iQIYI membership monthly card rose by up to 20%: low prices affect the healthy development of the industry

13 months later, iQIYI once again announced a membership price increase: the package remained unchanged, and the monthly subscription rose slightly.

On December 15, iQIYI Member Channel's official Weibo @ iQIYI VIP member posted a Weibo post saying that it will update the iQIYI Gold VIP member subscription price from 0:00 on December 16. At the same time, it will provide users who have previously purchased and have not yet cancelled the iQIYI Gold VIP member continuous monthly/season/annual subscription service for one year to maintain the original price service.

Judging from the updated price, the Gold VIP member monthly card is 22 yuan, and the ordinary is 30 yuan. According to the price of the previous monthly card package of 19 yuan and ordinary members of 25 yuan, the increase is 16% and 20% respectively; the gold VIP member season card package is 63 yuan, and the ordinary is 78 yuan; according to the previous quarterly card package of 58 yuan and ordinary 68 yuan, the increase is 9% and 15% respectively. The Gold VIP Membership Annual Pass and Ordinary are maintained at 218 yuan and 248 yuan, and the annual price of the continuous package is about 18 yuan per month.

If you compare iQIYI's membership price with Tencent Video's price system, you will basically catch up with Tencent Video. Tencent Video's monthly, seasonal and annual subscription prices are 20 yuan, 58 yuan and 218 yuan respectively, and the price of non-consecutive member monthly, seasonal and annual cards is 30 yuan, 68 yuan and 253 yuan respectively.

For this price increase, iQIYI responded to the surging news reporter: "The subscription price of the video platform has been low, and this phenomenon has affected the healthy development of the industry. In order to establish a more benign industrial ecology, let excellent content producers have a return, and ultimately provide members with more and better content, we decided to adjust the price of members. We will continue to strive to do a good job in content, products, and services to users. Thank you for your understanding and support. ”

This isn't the first time iQiyi has made adjustments to its membership prices. In November 2020, iQIYI made its membership price adjustment for the first time in 9 years, and in that month, Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI, said on the earnings call that from the perspective of the development trend of the entire industry, the current content cost of China's online video market and the pricing of members are extremely unreasonable. From the perspective of the entire industry, this price must be adjusted.

On November 17, 2021, iQIYI announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021. According to the financial report, in the third quarter of 2021, iQIYI's total revenue reached 7.6 billion yuan, an increase of 6% year-on-year; the net loss attributable to iQIYI was 1.7 billion yuan, compared with a loss of 1.2 billion yuan in the same period last year, and the loss expanded by 42% year-on-year. In terms of subscription membership, iQIYI's subscription membership reached 103.6 million as of September 30, 2021, compared with 103 million in the same period last year, but in the second quarter of 2021, iQIYI's total membership was 106.2 million. In the third quarter compared to the second quarter, subscribers lost 2.6 million.