With the theme of "Working Together to Create the Future", the iQIYI World Conference opened in Beijing on April 23, lasting two days and setting up a total of 9 forums. At the opening ceremony of the main forum in the morning of the same day, Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI, Wang Xiaohui, chief content officer, and Liu Wenfeng, chief technology officer, made keynote speeches respectively, sharing iQIYI's insights and judgments on the macro environment and industrial development to nearly 1,000 industry guests, as well as the latest exploration and practice as an entertainment company driven by scientific and technological innovation.
Gong Yu: Consumption has ushered in an inflection point, and it is necessary to strengthen the service of "one old and one small" and expand more commercial space
"When a country's per capita GDP is greater than $10,000, the growth rate of cultural and entertainment consumption will exceed the growth rate of GDP. Chinese's per capita GDP exceeded $10,000 in 2019, which is an inflection point in consumption and gives us more space. Gong Yu believes that since 2021, the online entertainment industry has entered a stage of high-quality growth, taking iQiyi as an example, after achieving breakeven in 2022, it will usher in double-digit year-on-year growth in membership services and online advertising service revenue in 2023, achieving annual profitability for the first time.
Gong Yu believes that the key to whether the online entertainment industry can seize the development opportunities brought by the inflection point of consumption and lock in the next stage of sustainable growth lies in whether it can embrace changes from inside and outside the industry with an open mind and positive actions. These changes include: serving the "old" and "young" groups, which are becoming increasingly important in the changing demographic structure, embracing the production and service upgrades brought about by the widespread application of generative AI, and returning to the concern for realism in the field of content creation to continue to provide high-quality and diverse content to a wide range of users.
The trend of declining birthrate and aging population structure in Chinese is gradually changing the user composition of online video platforms. The segmentation needs of the "old" and "small" groups in terms of products, content and services are both a challenge and an opportunity for enterprises. By the end of 2023, China's elderly population over 60 years old has exceeded 290 million, and this number will exceed 400 million by 2033, when the elderly population will account for about a quarter of China's total population. Corresponding to the trend of accelerated ageing, the birth rate of newborns is declining year by year. In this context, the increase in family investment in the refined cultivation of children is expected to drive the growth of consumer demand for 0-15 year olds.
Gong Yu said that the emphasis on the two groups of "one old and one young" will run through the whole process of iQIYI's product design, content production and service in the future. iQIYI is strengthening the age-appropriate and barrier-free optimization of the App, and the children's business will also further deepen the industrial layout, expand the commercial space for the development of IP multi-format, and provide good services for the children of Generation α and the parents of Generation Z through the Kiwi TV's "Children's Mode" and Qibabu App experience upgrade.
In terms of business model innovation and space expansion, Gong Yu said that with the development of China's economy and the innovation of science and technology, iQIYI will focus on expanding content derivative business and overseas markets, and explore new growth curves in addition to traditional advertising and membership businesses. In addition, Gong Yu called for the establishment of the broadest consensus with all walks of life, to achieve the most extensive cooperation on industry issues, including copyright protection, and to optimize cooperation in the industry ecology to achieve common prosperity.
Technological developments, especially generative AI, will also bring positive changes to the industry. Gong Yu believes that in general, society as a whole overestimates the short-term impact of innovation and underestimates its long-term impact. So, it's not right to be numb and panic in the face of the impact of generative AI, and the right attitude is to think about how the industry will change in the next three to five years. As the earliest platform in the industry to embrace AI change in an all-round way, at present, iQIYI has applied generative AI in all aspects of creation, creating an AI capability matrix with creators as the core, in order to greatly improve the industry's film and television industrialization.
Liu Wenfeng: Don't panic, excellent creativity and unique aesthetics are scarce resources in the AI era
As the chief technology officer, Liu Wenfeng shared the initial application of generative AI in the three stages of iQIYI's content creation, namely planning, production and publicity. In the planning stage, generative AI has improved the efficiency and level of writing scripts and novels for relevant teams. For example, the trained AI can accurately identify strong plot points in text when evaluating scripts, and its accuracy has been well verified in user feedback. In the production phase, the application of generative AI in virtual production, sound production, and asset production can significantly improve the level of production. With the help of AI, the IQ Stage virtual shooting system independently developed by iQIYI has supported the filming of "Big Dreams Return", the drama project with the largest number of virtual shooting and the most scenes in the industry. In the publicity stage, a large number of advertising creatives produced by iQIYI through generative AI have been put into use, showing great potential in extending the value of IP.
"Generative AI has become a force that has reshaped the creative industry. Liu Wenfeng believes that with the gradual popularization of generative AI, individuals or small teams will have stronger creativity, the value of personalized content will be further highlighted, industry iteration will accelerate, and innovation opportunities will increase significantly. In this process, iQIYI will use the leverage of generative AI to amplify the value of creators, so that creators can give full play to their creativity and make more wonderful content. "Because excellent creativity and unique aesthetics are scarce resources in the AI era. ”
Wang Xiaohui: We have entered the era of "downward empathy and upward creation".
The same profound changes are taking place in the field of content creation. The development of content creation is inseparable from the development of politics, economy, and technology. In recent years, the mentality of content consumers at home and abroad has undergone significant changes, and their focus has gradually returned to the current life. Keeping pace with the consumer mentality is the creator's choice of creative themes, with the highest-rated content and highest-grossing movies in the past two years invariably turning to realistic themes.
In Wang Xiaohui's view, the industry has entered the era of "downward empathy and upward creation". In the future, film and television works that show the fate of little people under the big historical proposition will still arouse the audience's empathy the most, and the biggest empathy and the biggest hit in the film and television industry must come from realistic themes. For professional film and television creative talents, artistic creation cannot hit people's cool points in the shortest time and the simplest way, but should poke the ceiling of creation upward. "For professional film and television creation, it is necessary to dig deep into the subject content and innovate the audio-visual language, and only when the creator bravely expresses it can every audience feel that they are not lonely in the image. Wang Xiaohui said.
Implementing this creative concept, at this conference, iQIYI released the "Everyone Theater" which focuses on "Great Writers Create for Everyone" and the "Dust Theater" that depicts ordinary people and focuses on new aesthetics, new audio-visual, and high-quality short dramas. Among them, "My Altay", one of the blockbuster works of the Dust Theater, focuses on the integration of national cultures, depicts the beauty of the nation, the beauty of the environment, and the beauty of the soul with high-quality artistic standards, and was successfully shortlisted for the Best Long Drama Competition Unit of the 7th Cannes TV Drama Festival, and will be broadcast in the near future.
In addition, iQIYI also released more than 300 latest content lists for 2024-2025 at the World Congress, covering dramas, variety shows, documentaries, movies, animation, children's sports events, entertainment and other fields.