Recently, a large number of netizens said on the social network that the iQiyi APP has restricted the price of screen projection.
In the past, iQIYI Gold VIP members supported 4K resolution video projection, but now they can only choose 480P resolution.
In this regard, iQiyi customer service said that gold members can use it on computers, tablets and mobile phones, and can use 480P resolution for screen projection.
The reporter found through experience that before iQIYI gold members could choose up to 4K high-definition when casting screens, but the current gold member permissions have been limited to 480P resolution.
For the change of the rules, iQiyi has not yet issued a response.
According to the reporter’s current experience, apart from iQiyi’s change of the charging standard for screencasting video resolution, in terms of other video platforms, Mango Video members and Tencent Video members can still cast screens at the original resolution. There is an additional fee of 12 yuan to cast the screen, and the big members of station B can cast the screen normally.
According to industry analysts, the fundamental reason behind iQIYI’s change of projection standards for gold members is still the pressure on revenue.
On December 16, 2022, after iQiyi’s member price increase policy was implemented, the public opinion on the Internet rebounded sharply in response to this price increase, and it went straight to the second place on the Weibo hot search list. Netizens mainly questioned why iQiyi raised prices again, Why stricter audits for multi-machine logins.
Regarding the reason for the price increase at that time, iQiyi responded to the first financial reporter that in the future, it will continue to increase investment in excellent works, so that excellent content creators will be rewarded and the industry ecology will be healthier.
Provide members and friends with more good works like "The World", "Canglan Jue", "Punishment", "Daily Life of Qingqing" and "Wind Blowing Pinellia".
Liao Xuhua, a senior consultant in the cultural consumption industry of Analysys Analysis, told reporters that the fundamental reason behind the price increase is still the profit issue. Although the price increase will inevitably affect the company's overall revenue, the last price increase has provided sufficient data and experience. iQiyi has already understood the impact of the price increase internally, so this time it will raise the price again based on the purpose of profit.
Since November 2020, iQiyi has raised prices for two consecutive years, and the monthly subscription price has risen all the way from 15 yuan to 25 yuan. From the third quarter, we will upgrade our strategy and enter the new channel of "calm growth". That is, we will no longer consume a large amount of cash flow at the expense of investing more resources in the company's main business and high ROI projects with higher certainty. middle.
Gong Yu said that it is basically certain that the goal of "Non-GAAP operating level profit and loss balance for the whole year of 2022" can be achieved.
Membership price increases have become a common option on domestic video sites. On April 20, 2022, Tencent will adjust the membership prices of Tencent Video VIP and Super Video VIP, and the price increase range will be between 5 yuan and 20 yuan.
The biggest price increase is Tencent Video’s VIP subscription for a continuous year, which has risen from 218 yuan in the past to 238 yuan.
The continuous monthly subscription of Tencent Video VIP, the annual Tencent Video VIP card, and the continuous monthly subscription of Super Video VIP will increase by 5 yuan respectively.
With iQIYI’s price increase this time, the platform membership price is now basically the same as the Tencent Video membership price.
But the sequelae of price increases are also reflected in the financial report data.
Tencent Holdings' financial report for the third quarter of 2022 shows that as of the end of the third quarter, the total number of paid Tencent video members was 120 million, a decrease of 9 million year-on-year and a decrease of 2 million month-on-month.
Regarding the decline in the number of paying members, Tencent responded that it was due to the delay in content scheduling. At the same time, although the number of users declined, "thanks to the active measures of member price adjustments, ARPU (average revenue per user) has increased."
iQiyi’s financial report for the third quarter shows that the company’s membership service revenue in the quarter was 4.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2% compared with the third quarter of last year, and a decrease of 1.7% from the previous quarter.
Although the number of members achieved a month-on-month increase of 2.7 million, and the average number of daily subscription members reached 100.2 million in the quarter, it was still down from 103.8 million in the same period last year.
In addition, the monthly average single member income (ARM) was 13.90 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2%, which was lower than the previous 14.69 yuan and 14.53 yuan.
In response to the year-on-year decline in membership income in the third quarter, Gong Yu said that it is mainly based on several reasons: the first is the impact of the epidemic in May, June, and July, and consumers’ willingness has declined; the second is the content of some plans in June and July Not yet online; third, some excessively reduced market expenses, resulting in poor performance in the first quarter of the third quarter.
This time, iQIYI has adjusted membership projection, and will have experience with the number of members, payment business revenue and other aspects of revenue when it needs to bring the next quarter's financial report.
Dong Min, deputy secretary-general of the China Electronic Video Industry Association, told Yicai.com reporters that although the content costs of iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent have remained high in recent years, their operating profits have not been good.
However, it must be difficult for consumers to break the previous membership rules and break them one by one by cutting sugar cane.