On December 29, at the opening forum of the 2021 China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, Gong Yu, CEO of iQIYI, said that the current Internet movie model has reached the ceiling, and it needs to make some innovations in its business model, and it can try single-film on demand. At the same time, he also proposed that "the ticket price of online movies must rise, 6 yuan, too low"!
(Image source: Phoenix Technology)
On the 15th of this month, iQiyi announced an update to the price of gold VIP subscriptions, with the continuous monthly subscription price rising from 19 yuan to 22 yuan, and the single-month purchase price rising from 25 yuan to 30 yuan. The price of consecutive packages rose from 58 yuan to 63 yuan, and the purchase price of a single season rose from 68 yuan to 78 yuan. The price of the annual pass remained unchanged, and the price increase of the monthly and seasonal passes was between 9% and 20%.
iQiyi said that the subscription price of its platform has been low, affecting the healthy development of the industry, in order to make excellent content producers have a return, decided to increase the price of members. To put it bluntly, our membership price is too cheap to drag our peers behind, and we can't afford to lose money ourselves.
Today, iQiyi's CEO said he would raise the ticket price of online movies, and although no specific price has been announced, Kendi will not be too cheap. In this regard, many netizens said, "If you increase the price, it is best to rise to 60 yuan, and no one will spend money to see it anyway." Some netizens also suggested that the same ticket price as the cinema should be maintained. The same movie length, cinema tickets tens of hundreds of yuan, iQiyi only 6 yuan, a big loss.
Xiao Lei feels that if no one watches some movies when they are released in theaters, it is even more unlikely that someone will spend money to order them when they retreat to the line. Some of the hit films have been brushed by many people in the cinema, and it is estimated that it is difficult to attract them to pay for them to watch it again. At present, the ticket price cannot make users pay, and it is even more unlikely that anyone will buy it in the future, unless iQiyi can come up with some core competitiveness.
Many people have become accustomed to the life of watching movies for free, paying for subscription members, chasing dramas ahead of schedule is already a great compromise, and it is indeed difficult to accept that it is difficult to watch movies after opening a membership and spending money separately. The most important thing is that you can't get the permanent broadcast rights of the movie after spending money, and many of them have a number or time limit, and the next time you want to brush it again, you have to pay again.
iQiyi's revenue in the third quarter of this year was 7.589 billion yuan, and the net loss reached 1.707 billion yuan. It seems that iQiyi is really losing money to be afraid of losing money, and can't stand it. But is it really wise to increase profitability by raising membership prices and movie ticket prices? Finding ways to improve the user experience may be more reliable.