Looking at iQiyi's IP Ecosystem from the Perspective of Online Literature

iQiyi was not one of the first online video players in China, but it has reached the top in just ten years. According to the data from the "2020 China Mobile Internet Spring Report" released by QuestMobile, iQiyi has 572 million monthly active users, far exceeding Tencent Video and Youku, and once again ranked "No. 1 in User Scale among the 2019 China Mobile Internet TOP30 Tracks".

So, how did iQiyi become the leader in China's online video and maintain its lead?

On September 5, the iQiyi sub-forum of the 4th China "Online Literature +" Conference was held. The innovative model of IP literature and film linkage announced by iQiyi at the conference allowed us to see one of the growth codes of iQiyi's latecomer advantage.

The Value of IP

For a long time, whether it is a web series or a movie, the scale of capital and the cast lineup have been exaggerated during the promotion. In the final analysis, the audience is not looking at the capital but the content, and a good story is one of the core keys to the success of film and television dramas. For example, Fu Dongyu, the director of "Ice Breaking Operation", once said: "Film and television works have two foundations, just like a person has two shoulders under his head, the left is literature, and the right is art. It determines the future height and depth of your work. If there is no literature, I think film and television do not exist in a sense." In fact, according to statistics from research institutions, half of the movies that won the Oscar for Best Picture were adapted from novels.

From this point of view, although literature and film and television works belong to two completely different art categories, "storytelling" is their common foundation, which determines that literature and film and television works are actually "born from the same root" and are two fruits grown on the same branch.

Especially when the film and television industry has entered the era of industrialized mass production, the quality of the story script has become the most important weight on the scale of film and television works. Data shows that since 2017, the number of literary IP adaptations has increased for three consecutive years, and as of 2020, the proportion has exceeded 30%.

It is worth noting that under the literary IP, the connection between online literature and film and television dramas is particularly prominent because the creation is freer, more flexible and has a wider audience. The "2019 Online Literature Development Report" shows that there are currently 17.55 million online literature creators in China, the number of online literature users continues to increase, reaching 455 million, and the Internet user usage rate has reached 53.2%. Among them, the proportion of online literature IP adaptations is close to 70%, far exceeding published literature, and it is the well-deserved first "raw material base" for the core of film and television stories.

As early as 2017, the first year when the trend of literary IP adaptation was on the rise, iQiyi launched the Yunteng Project. According to iQiyi, the Yunteng Project has released 46 works in the three years since its launch, and has repeatedly produced excellent works. Among them, the costume web drama "Young Master, Please Slow Down" ranked first in the platform's revenue sharing web drama in the first half of 2020 with a revenue sharing of over 70 million.

Dong Qianqiu, general manager of iQiyi Literature, said: "Literature plays a very important role in iQiyi's strategy because it is a low-cost channel for providing sources of stories."

iQIYI Literature’s “Story” Ecosystem

From the perspective of online literature IP, although the entire market is very hot, truly excellent works are rare. Moreover, once video platforms discover high-quality content, it is easy to engage in vicious competition for copyrights.

In order to allow more outstanding authors to stand out and to timely transform excellent literary works into film and television works, iQiyi has successively launched the "Yun Teng Project" and the "Yun Teng Project+".

First of all, iQiyi Literature takes original contracted works and high-quality works submitted by various literary websites as the basis, adopts a profit model of post-revenue sharing, and jointly develops film and television content with outstanding producers in the industry. Yunteng Project+ is a joint effort by iQiyi Literature, iQiyi Studio, iQiyi Pictures, and external film and television parties to create self-made, customized film and television and theater film works.

From the perspective of the "Yun Teng Plan", iQiyi first guarantees the interests of authors and encourages them to create more excellent content. According to iQiyi, in the three years since the launch of the "Yun Teng Plan", a total of 458 book lists have been released, 126 books have been successfully authorized, and 123 authors have participated. There are 11 authors who have achieved IP copyright income of over one million.

At present, the "Yun Teng Project" has launched 64 film and television works, including "Young Master, Please Slow Down", "Time Teaches Me to Love You", "My Hero" and "Wolf Eagle" and other high-yield film and television works. It can be said that the "Yun Teng Project" has greatly stabilized iQiyi's basic plate at the content level, and thus provided a strong guarantee for the upper-level film and television content's need for fresh themes.

Secondly, from the perspective of film and television content creation, since the "Yun Teng Project +" has raised the entry threshold for film producers, the user-paid revenue sharing model has also trained many excellent production teams, who have fully utilized the advantages of the "Yun Teng Project" online content and created more attractive film and television content. Dong Qianqiu said: "iQiyi will let the content compete in their respective themes, and only good works will be put into the Yun Teng Project +."

It is reported that the "Yun Teng Project +" has launched three projects, "Flame Armor", "Lian Lian Dimple", and "Feeding the Dragon with One's Body", and six IPs, including "The Painting Seduce Me First", "Love and Loyalty", and "Mirror World", are also in bidding. Considering that the literary quality and the team are fully guaranteed, it is believed that these film and television contents that can reach the "Yun Teng Project +" have been well checked in advance in terms of quality. At the iQiyi sub-forum of the 4th "Online Literature +" Conference in 2020, the bidding for theater movies of the "Yun Teng Project +" was officially launched, and the first three theater movie lists of "Sniffing Dangerous Sugar", "Across Time and Space Love", and "Headline Storm" were announced.

Overall, although the entire film and television industry has seen the important impact of literary IP on the industry, in the actual transformation process, it needs to face the issues of how to make literature and film and television have a positive interaction and maintain sustainable development. It can be said that on the basis of satisfying the interests of all parties, iQiyi Literature has created an extremely healthy IP story ecology, which, combined with iQiyi's film and television adaptation capabilities, is the secret to continuing to lead in the positive cycle of literary IP film and television adaptation.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.