gross profit was 860 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 11%.</b></p><p>iQiyi's gross profit in the first quarter of 2021 was 860 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 11%, compared to a gross profit margin of -3% in the same period last year.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 expenses were 1.87 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6%.</b></p><p>iQiyi's expenses for the first quarter of 2021 were RMB 1.87 billion, a 6% decrease from RMB 1.989 billion in the same period of the previous year.</p><p>iQiyi's sales, general and administrative expenses totaled 1.2 billion yuan (approximately US$183.3 million) in the first quarter, a decrease of 8% compared to the same period last year. iQiyi's R&D expenses in the first quarter were 672.3 million yuan (approximately US$102.6 million).</p><p><b>iQiyi reported an operating loss of 1 billion yuan in Q1, with an operating profit margin of -13%.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fd32579df25a17ea99fc71e68ea987ee\" tg-width=\"931\" tg-height=\"449\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi reported an operating loss of RMB 1 billion (approximately US$154.8 million) in the first quarter of 2021, compared to an operating loss of RMB 2.2 billion in the same period last year. The operating loss rate was 13%, compared to 29% in the same period last year. iQiyi's operating profit margin was -13% in the first quarter of 2021. Since the third quarter of 2019, iQiyi's operating losses have been narrowing.</p><p>As of March 31, 2021, the company had cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments totaling RMB13.3 billion (approximately US$2 billion).</p><p>iQiyi has outlooked its results for the second quarter of 2021: total revenue is expected to be between RMB 7.21 billion (approximately US$1.1 billion) and RMB 7.65 billion (approximately US$1.17 billion).</p><p>The following is a letter from iQiyi's Gong Yu to investors:</p><p>Hello, shareholders!</p><p>This is the first time we have communicated with everyone in the form of a shareholder letter. I'd like to share some of our current thoughts on industry competition and content creation planning.</p><p>I. Industry trends and our competitive barriers:</p><p>The online video industry has been developing for over a decade, and there are currently three common views on video genres in the industry.</p><p>The first method divides videos into: long videos and short videos, or long videos, medium videos and short videos, according to video specifications (video length). The second method involves categorizing videos according to the content creator. PPC (professional produced content), PUGC (professional user generated content), UGC (user generated content). PPC is produced by professionals such as screenwriters, directors, photographers, and actors, and their works include movies, TV series, animated films, and variety shows. PUGC is produced by KOLs and MCNs and is less professional than PPC, but can generate revenue through advertising or other monetization methods. UGC is content created by ordinary users, and most of it is not professional content.</p><p>The above two classification methods are relatively common views. There is currently a third viewpoint in the industry, which believes that content is ultimately for users to watch. Why not categorize it based on the user's purpose of watching the video, their mindset when watching the video, and their thoughts on the video content? According to this point of view, videos are classified into: tasty videos, entertainment videos, and interest videos.</p><p>Delicious videos are similar to fast food. Users have a relaxed mindset when making purchases, they are simply killing time and enjoying themselves while watching, without expecting to benefit from them in the long run.</p><p>Entertainment videos refer to video content such as movies, TV series, anime, and variety shows. Excellent films and television works can open the mind to think, leave a deep impression after watching, and trigger continuous and in-depth thinking, and may even influence one's values and life. Among entertainment content, film has been around for over 120 years and is the world's most historical, artistic, and influential work to date. Television content such as TV series and variety shows are also works of art with nearly a century of history and public influence. While bringing joy to the audience, they have also changed people's lifestyles, society, and even the world. Throughout history, humanity has always needed to create romantic, fictional, or sentimental literary and artistic works based on reality. Entertainment content such as movies, TV series, variety shows, and animation is the only form of video to meet this rigid need. We firmly believe that, based on the longer-standing arts such as literature, painting, and music, entertainment video content such as movies, TV series, animation, and variety shows will have greater market potential, especially in a market like China where the overall economy will continue to develop steadily in the future and society will undergo long-term consumption upgrading.</p><p>Interest videos refer to videos that are basically realistic and meet people's various interests and needs, including but not limited to: food, DIY, unboxing, travel, pets, etc. The producers of these videos include MCNs, KOLs, ordinary users who generate electricity for love, and a small number of professionally trained individuals. Interest content and its audience are more segmented and long-tailed. In terms of popularity, each type of interest content is weaker than movies, TV series, anime, and variety shows.</p><p>iQiyi mainly focuses on two video types: entertainment videos and interest videos.</p><p>1) The iQiyi APP focuses on entertainment videos. Our vision is to use technological innovation to make the distribution of entertainment content simpler and provide a better user experience, while also leveraging technological innovation and the wisdom of outstanding artists to create more and better movies, TV series, animation, and variety shows. While providing users with more joy, it also influences their lifestyles, allowing people to conveniently view more, better, and more thought-provoking works of art.</p><p>Currently, the entertainment video industry has formed extremely high entry barriers: its economies of scale require long-term accumulation to achieve; The entire content industry is still in the very early stages of industrialization, and understanding the industry and recognizing talent are crucial at this stage of talent shortage. As China's largest video distribution platform, our years of user data and technological accumulation have given us the deepest understanding of users' needs for entertainment videos. Coupled with its huge funding needs, deep understanding of industry rules, and accumulated relationships with artists such as directors, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, recording artists, and art directors, iQiyi has established a solid leading position in China's entertainment video industry. We are confident in leading the healthy development of the entire industry and providing users with more and better high-quality entertainment content. We firmly believe that in the future, after fully enjoying the pleasure brought by delicious content, more and more Chinese users will pursue entertainment content with higher spiritual value and more artistic value. This is a process of upgrading cultural consumption.</p><p>2) The iQiyi Suike APP mainly focuses on interest videos, and Suike's content will also be distributed on the iQiyi main platform. The characteristics of interest content are that the topics are very dispersed, and the content and the corresponding users have a very long tail. The barrier to entry for users is high, but user stickiness is stronger. The overall market for interest-based videos is not small, but it is not easy for a single media platform to gain a large market share. We believe that in the future, China's interest content media platforms will be fragmented, and user demand and content supply will also be fragmented. This model is still in its early stages in China, and iQiyi has a great opportunity to leverage its existing resources to explore this new market.</p><p>In short, iQiyi's core value lies in the production and distribution of entertainment content. Entertainment content is a core human need, and iQiyi has already established a leading position in this field and will continue to expand its leading position in the future. The content of interest that Always Focuses on is an emerging market, and iQiyi will develop this business and make it support the company's core entertainment business.</p><p>II. Core Issues and Our Planning Strategies:</p><p>As is well known, after 10 years of development, membership business has become the company's largest source of revenue. Although we are currently facing some challenges that may lead to slower growth or fluctuations in the number of members retained, we still firmly believe that the membership business has huge market potential. Two pieces of data that can be corroborated are: 1) As of the end of Q1 2021, iQiyi's cumulative number of paid accounts had exceeded 490 million; 2) In Q1 2021, the average number of members with membership rights on any given day of the month was nearly 160 million, indicating that the user base willing to pay for high-quality content is extremely large. The industry generally believes that the slowdown in membership business growth is due to the squeeze on users' time spent by short videos and other diverse forms of entertainment. We acknowledge the impact of this, but we have observed that users' viewing mindset regarding various videos is gradually becoming clearer.</p><p>Meanwhile, based on our data and analysis, we believe that the root cause of entertainment videos being squeezed by other forms is still the current lack of high-quality content. Even with the abundance of entertainment options available today, high-quality entertainment video content remains a core factor that plays a significant role in boosting user traffic and time spent there. A recent example is that we launched the hit exclusive drama \"Son-in-Law\" in February this year. During its run, the drama was played on more than 180 million devices, and by the end of the season, the number of member accounts had exceeded 64 million, pushing the peak number of members this quarter to approach the level during the pandemic at the end of Q1 last year.</p><p>Consistently producing high-quality content is key to increasing user and member loyalty. We believe that the current shortage of high-quality content is mainly due to two factors: 1) The number of copyrighted content obtained from traditional channels is decreasing. On the one hand, the number of copyrighted TV dramas has decreased accordingly as the market share of the traditional TV industry has shrunk; On the other hand, due to the impact of the pandemic, the number of theatrical films, especially Hollywood films shown in Chinese cinemas, which play a crucial role in attracting and retaining members, has decreased sharply.</p><p>According to our analysis, the number of films released using the SVOD model that grossed over 100 million yuan in 2020 and from January to April 2021 decreased by about half compared to the same period in 2019, with the number of overseas films, mainly Hollywood films, decreasing by more than half. 2) Currently, the quantity and quality of self-produced content cannot meet the needs. Breakthroughs in self-created content require us to find the best talent and the highest quality partners in the industry, build a strong content ecosystem, and create the best works. However, improving the ecosystem takes time to refine.</p><p>Regarding how to solve the problem of \"lack of high-quality content\", I would like to talk about iQiyi's future plans and programs.</p><p>Since content quality is the core and important focus of our entire content ecosystem, we hope to achieve a sufficiently high probability of blockbuster content by continuously improving content quality. Establishing a sufficient and effective internal studio is an important prerequisite for improving the quality of our content. In 2018, during our IPO roadshow, we set a goal of establishing 50 in-house studios within two years, and we have now exceeded this goal. Most of these internal studios are web series and variety show studios, with a small number being film and animation studios. Increasing the number of film and animation studios in the next two years is an important strategy for our content production, because through internal studios, we can gather outstanding production talents in the industry and acquire a large number of top IPs and works.</p><p>As we have more and more internal studios, we will continue to adhere to the development of multiple content categories and cultivate vertical tracks. Since our successful launch of Mist Theater last year, the format of short series and the quality of our content have been widely recognized by users and the market. It is believed that through experience accumulation and continuous efforts, the high-quality content exclusively broadcast by iQiyi will form a continuous and stable line of works.</p><p>The content creation industry also faces various problems, such as long and uncontrollable content creation cycles, low success rates, a large workload of simple and repetitive tasks, a lack of objective evaluation standards, and significant financial risks. In response to these difficulties and challenges, we believe the solution lies in the industrialization of film and television.</p><p>The industrialization of film and television includes the restructuring of industry rules and intelligent production. Intelligent manufacturing is a key focus. This is because although China's film and television industry has been undergoing industrialization for two or three decades, it has not achieved qualitative changes. One important reason is the lack of technological support. Intelligent manufacturing is a key factor in solving the problem. Thanks to the development and support of technologies such as 5G, AI, blockchain, DRM, VR/AR, and virtual shooting, our intelligent production system is gradually being improved.</p><p>Our planned and ongoing intelligent production includes: 1) producing a business intelligence system for post-broadcast business metric analysis and broadcast business metric forecasting at various production stages before broadcast; 2) Intelligent integrated production system, with artificial intelligence as the core, integrates and standardizes the management of people, equipment and materials in the film and television production process; 3) Intelligent production toolset, which uses artificial intelligence technology, computer graphics and other technologies to realize a multi-faceted production toolset for film and television production from the beginning to the end, improving work efficiency and user experience. We are using these systems and tools to enhance the controllability of production schedules, content quality, and financial risks, thereby further reducing costs and improving efficiency. We believe that by leveraging iQiyi's industry leadership to change unreasonable rules in the industry, and using intelligent production to assist in optimizing these industry rules and improving production efficiency, future content production will be more stable, continuous, efficient, and produce a frequent stream of blockbuster content.</p><p>Looking back at iQiyi's continuous development over the past decade, in terms of business operations, we are gradually establishing a win-win ecosystem and a \"one fish eats many things\" business model. In terms of content, we have gained recognition from artists from all walks of life and a wide range of users; In the field of technology, we continuously innovate to enhance users' audio-visual experience and improve efficiency. We believe that the valuable knowledge wealth accumulated by the Company through years of fierce competition in the video industry will further solidify our market leadership position. We firmly believe that long-form video film and television entertainment is irreplaceable as an important form of entertainment. We hope to empower content production through continuous technological innovation, increase the probability of content becoming a hit, thereby generating greater commercial value, expanding the stage for dreaming and imagination for the next generation of entertainment, and looking forward to bringing more surprises to our shareholders.</p><p>Company Note: We will not be reading this letter during the conference call later today to allow more time to communicate with investors during the Q&A session.</p><p>Appendix: Our Q1 Performance and Outlook</p><p>This quarter, thanks to the high-quality content we launched, our overall revenue in the first quarter of the year exceeded the company's previous guidance, achieving growth both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, in recent quarters, with relatively stable revenue, our content costs have been effectively controlled, and losses have been continuously narrowing. We also maintained our industry leadership position, ranking first in the industry in daily active users, monthly active users, and monthly usage time, according to QuestMobile data.</p><p>Members:</p><p>First is the membership business. As of March 31, the company had a total of 105.3 million subscribers, with a net increase of approximately 3.6 million in the quarter. Membership revenue increased by 12% quarter-on-quarter to RMB 4.31 billion.</p><p>The growth in membership was mainly due to: 1) The strong performance of top-tier content, especially high-quality dramas, which continued to drive up membership. For example, the top drama \"The Son-in-Law\" became a hit during the Spring Festival, achieving extremely high monetization efficiency with a relatively short number of episodes, ranking first in daily consumption history, surpassing \"Story of Yanxi Palace\". Meanwhile, several theatrical films were released this quarter, including \"The King of Bathing,\" \"Eliminating Violence,\" and \"Bomb Disposal Expert 2,\" while online films such as \"Diary of a Fortune\" and \"The Legend of the Treasure of Shaolin Temple\" also performed well. 2) During the Spring Festival, users spent more time on long-form video consumption, resulting in an increase in overall platform traffic, with both mobile MAU and DAU increasing month-on-month. 3) The company launched a variety of innovative marketing initiatives for the holiday season, including an \"incentive-based task system\" and optimization of membership products and services, which significantly improved user engagement and member loyalty.</p><p>In addition to the increase in membership numbers, the quarter-on-quarter increase in membership revenue this quarter was also due to: 1) the increase in users' willingness to pay, mainly due to our high-quality content and the company's continuous exploration of business model innovation: including advanced on-demand and PVOD models. For example, the exclusive drama \"The Son-in-Law\" broke the stereotype of period dramas with its light comedy feel, attracting a large number of members to purchase advance on-demand to unlock the plot. The movie \"Get Rich Diary\" set a new record for viewership and on-demand revenue under the PVOD model. 2) Membership price adjustments boosted Q1 ARPU both year-on-year and month-on-month.</p><p>At the same time, the company is further expanding the total addressable market through two aspects. a) In late February, the company launched a new Express VIP membership package, which targets lower-tier users and uses more targeted content and membership benefits to promote paid conversion of lower-tier vertical users. b) The company's overseas exploration also continued to progress steadily. In Q1 2021, the overall MAU increased by 77% compared with the previous quarter, and the number of new downloads remained in the top 5 in many Southeast Asian countries and regions, especially in countries and regions such as Thailand and Malaysia, where it has maintained the number one position for a long time. The frequent emergence of blockbuster international content has driven the continuous improvement of iQiyi's international brand awareness.</p><p>Although we still expect the number of subscribers to fluctuate in the short term, we remain confident in the medium- to long-term development of our membership business, thanks to the company's continued development of high-quality content and the continuous improvement of the company's original content ecosystem and self-production capabilities. We are pleased to see that the content production standards of domestic video websites are gradually approaching those of their international counterparts. It has become the norm for users to pay for high-quality content. We have also noticed that some competitors have followed us in adjusting membership prices, which also demonstrates the industry's long-term profitability.</p><p>advertising</p><p>China's overall advertising market continued to recover this quarter. Our advertising services revenue increased by 25% year-on-year. Despite Q1 being the traditional off-season for advertising, stable year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth was achieved. Similar to the trend in Q4 2020, the growth is mainly attributed to the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter increase in content marketing revenue driven by high-quality variety shows and major dramas in Q1 this year. Content marketing revenue accounts for approximately 64% of brand advertising revenue, the highest point in recent quarters, once again demonstrating advertisers' recognition of our platform's high-quality content.</p><p>In terms of brand advertising, against the backdrop of macroeconomic recovery, brand advertising revenue continued to stabilize, thanks to the recovery of advertiser budgets and the growth in the number of advertisers. In Q1, high-quality content prompted some leading advertisers to increase their spending, resulting in an increase in ARPU for leading clients. From an industry perspective, the food and beverage and cosmetics and bathroom fixtures sectors supported the growth in Q1. In terms of performance-based advertising, the quarter-on-quarter increase in consumption this quarter was driven by traffic during holidays and contributions from key industries such as online service apps, e-commerce, online film and television, and games.</p><p>Contents:</p><p>In terms of content, iQiyi's TV series, variety shows, animation, and children's channels continued to lead the entire internet in terms of the number of top content and total broadcast volume in Q1. Third-party data shows that in Q1, iQiyi's TV series and variety shows both had a market share of nearly 40% in effective viewership, while its animation (including children's animation) and movies had market shares of over 40% and 50% respectively, both ranking first in the market.</p><p>iQiyi continues to launch high-quality exclusive content to meet user needs and continues to promote the serialized development and stylistic innovation of its IPs.</p><p>1) In terms of drama, iQiyi's exclusive period drama \"The Son-in-Law\" became a hit this quarter, making beneficial innovations in theme and content style and providing new ideas for future period drama creation. In addition, we have also launched several original dramas on realistic themes, such as \"Golden Years\", \"My Era, Your Era\", and \"Warm Holidays\".</p><p>2) In terms of variety shows, iQiyi continues to innovate original content in different variety show tracks. Original variety show IPs such as \"Drama New Life\", \"Qipa Talk 7\", \"Trend Partners 2\", and \"Sisters' Tea Party\" were popular during the quarter.</p><p>3) In terms of original films, the original film \"The Battle Against Organized Crime\" produced by iQiyi has been released in theaters, grossing over 300 million RMB and receiving high ratings on various platforms. Two movies produced by iQiyi began filming in Q1 2021. Three films are in post-production and will be released this year. There are also 18 iQIYI Original Films in development.</p><p>In Q2 2021, our key dramas included \"Little Shede\", \"Farewell Song\", \"North and South\", \"The Rebel\", and \"Lai Mao's Lion Reflection\". Among them, \"Little Shede\" and \"Farewell Song Journey\" were broadcast in April and were well-received by users. Our theatrical operations will continue to advance. Love Theater is scheduled to premiere on May 20th, and we will continue to launch new content for Mist Theater at the end of this year. In terms of anime and television, content such as \"I Have No Choice but to Betray Earth\" and \"Ice and Snow Guardians\" will be released, as well as the light anime \"Immortal Dad Becomes a Son-in-Law 3\".</p><p>We anticipate some uncertainty in content scheduling in the coming months, and we have made advance arrangements for diverse content themes, especially self-produced dramas, to mitigate the related impact.</p><p>Technology:</p><p>We continue to empower the entertainment industry with technology and build an industrialized film and television production system. Notable developments in technology applications this quarter include:</p><p>1. In terms of intelligent production: iQiyi's \"Virtual and Real City\" XR Cloud Performance: The entire concert adopts globally leading XR virtual production technology, surpassing similar foreign performances in terms of the diversity of virtual scenes and the number of online interactive users, expanding the ceiling of live interactive experience programs and virtual performance programs for everyone.</p><p>2. In terms of products and features, iQiyi Express Edition, which targets users in lower-tier cities, was officially released in January this year. It is currently performing well in terms of user interaction, with indicators such as average time per user and average views exceeding those of the iQiyi main App.</p>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>iQiyi's early-day gains widened to 11%, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan.</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 12.5px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\niQiyi's early-day gains widened to 11%, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan.\n</h2>\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n<a class=\"head\" href=\"https://laohu8.com/wemedia/102\">\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">老虎资讯综合 </p>\n<p class=\"h-time smaller\">2021-05-18 21:48</p>\n</div>\n</a>\n</h4>\n</header>\n<article>\n<p>May 18th,<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/IQ\">iQiyi</a>The gains widened to 11% in early trading, with the company's first-quarter revenue reaching 8 billion yuan and a net increase of 3.6 million subscribers.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/aba07754c496fb73dfdd6ab5e1d1c8eb\" tg-width=\"1302\" tg-height=\"833\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p><b>iQiyi's Quarterly Report Infographic: Revenue of 8 Billion Yuan, Membership Growth of 3.6 Million in the Quarter</b></p><p>iQiyi released its financial report today, showing that its revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 8 billion (approximately US$1.2 billion), achieving better-than-expected growth.</p><p>As of the end of the first quarter, iQiyi had 105.3 million subscribers. Influenced by the positive financial report, iQiyi's stock price is currently up more than 4% in pre-market trading.</p><p>“We started with a comprehensive and solid quarterly performance,” said Dr. Gong Yu, founder, director and CEO of iQiyi. “In the first quarter, our subscriber base increased by 3.6 million, and membership service revenue increased by 12% quarter-over-quarter, reaching its peak in the past year in absolute terms. This significant growth is largely attributed to the diverse range of TV series, variety shows, and movies we launched during the quarter.”</p><p>\"In particular, the series 'Son-in-Law' has become another benchmark in terms of ratings and monetization efficiency, which also confirms our exclusive content strategy. On April 22, we celebrated the company's 11th anniversary. Years of fierce competition have given us more confidence to further strengthen our leadership position. We firmly believe that long-form videos are irreplaceable as a form of entertainment, and we are fully prepared to meet the opportunities and challenges of the future.\"</p><p>\"Total revenue in the first quarter exceeded our previous expectations, achieving healthy growth both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year,\" said Wang Xiaodong, Chief Financial Officer of iQiyi. \"This quarter, we launched several popular pieces of content, while improved investment efficiency contributed to a year-on-year decrease in content costs for the third consecutive quarter. We will continue to focus on improving return on investment, driving the development of various businesses including content, technology, and marketing. This will safeguard iQiyi's sustainable long-term development.\"</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 revenue was 8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5cda524aafd93a3ba0a185b6f29bbf9f\" tg-width=\"882\" tg-height=\"443\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi's revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was approximately RMB 8 billion, a 4% increase from RMB 7.65 billion in the same period of the previous year and a 7% increase from RMB 7.46 billion in the previous quarter.</p><p>Gong Yu also released an open letter to investors today, stating that iQiyi's core value is the production and distribution of entertainment content. Entertainment content is a core human need, and iQiyi has already established a leading position in this field and will continue to expand its leading position in the future. The content of interest that Always Focuses on is an emerging market, and iQiyi will develop this business and make it support the company's core entertainment business.</p><p>\"Since content quality is the core and important focus of our entire content ecosystem, we hope to achieve a sufficiently high probability of viral hits by continuously improving content quality. Establishing a sufficient and effective internal studio is an important prerequisite for improving our content quality.\"</p><p>Gong Yu said that in 2018, iQiyi set a goal of establishing 50 internal studios within two years during its IPO roadshow, and iQiyi has now exceeded this goal. According to publicly available information, the number of studios currently exceeds 60. Most of these internal studios are web series and variety show studios, with a small number being film and animation studios.</p><p>\"Increasing the number of film and animation studios in the next two years is an important strategy for our content production, because through internal studios, we can gather outstanding production talents in the industry and acquire a large number of top IPs and works.\"</p><p>Gong Yu pointed out that he believes that through experience accumulation and continuous efforts, the high-quality content exclusively broadcast by iQiyi will form a continuous and stable line of works.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 membership revenue reached 4.3 billion yuan, a 12% increase compared to the previous period.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0c5dae367f8bc4acc4f1e0e0edbfc708\" tg-width=\"892\" tg-height=\"469\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi's membership service revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 4.3 billion (approximately US$658.1 million), a 12% increase quarter-over-quarter. In this quarter, iQiyi achieved a net increase of 3.6 million members, mainly thanks to the strong performance of top content, especially high-quality dramas, coupled with the impact of holidays, which continued to drive up the number of members.</p><p>iQiyi achieved advertising revenue of RMB 1.9 billion (approximately US$292.5 million) in the first quarter of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 25%, thanks to the recovery of the macroeconomy, which led to a rebound in both brand advertising budgets and the number of brand advertisers.</p><p>Excluding membership and advertising revenue, iQiyi's content distribution revenue reached RMB 779.1 million (approximately US$118.9 million) this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 29%, as iQiyi distributed more content to other platforms during the quarter.</p><p>iQiyi's other revenue contributed RMB 961 million (approximately US$146.7 million) in the first quarter of 2021, a 10% increase compared to the same period last year.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 costs were 7.1 billion yuan, a 10% decrease compared to the same period last year.</b></p><p>iQiyi's costs in the first quarter of 2021 were 7.1 billion yuan, a 10% decrease from 7.9 billion yuan in the same period of the previous year. This is mainly due to the decrease in content costs and bandwidth costs.</p><p>Content costs in the first quarter were RMB 5.4 billion (approximately US$829.6 million), an 8% decrease compared to the same period in 2020. The decrease in content costs is mainly due to the decrease in copyrighted content costs.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 gross profit was 860 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 11%.</b></p><p>iQiyi's gross profit in the first quarter of 2021 was 860 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 11%, compared to a gross profit margin of -3% in the same period last year.</p><p><b>iQiyi's Q1 expenses were 1.87 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6%.</b></p><p>iQiyi's expenses for the first quarter of 2021 were RMB 1.87 billion, a 6% decrease from RMB 1.989 billion in the same period of the previous year.</p><p>iQiyi's sales, general and administrative expenses totaled 1.2 billion yuan (approximately US$183.3 million) in the first quarter, a decrease of 8% compared to the same period last year. iQiyi's R&D expenses in the first quarter were 672.3 million yuan (approximately US$102.6 million).</p><p><b>iQiyi reported an operating loss of 1 billion yuan in Q1, with an operating profit margin of -13%.</b></p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fd32579df25a17ea99fc71e68ea987ee\" tg-width=\"931\" tg-height=\"449\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"></p><p>iQiyi reported an operating loss of RMB 1 billion (approximately US$154.8 million) in the first quarter of 2021, compared to an operating loss of RMB 2.2 billion in the same period last year. The operating loss rate was 13%, compared to 29% in the same period last year. iQiyi's operating profit margin was -13% in the first quarter of 2021. Since the third quarter of 2019, iQiyi's operating losses have been narrowing.</p><p>As of March 31, 2021, the company had cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments totaling RMB13.3 billion (approximately US$2 billion).</p><p>iQiyi has outlooked its results for the second quarter of 2021: total revenue is expected to be between RMB 7.21 billion (approximately US$1.1 billion) and RMB 7.65 billion (approximately US$1.17 billion).</p><p>The following is a letter from iQiyi's Gong Yu to investors:</p><p>Hello, shareholders!</p><p>This is the first time we have communicated with everyone in the form of a shareholder letter. I'd like to share some of our current thoughts on industry competition and content creation planning.</p><p>I. Industry trends and our competitive barriers:</p><p>The online video industry has been developing for over a decade, and there are currently three common views on video genres in the industry.</p><p>The first method divides videos into: long videos and short videos, or long videos, medium videos and short videos, according to video specifications (video length). The second method involves categorizing videos according to the content creator. PPC (professional produced content), PUGC (professional user generated content), UGC (user generated content). PPC is produced by professionals such as screenwriters, directors, photographers, and actors, and their works include movies, TV series, animated films, and variety shows. PUGC is produced by KOLs and MCNs and is less professional than PPC, but can generate revenue through advertising or other monetization methods. UGC is content created by ordinary users, and most of it is not professional content.</p><p>The above two classification methods are relatively common views. There is currently a third viewpoint in the industry, which believes that content is ultimately for users to watch. Why not categorize it based on the user's purpose of watching the video, their mindset when watching the video, and their thoughts on the video content? According to this point of view, videos are classified into: tasty videos, entertainment videos, and interest videos.</p><p>Delicious videos are similar to fast food. Users have a relaxed mindset when making purchases, they are simply killing time and enjoying themselves while watching, without expecting to benefit from them in the long run.</p><p>Entertainment videos refer to video content such as movies, TV series, anime, and variety shows. Excellent films and television works can open the mind to think, leave a deep impression after watching, and trigger continuous and in-depth thinking, and may even influence one's values and life. Among entertainment content, film has been around for over 120 years and is the world's most historical, artistic, and influential work to date. Television content such as TV series and variety shows are also works of art with nearly a century of history and public influence. While bringing joy to the audience, they have also changed people's lifestyles, society, and even the world. Throughout history, humanity has always needed to create romantic, fictional, or sentimental literary and artistic works based on reality. Entertainment content such as movies, TV series, variety shows, and animation is the only form of video to meet this rigid need. We firmly believe that, based on the longer-standing arts such as literature, painting, and music, entertainment video content such as movies, TV series, animation, and variety shows will have greater market potential, especially in a market like China where the overall economy will continue to develop steadily in the future and society will undergo long-term consumption upgrading.</p><p>Interest videos refer to videos that are basically realistic and meet people's various interests and needs, including but not limited to: food, DIY, unboxing, travel, pets, etc. The producers of these videos include MCNs, KOLs, ordinary users who generate electricity for love, and a small number of professionally trained individuals. Interest content and its audience are more segmented and long-tailed. In terms of popularity, each type of interest content is weaker than movies, TV series, anime, and variety shows.</p><p>iQiyi mainly focuses on two video types: entertainment videos and interest videos.</p><p>1) The iQiyi APP focuses on entertainment videos. Our vision is to use technological innovation to make the distribution of entertainment content simpler and provide a better user experience, while also leveraging technological innovation and the wisdom of outstanding artists to create more and better movies, TV series, animation, and variety shows. While providing users with more joy, it also influences their lifestyles, allowing people to conveniently view more, better, and more thought-provoking works of art.</p><p>Currently, the entertainment video industry has formed extremely high entry barriers: its economies of scale require long-term accumulation to achieve; The entire content industry is still in the very early stages of industrialization, and understanding the industry and recognizing talent are crucial at this stage of talent shortage. As China's largest video distribution platform, our years of user data and technological accumulation have given us the deepest understanding of users' needs for entertainment videos. Coupled with its huge funding needs, deep understanding of industry rules, and accumulated relationships with artists such as directors, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, recording artists, and art directors, iQiyi has established a solid leading position in China's entertainment video industry. We are confident in leading the healthy development of the entire industry and providing users with more and better high-quality entertainment content. We firmly believe that in the future, after fully enjoying the pleasure brought by delicious content, more and more Chinese users will pursue entertainment content with higher spiritual value and more artistic value. This is a process of upgrading cultural consumption.</p><p>2) The iQiyi Suike APP mainly focuses on interest videos, and Suike's content will also be distributed on the iQiyi main platform. The characteristics of interest content are that the topics are very dispersed, and the content and the corresponding users have a very long tail. The barrier to entry for users is high, but user stickiness is stronger. The overall market for interest-based videos is not small, but it is not easy for a single media platform to gain a large market share. We believe that in the future, China's interest content media platforms will be fragmented, and user demand and content supply will also be fragmented. This model is still in its early stages in China, and iQiyi has a great opportunity to leverage its existing resources to explore this new market.</p><p>In short, iQiyi's core value lies in the production and distribution of entertainment content. Entertainment content is a core human need, and iQiyi has already established a leading position in this field and will continue to expand its leading position in the future. The content of interest that Always Focuses on is an emerging market, and iQiyi will develop this business and make it support the company's core entertainment business.</p><p>II. Core Issues and Our Planning Strategies:</p><p>As is well known, after 10 years of development, membership business has become the company's largest source of revenue. Although we are currently facing some challenges that may lead to slower growth or fluctuations in the number of members retained, we still firmly believe that the membership business has huge market potential. Two pieces of data that can be corroborated are: 1) As of the end of Q1 2021, iQiyi's cumulative number of paid accounts had exceeded 490 million; 2) In Q1 2021, the average number of members with membership rights on any given day of the month was nearly 160 million, indicating that the user base willing to pay for high-quality content is extremely large. The industry generally believes that the slowdown in membership business growth is due to the squeeze on users' time spent by short videos and other diverse forms of entertainment. We acknowledge the impact of this, but we have observed that users' viewing mindset regarding various videos is gradually becoming clearer.</p><p>Meanwhile, based on our data and analysis, we believe that the root cause of entertainment videos being squeezed by other forms is still the current lack of high-quality content. Even with the abundance of entertainment options available today, high-quality entertainment video content remains a core factor that plays a significant role in boosting user traffic and time spent there. A recent example is that we launched the hit exclusive drama \"Son-in-Law\" in February this year. During its run, the drama was played on more than 180 million devices, and by the end of the season, the number of member accounts had exceeded 64 million, pushing the peak number of members this quarter to approach the level during the pandemic at the end of Q1 last year.</p><p>Consistently producing high-quality content is key to increasing user and member loyalty. We believe that the current shortage of high-quality content is mainly due to two factors: 1) The number of copyrighted content obtained from traditional channels is decreasing. On the one hand, the number of copyrighted TV dramas has decreased accordingly as the market share of the traditional TV industry has shrunk; On the other hand, due to the impact of the pandemic, the number of theatrical films, especially Hollywood films shown in Chinese cinemas, which play a crucial role in attracting and retaining members, has decreased sharply.</p><p>According to our analysis, the number of films released using the SVOD model that grossed over 100 million yuan in 2020 and from January to April 2021 decreased by about half compared to the same period in 2019, with the number of overseas films, mainly Hollywood films, decreasing by more than half. 2) Currently, the quantity and quality of self-produced content cannot meet the needs. Breakthroughs in self-created content require us to find the best talent and the highest quality partners in the industry, build a strong content ecosystem, and create the best works. However, improving the ecosystem takes time to refine.</p><p>Regarding how to solve the problem of \"lack of high-quality content\", I would like to talk about iQiyi's future plans and programs.</p><p>Since content quality is the core and important focus of our entire content ecosystem, we hope to achieve a sufficiently high probability of blockbuster content by continuously improving content quality. Establishing a sufficient and effective internal studio is an important prerequisite for improving the quality of our content. In 2018, during our IPO roadshow, we set a goal of establishing 50 in-house studios within two years, and we have now exceeded this goal. Most of these internal studios are web series and variety show studios, with a small number being film and animation studios. Increasing the number of film and animation studios in the next two years is an important strategy for our content production, because through internal studios, we can gather outstanding production talents in the industry and acquire a large number of top IPs and works.</p><p>As we have more and more internal studios, we will continue to adhere to the development of multiple content categories and cultivate vertical tracks. Since our successful launch of Mist Theater last year, the format of short series and the quality of our content have been widely recognized by users and the market. It is believed that through experience accumulation and continuous efforts, the high-quality content exclusively broadcast by iQiyi will form a continuous and stable line of works.</p><p>The content creation industry also faces various problems, such as long and uncontrollable content creation cycles, low success rates, a large workload of simple and repetitive tasks, a lack of objective evaluation standards, and significant financial risks. In response to these difficulties and challenges, we believe the solution lies in the industrialization of film and television.</p><p>The industrialization of film and television includes the restructuring of industry rules and intelligent production. Intelligent manufacturing is a key focus. This is because although China's film and television industry has been undergoing industrialization for two or three decades, it has not achieved qualitative changes. One important reason is the lack of technological support. Intelligent manufacturing is a key factor in solving the problem. Thanks to the development and support of technologies such as 5G, AI, blockchain, DRM, VR/AR, and virtual shooting, our intelligent production system is gradually being improved.</p><p>Our planned and ongoing intelligent production includes: 1) producing a business intelligence system for post-broadcast business metric analysis and broadcast business metric forecasting at various production stages before broadcast; 2) Intelligent integrated production system, with artificial intelligence as the core, integrates and standardizes the management of people, equipment and materials in the film and television production process; 3) Intelligent production toolset, which uses artificial intelligence technology, computer graphics and other technologies to realize a multi-faceted production toolset for film and television production from the beginning to the end, improving work efficiency and user experience. We are using these systems and tools to enhance the controllability of production schedules, content quality, and financial risks, thereby further reducing costs and improving efficiency. We believe that by leveraging iQiyi's industry leadership to change unreasonable rules in the industry, and using intelligent production to assist in optimizing these industry rules and improving production efficiency, future content production will be more stable, continuous, efficient, and produce a frequent stream of blockbuster content.</p><p>Looking back at iQiyi's continuous development over the past decade, in terms of business operations, we are gradually establishing a win-win ecosystem and a \"one fish eats many things\" business model. In terms of content, we have gained recognition from artists from all walks of life and a wide range of users; In the field of technology, we continuously innovate to enhance users' audio-visual experience and improve efficiency. We believe that the valuable knowledge wealth accumulated by the Company through years of fierce competition in the video industry will further solidify our market leadership position. We firmly believe that long-form video film and television entertainment is irreplaceable as an important form of entertainment. We hope to empower content production through continuous technological innovation, increase the probability of content becoming a hit, thereby generating greater commercial value, expanding the stage for dreaming and imagination for the next generation of entertainment, and looking forward to bringing more surprises to our shareholders.</p><p>Company Note: We will not be reading this letter during the conference call later today to allow more time to communicate with investors during the Q&A session.</p><p>Appendix: Our Q1 Performance and Outlook</p><p>This quarter, thanks to the high-quality content we launched, our overall revenue in the first quarter of the year exceeded the company's previous guidance, achieving growth both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, in recent quarters, with relatively stable revenue, our content costs have been effectively controlled, and losses have been continuously narrowing. We also maintained our industry leadership position, ranking first in the industry in daily active users, monthly active users, and monthly usage time, according to QuestMobile data.</p><p>Members:</p><p>First is the membership business. As of March 31, the company had a total of 105.3 million subscribers, with a net increase of approximately 3.6 million in the quarter. Membership revenue increased by 12% quarter-on-quarter to RMB 4.31 billion.</p><p>The growth in membership was mainly due to: 1) The strong performance of top-tier content, especially high-quality dramas, which continued to drive up membership. For example, the top drama \"The Son-in-Law\" became a hit during the Spring Festival, achieving extremely high monetization efficiency with a relatively short number of episodes, ranking first in daily consumption history, surpassing \"Story of Yanxi Palace\". Meanwhile, several theatrical films were released this quarter, including \"The King of Bathing,\" \"Eliminating Violence,\" and \"Bomb Disposal Expert 2,\" while online films such as \"Diary of a Fortune\" and \"The Legend of the Treasure of Shaolin Temple\" also performed well. 2) During the Spring Festival, users spent more time on long-form video consumption, resulting in an increase in overall platform traffic, with both mobile MAU and DAU increasing month-on-month. 3) The company launched a variety of innovative marketing initiatives for the holiday season, including an \"incentive-based task system\" and optimization of membership products and services, which significantly improved user engagement and member loyalty.</p><p>In addition to the increase in membership numbers, the quarter-on-quarter increase in membership revenue this quarter was also due to: 1) the increase in users' willingness to pay, mainly due to our high-quality content and the company's continuous exploration of business model innovation: including advanced on-demand and PVOD models. For example, the exclusive drama \"The Son-in-Law\" broke the stereotype of period dramas with its light comedy feel, attracting a large number of members to purchase advance on-demand to unlock the plot. The movie \"Get Rich Diary\" set a new record for viewership and on-demand revenue under the PVOD model. 2) Membership price adjustments boosted Q1 ARPU both year-on-year and month-on-month.</p><p>At the same time, the company is further expanding the total addressable market through two aspects. a) In late February, the company launched a new Express VIP membership package, which targets lower-tier users and uses more targeted content and membership benefits to promote paid conversion of lower-tier vertical users. b) The company's overseas exploration also continued to progress steadily. In Q1 2021, the overall MAU increased by 77% compared with the previous quarter, and the number of new downloads remained in the top 5 in many Southeast Asian countries and regions, especially in countries and regions such as Thailand and Malaysia, where it has maintained the number one position for a long time. The frequent emergence of blockbuster international content has driven the continuous improvement of iQiyi's international brand awareness.</p><p>Although we still expect the number of subscribers to fluctuate in the short term, we remain confident in the medium- to long-term development of our membership business, thanks to the company's continued development of high-quality content and the continuous improvement of the company's original content ecosystem and self-production capabilities. We are pleased to see that the content production standards of domestic video websites are gradually approaching those of their international counterparts. It has become the norm for users to pay for high-quality content. We have also noticed that some competitors have followed us in adjusting membership prices, which also demonstrates the industry's long-term profitability.</p><p>advertising</p><p>China's overall advertising market continued to recover this quarter. Our advertising services revenue increased by 25% year-on-year. Despite Q1 being the traditional off-season for advertising, stable year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth was achieved. Similar to the trend in Q4 2020, the growth is mainly attributed to the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter increase in content marketing revenue driven by high-quality variety shows and major dramas in Q1 this year. Content marketing revenue accounts for approximately 64% of brand advertising revenue, the highest point in recent quarters, once again demonstrating advertisers' recognition of our platform's high-quality content.</p><p>In terms of brand advertising, against the backdrop of macroeconomic recovery, brand advertising revenue continued to stabilize, thanks to the recovery of advertiser budgets and the growth in the number of advertisers. In Q1, high-quality content prompted some leading advertisers to increase their spending, resulting in an increase in ARPU for leading clients. From an industry perspective, the food and beverage and cosmetics and bathroom fixtures sectors supported the growth in Q1. In terms of performance-based advertising, the quarter-on-quarter increase in consumption this quarter was driven by traffic during holidays and contributions from key industries such as online service apps, e-commerce, online film and television, and games.</p><p>Contents:</p><p>In terms of content, iQiyi's TV series, variety shows, animation, and children's channels continued to lead the entire internet in terms of the number of top content and total broadcast volume in Q1. Third-party data shows that in Q1, iQiyi's TV series and variety shows both had a market share of nearly 40% in effective viewership, while its animation (including children's animation) and movies had market shares of over 40% and 50% respectively, both ranking first in the market.</p><p>iQiyi continues to launch high-quality exclusive content to meet user needs and continues to promote the serialized development and stylistic innovation of its IPs.</p><p>1) In terms of drama, iQiyi's exclusive period drama \"The Son-in-Law\" became a hit this quarter, making beneficial innovations in theme and content style and providing new ideas for future period drama creation. In addition, we have also launched several original dramas on realistic themes, such as \"Golden Years\", \"My Era, Your Era\", and \"Warm Holidays\".</p><p>2) In terms of variety shows, iQiyi continues to innovate original content in different variety show tracks. Original variety show IPs such as \"Drama New Life\", \"Qipa Talk 7\", \"Trend Partners 2\", and \"Sisters' Tea Party\" were popular during the quarter.</p><p>3) In terms of original films, the original film \"The Battle Against Organized Crime\" produced by iQiyi has been released in theaters, grossing over 300 million RMB and receiving high ratings on various platforms. Two movies produced by iQiyi began filming in Q1 2021. Three films are in post-production and will be released this year. There are also 18 iQIYI Original Films in development.</p><p>In Q2 2021, our key dramas included \"Little Shede\", \"Farewell Song\", \"North and South\", \"The Rebel\", and \"Lai Mao's Lion Reflection\". Among them, \"Little Shede\" and \"Farewell Song Journey\" were broadcast in April and were well-received by users. Our theatrical operations will continue to advance. Love Theater is scheduled to premiere on May 20th, and we will continue to launch new content for Mist Theater at the end of this year. In terms of anime and television, content such as \"I Have No Choice but to Betray Earth\" and \"Ice and Snow Guardians\" will be released, as well as the light anime \"Immortal Dad Becomes a Son-in-Law 3\".</p><p>We anticipate some uncertainty in content scheduling in the coming months, and we have made advance arrangements for diverse content themes, especially self-produced dramas, to mitigate the related impact.</p><p>Technology:</p><p>We continue to empower the entertainment industry with technology and build an industrialized film and television production system. Notable developments in technology applications this quarter include:</p><p>1. In terms of intelligent production: iQiyi's \"Virtual and Real City\" XR Cloud Performance: The entire concert adopts globally leading XR virtual production technology, surpassing similar foreign performances in terms of the diversity of virtual scenes and the number of online interactive users, expanding the ceiling of live interactive experience programs and virtual performance programs for everyone.</p><p>2. In terms of products and features, iQiyi Express Edition, which targets users in lower-tier cities, was officially released in January this year. It is currently performing well in terms of user interaction, with indicators such as average time per user and average views exceeding those of the iQiyi main App.</p>\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/1381fbe767d2d5a2d71590c11e4464d5","relate_stocks":{"IQ":"爱奇艺"},"is_english":false,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1183341282","content_text":"5月18日，爱奇艺盘初涨幅扩大至11%，公司第一季度营收80亿元，订阅数净增360万。爱奇艺季报图解：营收80亿 会员规模季度增长360万爱奇艺今日公布财报，财报显示，爱奇艺2021年第一季度营收为80亿元(约12亿美元)，实现超预期增长。截至一季度末，爱奇艺订阅会员规模达到1.053亿。受财报利好的影响，爱奇艺目前股价盘前上涨超过4%。“我们以全面、稳健的季度表现开局。”爱奇艺创始人，董事兼首席执行官龚宇博士表示：“第一季度我们的订阅会员增长了360万，会员服务收入环比增长12％，以绝对金额来看达到过去一年以来的峰值。显著的增长在很大程度上要归功于我们本季度内推出了类型丰富的剧集、综艺以及电影等内容。”“特别是剧集《赘婿》，在收视率和货币化效率方面都成为另一个标杆，这也印证了我们的独家内容策略。4月22日，我们庆祝公司成立11周年。多年来的激烈竞争让我们更有信心进一步加强领导地位。我们坚信，长视频作为一种娱乐形态是不可取代的，我们也已经做好充分准备应对未来的机遇和挑战。”“第一季度的总营收超出我们此前预期，环比和同比均实现了健康增长。”爱奇艺首席财务官王晓东表示：“在本季度，我们推出了多个广受欢迎的内容，同时投资效率提升助推内容成本连续三季度实现同比下降。我们将一如既往的贯彻以提升投资回报率为目标，驱动包括内容、技术和市场营销等不同业务发展。这为爱奇艺可持续的长期发展保驾护航。爱奇艺Q1营收80亿 同比增长4%爱奇艺2021年第一季度营收约80亿元，较上年同期的76.5亿元增长4%，较上一季度的74.6亿元增长7%。龚宇今日还发布致投资人公开信，称爱奇艺的核心价值是娱乐内容的制作和分发。娱乐内容是人类的核心刚性需求，爱奇艺在这个领域已具有领导地位，并将在未来继续扩大领先地位。而随刻聚焦的兴趣内容是一个新兴市场，爱奇艺将发展这一业务，并使其对公司的核心娱乐业务起到支撑作用。“由于内容质量是我们整个内容生态系统的核心和重要落脚点，我们希望通过不断提升内容质量达到足够高的爆款概率。而建立足够且具有战斗力的内部工作室是我们内容质量提升的重要前提。”龚宇说，2018年，爱奇艺在IPO路演时提出了2年建立50个内部工作室的目标，目前爱奇艺已经超额完成了这个目标。根据公开信息，目前工作室数量已经超过60个。这些内部工作室大部分是网剧和综艺工作室，少量是电影和动漫工作室。“未来2年大量增加电影、动漫工作室是我们内容制作的重要策略，因为通过内部工作室，可以聚集行业优秀的制作人才，获取大量头部的IP和作品。”龚宇指出，相信通过经验积累和持续努力，爱奇艺独家播出的优质内容将会形成持续、稳定的作品线。爱奇艺Q1会员收入43亿 环比增长12%爱奇艺2021年第一季度会员服务收入43亿元（约6.581亿美元），环比增长12%。这一个季度内，爱奇艺会员规模实现360万的净增长，主要归功于头部内容，尤其是优质剧集内容表现强劲叠加假期的影响，持续拉动会员数上涨。爱奇艺2021年第一季度广告营收实现收19亿元（约2.925亿美元），同比增长25%，得益于宏观经济的复苏，品牌广告预算和品牌广告主的数量都出现了反弹。在会员与广告收入之外，本季度爱奇艺的内容发行实现收入 7.791亿元（约1.189亿美元），同比增长29%，这是因为在本季度爱奇艺向其他平台发行了更多的内容。爱奇艺2021年第一季度其他营收第一季度贡献收入9.610亿元（约1.467亿美元），相比上年同期增长了10%。爱奇艺Q1成本71亿 较上年同期下降10%爱奇艺2021年第一季度成本为71亿元，较上年同期的79亿元下降10%。这主要归因于内容成本和带宽成本的下降。其中，第一季度内容成本为54亿元（约8.296亿美元），较2020年同期下降8%。内容成本下降主要源于版权内容成本的下降。爱奇艺Q1毛利8.6亿 毛利率11%爱奇艺2021年第一季毛利8.6亿元，毛利率11%，上年同期的毛利率为-3%。爱奇艺Q1费用18.7亿 同比下降6%爱奇艺2021年第一季度费用为18.7亿元，较上年同期的19.89亿元下降6%。其中，爱奇艺第一季度销售、总务与行政开支共计为12亿（约1.833亿美元），比上年同期下滑8%。爱奇艺第一季度研发开支为6.723亿元（约1.026亿美元）。爱奇艺Q1运营亏损10亿 运营利润率为-13%爱奇艺2021年第一季度运营亏损为10亿元（约1.548亿美元），上年同期运营亏损为22亿元；运营亏损率为13%，上年同期运营亏损率为29%。爱奇艺2021年第一季度运营利润率为-13%，自从2019年第三季度以来，爱奇艺的运营亏损在持续收窄。截至2021年3月31日，公司拥有现金、现金等价物，限制性用途现金和短期投资共计133亿元(约20亿美元)。爱奇艺展望了2021年第二季度的业绩：预计总收入介于72.1亿元（约 11亿美元）和76.5亿元（约11.7亿美元）之间。以下是爱奇艺龚宇致投资人信：各位股东好！这是第一次以股东信的形式与大家交流。我想和大家分享下我们目前对行业竞争和内容制作规划的一些思考。一、行业态势和我们的竞争壁垒：在线视频行业已经有十几年的发展历史，现在行业对视频类型有三种普遍的观点。第一种，按照视频规格（视频长度）把视频划分为：长视频和短视频，或长视频、中视频和短视频。第二种，按照内容创作者将视频划分为PPC（professional produced content）、PUGC（professional user generated content）、UGC（user generated content）。PPC由编剧、导演、摄影、演员等专业人士制作，作品包括电影、剧集、动画片和综艺节目等。PUGC由KOL和MCN制作，专业度低于PPC，但可以通过广告或其他变现方式获得收入。UGC是普通用户制作的内容，绝大部分不是专业内容。以上两种分类方法是比较普遍的观点。目前行业还有第三种观点，认为内容最终是为了用户观看，为何不用用户观看视频的目的，观看视频时的心态以及对视频内容的思考做分类呢？按照这种观点视频被分类为：可口视频、娱乐视频和兴趣视频。可口视频类似于快餐，用户消费时的心态轻松，只是简单地消磨时间，看的时候开心就好，并不期望看后长久受益。娱乐视频就是电影、剧集、动漫、综艺等视频内容。优秀的影视作品能令头脑开启思考，并在观看后留下深刻印象和引发持续深度思考，甚至会影响自己的价值观和一生。娱乐内容中，电影诞生了120多年，是迄今世界上最有历史、最有艺术水平，也是最具大众影响力的作品。剧集和综艺等电视内容也是具有近百年历史和大众影响力的文艺作品。他们在给观众提供快乐的同时，也曾改变了人们的生活习惯、改变了社会甚至世界。人类在历史上一直需要在现实基础上延展出浪漫、虚构或者具有情怀的文艺作品，电影、剧集、综艺、动漫等娱乐内容就是满足这种刚性需求的唯一影像形式。我们深信在文学、绘画、音乐等历史更加悠久的艺术基础之上，电影、剧集、动漫、综艺这些娱乐视频内容将具有更大的市场空间，特别是对于中国这种未来经济整体持续稳定发展、社会长期处于消费升级的市场。兴趣视频是指基本以写实为主，满足人们各种兴趣需要的视频，包括但不限于：美食、DIY、开箱、旅游、宠物等等。这类视频的生产者有MCN、KOL，也有为爱发电的普通用户和少量受过专业训练的人士。兴趣内容和它的观众更加分众和长尾。在大众性方面，每类兴趣内容相对于电影、剧集、动漫、综艺弱一些。爱奇艺主要专注于两个视频类型，一是娱乐视频，二是兴趣视频。1）爱奇艺APP专注于娱乐视频。我们的愿景是用科技创新让娱乐内容的分发更加简单、用户体验更好，同时也利用技术创新和优秀艺术家的智慧，创作更多、更优秀的电影、剧集、动漫和综艺节目。在为用户提供更多快乐的同时，也影响用户的生活方式，让人们可以便捷地观看更多、更好、更有思想性的文艺作品。目前娱乐视频这一领域已形成极高的准入门槛：其规模效应需要长期积累达成；整个内容产业仍处在工业化的非常早期, 对行业的理解和人才的认知在这个人才稀缺的阶段是至关重要的。而同时作为中国最大的视频分发平台, 多年的用户数据和技术积累使得我们对用户对娱乐视频的需求有着最深刻的理解。加上巨大的资金需求，对行业规则的深度理解, 与导演、演员、编剧、摄影、录音、美术等艺术家的关系积累，爱奇艺已在中国的娱乐视频领域确立了稳固的领导地位。我们有信心带领整个行业健康发展, 提供给用户更多更好的优质娱乐内容。我们深信未来越来越多的中国用户在充分享受可口内容带来的愉悦之后，一定会追求具有更高精神价值和更具艺术性的娱乐内容。这是一个文化消费升级的过程。2）爱奇艺随刻APP主要专注于兴趣视频，随刻的内容也会在爱奇艺主平台做分发。兴趣内容的特点是主题非常分散，内容和对应的用户都非常长尾。用户进入门槛高，但用户粘性更强。兴趣视频的总体市场不小，但单个媒体平台不容易获得很大的市场占有率。我们认为未来中国的兴趣内容媒体平台会是分散的，用户需求和内容供给也是分散的。目前这个模式在中国还处于初级阶段，爱奇艺在利用已有资源来开拓这一新市场上很有机会。总之，爱奇艺的核心价值是娱乐内容的制作和分发。娱乐内容是人类的核心刚性需求，爱奇艺在这个领域已具有领导地位，并将在未来继续扩大领先地位。而随刻聚焦的兴趣内容是一个新兴市场，爱奇艺将发展这一业务，并使其对公司的核心娱乐业务起到支撑作用。二、核心问题和我们的规划对策：众所周知，历经10年的发展，会员业务已经发展成为公司第一大收入来源。尽管目前我们面临一些挑战，导致会员业务增长放缓或者留存会员数出现波动，我们仍然坚信会员业务拥有巨大的市场潜力。两个可以佐证的数据是，1）截至2021年Q1末爱奇艺累计付费账号数已超过4.9亿；2）在21Q1，平均一个月里有任何一天会员权益的会员数为将近1.6亿，这表明具有为优质内容付费的意愿的用户群体是极其庞大的。而对于会员业务增长放缓，行业内普遍认为短视频及其他多样性娱乐方式对用户时长的挤压是重要原因。我们承认这方面的影响，但是我们观察到用户对于各种视频的观影心智逐渐清晰。同时根据我们的数据和分析，我们相信娱乐视频受其他形式挤压的根源仍然是目前自身的优质内容仍较为匮乏。即使在娱乐方式极大丰富的现在，优质的娱乐视频内容仍然是对用户流量和时长拉动起到巨大的作用核心因素。一个最近的案例是，我们在今年2月上线了爆款独播剧《赘婿》，热播期内该剧在超过1.8亿台设备上播放过，截至收官追剧会员账号数超过6400万，推动本季度的峰值会员数升至接近去年Q1末疫情期间水平。持续不断的产出高质量的内容是提升用户和会员忠诚度的核心。我们认为当前优质内容的匮乏主要是两方面因素导致：1）从传统渠道获取的版权内容正在减少。一方面，版权电视剧随着传统电视行业市场份额的萎缩相应减少；另一方面，受疫情影响，对会员拉新和留存起到至关作用的院线电影，特别是在中国电影院上映的好莱坞电影的数量急剧减少。根据我们的分析，2020年和2021年1-4月以SVOD模式上线的票房过亿的电影的数量相比2019年同期分别下降约一半，其中以好莱坞电影为主的海外电影数量分别下降超过一半。2）目前自制内容的数量和质量都还不能满足需要。自制内容的突破性进展需要我们找到行业最优秀的人才以及最优质的合作伙伴，建立强大的内容生态系统，去做最优秀的作品，而生态系统的完善需要时间来打磨。针对如何解决“优质内容匮乏”这一课题，我想谈一下爱奇艺未来的计划和规划。由于内容质量是我们整个内容生态系统的核心和重要落脚点，我们希望通过不断提升内容质量达到足够高的爆款概率。而建立足够且具有战斗力的内部工作室是我们内容质量提升的重要前提。2018年我们在IPO路演时提出了2年建立50个内部工作室的目标，目前我们已经超额完成了这个目标。这些内部工作室大部分是网剧和综艺工作室，少量是电影和动漫工作室。未来2年大量增加电影、动漫工作室是我们内容制作的重要策略，因为通过内部工作室，可以聚集行业优秀的制作人才，获取大量头部的IP和作品。随着内部工作室越来越多，我们将继续坚持多内容品类发展，深耕垂直赛道。自去年我们推出迷雾剧场大获成功以来，短剧集的形式和我们内容质量得到了用户和市场的广泛认可。相信通过经验积累和持续努力，爱奇艺独家播出的优质内容将会形成持续、稳定的作品线。在内容制作行业也面临种种问题，例如内容制作周期较长且不可控，作品成功率较低，简单重复性的工作量很大，缺乏客观评价标准以及财务风险较大等等。针对这些困难和挑战，我们认为破局之道在于影视工业化。影视工业化包括行业规则重构和智能制作。其中智能制作是重点。这是因为虽然中国影视行业实践工业化进程已经二三十年，但是并没有取得质的改变，其中一个重要原因是缺少科技手段的支持。而智能制作是解决问题的关键因素。得益于5G、AI、区块链、DRM、VR/AR、虚拟拍摄等技术的发展和支持，我们的智能制作系统正在逐步完善。我们规划中和正在实施的智能制作包括：1）制作商业智能系统，用于播出后商业指标分析以及播出前各个制作阶段的播出商业指标预测；2）智能集成制作系统，以人工智能为核心将影视制作流程中的人、设备、物料集成起来并规范管理；3）智能制作工具集，利用人工智能技术、计算机图形学等技术实现影视制作从前期到后期多方面的制作工具集，提升工作效率和用户体验。我们正在通过这些系统和工具增强制作进度、内容质量和财务风险的可控性，从而进一步降低成本、提高效率。我们相信用爱奇艺的行业领导地位改变行业中的不合理规则，用智能制作协助这种行业规则的优化以及提升制作效率，未来的内容制作工作将更加稳定、持续、高效率及爆款内容频出。纵观爱奇艺不断发展的十几年，在商业运营方面，我们正在逐步建立多赢的生态系统和“一鱼多吃”的商业模式；在内容方面，我们得到了各行各业的艺术家和广大用户的认可；在科技领域，我们不断开拓创新以提高用户视听体验和提升效率。我们相信公司在视频行业多年的激烈竞争中积累的宝贵知识财富将进一步巩固我们的市场领导地位。我们始终坚信长视频影视娱乐作为重要的娱乐形式具有不可替代性。我们希望通过持续不断的科技创新赋能内容制作，提高内容爆款概率，从而催生出更大的商业价值，为下一代娱乐拓展更大的造梦舞台和想象空间，也期待为各位股东带来更多惊喜。公司注：我们不会在今天晚些时候的电话会议上读这封信，以便留出更多时间在问答环节与投资者交流。附录：我们Q1的表现和展望本季度，得益于上线的优质内容，我们开年首个季度整体收入超出公司之前指引，同环比均取得增长。同时，近几个季度以来，在收入相对稳定的情况下，我们内容成本得到了有效的控制，亏损不断收窄。我们也延续了我们的行业领先地位，根据QuestMobile数据，我们的日活、月活和月度使用时长均行业排名第一。会员：首先是会员业务。截至3月31日，公司总订阅会员数达1.053亿，季度净新增约360万。会员收入环比增长12%至43.1亿元人民币。会员数的增长主要得益于：1）头部内容，尤其是优质剧集内容表现强劲，持续拉动会员数上涨。例如，头部剧集《赘婿》成为春节爆款，以较短的集数实现了极高的变现效率，日均消费历史top1，超越《延禧攻略》。同时，本季度上线了《沐浴之王》《除暴》《拆弹专家2》等多部院线电影，网络电影《发财日记》《少林寺之得宝传奇》等也表现良好。2）春节期间用户花费更多时间在长视频消费上，平台整体大盘流量上涨，移动端MAU和DAU均环比上涨。3）公司针对假日季推出了多种创新营销举措，包括“激励型任务体系”和会员产品及服务优化等，使用户参与率、会员忠诚度显著提升。除会员数的增长外，本季度会员收入环比增长还得益于：1）用户付费意愿的提升，主要得益于我们的优质内容以及公司在商业模式创新方面的持续探索：包括超前点播和PVOD模式。例如，独播剧《赘婿》凭借其轻喜剧质感打破古装剧刻板印象，吸引大量会员购买超前点播解锁剧情。电影《发财日记》创造了PVOD模式下观影人次和点播收入新高。2）会员价格调整拉动Q1 ARPU值同比和环比提升。同时公司通过两方面来进一步扩展total addressable market。a）2月下旬公司新推出了极速版VIP会员套餐，该套餐针对低线用户，用更有针对性的内容和会员权益促进低线垂类用户的付费转化。b）公司的海外探索也继续稳步推进，2021Q1整体MAU较上季度增长77%，新增下载量在东南亚多个国家和地区稳居TOP5，特别是在泰国、马来西亚等国家和地区长期保持第一。国际版内容爆款频出，推动爱奇艺国际版品牌认知度持续提升。尽管我们目前仍预期订阅会员数会在短期内存在波动，但得益于公司对优质内容的持续深耕，以及公司原创内容生态和自制能力的不断提升，我们对会员业务的中长期发展依然有信心。我们欣喜地看到，国内视频网站的内容制作水准逐渐向国际同行靠拢。而用户为优质内容付费已经成为常态。我们也注意到有同行跟随我们调整了会员价格，这也表明了行业的长期盈利能力。广告本季度中国整体广告市场继续恢复。我们的广告服务收入同比增长25%。在Q1是传统的广告淡季的前提下实现了稳定的同比、环比增长。和20年Q4趋势类似，增长主要归功于今年Q1优质综艺及大剧带动内容营销收入同环比提升。内容营销收入贡献占品牌广告收入的比例达64%左右，为最近几个季度的最高点，再一次验证了广告主对我们平台优质内容的认可。品牌广告方面，在宏观经济恢复的大背景下，得益于广告主预算的恢复以及广告主数量的增长，品牌广告收入继续企稳。Q1优质内容带动一些头部广告主加大了投放，头部客户ARPU提升。行业上看，食品饮料和化妆卫浴两个行业撑起了Q1的增长。效果广告方面，本季度消费环比上涨得益于节假日的流量带动以及重点行业如网服app、电商、网络影视、游戏的贡献。内容：内容方面，爱奇艺剧集、综艺、动漫、儿童等频道头部内容的数量及播出总量在Q1继续领先全网。第三方数据显示，Q1爱奇艺的剧集和综艺分别的正片有效播放量市场份额均接近40%，动漫（含儿童动画）和电影的正片有效播放量市场份额分别超过40%和50%，均为市场第一。爱奇艺持续推出高品质独播内容来满足用户需求，并持续推进IP的系列化开发和风格化创新。1）戏剧方面，爱奇艺本季度独播的古装大剧《赘婿》成为爆款，在题材和内容风格方面做了有益创新，为未来古装剧创作提供了新思路。此外，我们也在现实主义题材方面推出了《流金岁月》、《我的时代，你的时代》、《假日暖洋洋》等多部原创大剧。2）综艺方面，爱奇艺持续在不同综艺赛道进行原创内容创新。综艺新IP《戏剧新生活》、《奇葩说7》、《潮流合伙人2》、《姐妹们的茶话会》等原创作品在季度内热播。3）原创电影方面，由爱奇艺出品的原创电影《扫黑·决战》已于院线上映，票房超过三亿人民币，并获得各个平台的高评分。2021Q1爱奇艺出品的2部电影开机拍摄。3部电影处于后期制作之中，将于今年上映。还有18部爱奇艺出品电影（iQIYI Original Film）正在开发中。2021Q2，我们的重点戏剧内容包括《小舍得》、《骊歌行》、《北辙南辕》、《叛逆者》、《赖猫的狮子倒影》等。其中《小舍得》《骊歌行》已于4月播出，受到用户喜爱。我们的剧场化运营也将持续推进，恋恋剧场计划在5月20日开播，今年年底我们还将继续推出迷雾剧场新内容。动漫和动画方面，将上线《只好背叛地球了》、《冰雪守护者》，轻动画《仙尊奶爸当赘婿3》等内容。我们预计未来几个月的内容排播会面临一些不确定性，对此我们已提前布局了题材多样的内容，特别是自制大剧，以降低相关影响。技术:我们持续以技术赋能娱乐行业，建设影视制作工业化体系。本季度值得强调的技术应用方面的进展包括：1.在智能制作方面：爱奇艺“虚实之城”XR云演出：演唱会整场采用全球领先的XR虚拟制作技术，在虚拟场景的多样性和线上互动用户数等方面超越国外同类演出，为大家拓展了直播互动体验节目和虚拟演出节目新的天花板。2.产品和功能方面，今年1月针对低线城市用户的爱奇艺极速版正式发布，目前在用户互动方面表现良好，人均时长、人均播放VV等指标超过爱奇艺主站App。","news_type":1,"symbols_score_info":{"IQ":0.9}},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":4011,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0}],"lives":[]}
