The purchaser is Science City (Guangzhou) Investment Group Co., Ltd., with a project valued of nearly 460 million yuan, which has become the largest bidding project order in the field of intelligent transportation in China this year.

The order includes the construction of vehicle road network infrastructure, intelligent intersection, Internet of vehicles, and other related application systems, which is expected to accelerate the construction of Guangzhou Development Zone and Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Bay Area Intelligent Network.

Baidu Performance in Q2 2020

Baidu App daily active users (“DAUs”) reached 204 million in June 2020, adding 16 million users in the last 12 months but 18 million less from March 2020, according to its financial results.

Over 800 sessions of topical live streaming were broadcasted in the second quarter of 2020 on Baidu’s platform, with sessions like Baidu Wiki Virtual Zoo, Summer Art Festival, and Wandering through Civilization Season 2, attracting over 40 million views.

Baijiahao (“BJH”) publisher accounts reached 3.4 million, up 52% year over year, in June 2020. The large scale of Baidu’s platform is drawing more original content creators to join BJH, which allows easy sharing of content across Baidu App, short-video app Haokan, Quanmin, and Baidu’s knowledge products.

Baidu Smart Mini Program’s monthly active users on Baidu App reaching 339 million, up 25% year over year or down over 4% from March 2020.

Revenue from Baidu Managed Page increased to approximately 30% of Baidu Core’s online marketing services revenue in the second quarter of 2020. Merchants with HTML5 websites across many industries are switching to Managed Page, as the landing page for their search results.

Baidu’s new AI businesses, including cloud, smart devices, and smart transportation, saw double-digit growth in the second quarter and stand to become an important revenue driver in the years to come.

Baidu is also diversifying its revenue streams through membership, online games, and others to increase the ARPU of the existing traffic according to Herman Yu, CFO of Baidu. The growth of Baidu App and new AI businesses have enabled Baidu Core’s adjusted EBITDA margin to reach 41% in the second quarter.

Baidu returned US$540 million to shareholders under the 2020 Share Repurchase Program in the second quarter, bringing the Company’s cumulative repurchase for the last two years to approximately US$1.9 billion.

Baidu’s board of directors recently approved a change to the 2020 Share Repurchase Program, increasing the repurchase authorization from US$1 billion to US$3 billion, which is effective through December 31, 2022.

DuerOS

In June 2020, Baidu’s DuerOS monthly voice queries on Xiaodu devices (its smart speakers) reached 2.8 billion, nearly doubling from last year, and DuerOS total monthly voice queries reached 5.8 billion, up 57% from last year.

DuerOS skills store now offers 4,000 skills in wide-ranging genres, including education, video, online game, and live streaming. DuerOS developer community has grown to over 42,000 members.

JD.com announced that Xiaodu series of smart displays and smart speakers were the best-selling in the smart speaker category on its platform during this year’s June 18 Shopping Festival.

Cloud, AI Services & AI Platform.

Baidu formed a strategic partnership with China National Building Materials Group (CNBM Group), the parent of 13 listed companies.

CNBM Group plans to use Baidu AI PaaS, equipped with big data and IoT edge computing capabilities, to provide intelligent logistics, intelligent factory and industrial autonomous driving.

For example, CNBM Group plans to use Baidu AI PaaS paired with Baidu intelligent map to improve the routing efficiency of its logistics vehicles and track the vehicles whereabouts to optimize operational costs and increase traffic safety.

Baidu’s AI open platform, built on top of Baidu Cloud, offers over 260 AI capabilities, which are tapped by over 2.1 million developers.

Apollo

The Apollo robotaxi operations in Beijing, Changsha and Cangzhou have expanded into larger networks and more complex road conditions, such as downtown streets.

In May 2020, Baidu completed the 145,000 square feet Apollo Park in Beijing, an autonomous driving and V2X testing facility that supports testing, operational command center, cloud control system, vehicle warehousing, maintenance, and calibration.

iQIYI

One of the top online video platforms iQIYI’s subscribers reached 104.9 million, up 4% year over year, in June 2020, and membership revenue was up 19% year over year.

Financial Results

Total revenues reached RMB 26.0 billion ($3.69 billion), decreasing 1% year over year.

• Online marketing revenues were RMB 17.7 billion ($2.50 billion), decreasing 8% year over year.
• Other revenues were RMB 8.3 billion ($1.18 billion), increasing 18% year over year, driven by the strong growth of iQIYI membership and Baidu’s cloud and smart transportation solutions.
  • Revenue from iQIYI reached RMB 7.4 billion ($1.05 billion), up 4% year over year.

Its share price fell more than 6% in the extended session Thursday.

Revenue from Baidu Core reached RMB 18.9 billion ($2.68 billion), decreasing 3% year over year.  iQIYI membership revenue grew 19% year over year, partially offset by online advertising revenue declining 28% year over year.

Cost of revenues was RMB 13.1 billion ($1.86 billion), decreasing 19% year over year, primarily due to a decrease in traffic acquisition costs, sales tax and surcharges, and costs of goods sold. The decrease in traffic acquisition costs reflected decreasing union revenues, as Baidu focused on optimizing profitability over revenue growth.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were RMB 4.4 billion ($625 million), decreasing 16% year over year, primarily due to decreased marketing spending and personnel-related expenses.

Research and development expenses were RMB 4.8 billion ($685 million), increasing 2% year over year.

Operating income was RMB 3.6 billion ($516 million) and operating margin was 14%. Baidu Core operating income was RMB 5.0 billion ($703 million) and Baidu Core operating margin was 26%.

Non-GAAP operating income was RMB 5.6 billion ($793 million), and non-GAAP operating margin was 22%. Non-GAAP Baidu Core operating income was RMB 6.5 billion ($917 million), and non-GAAP Baidu Core operating margin was 34%.

Total other income was RMB 366 million ($53 million), decreasing 70% year over year, primarily due to loss from equity method investments, which is booked a quarter in arrears and reflects the impact of COVID-19 on its investees.

Income tax expense was RMB 1.2 billion ($174 million), which included tax withholding accrual for dividend distribution to offshore entities, compared to RMB 416 million in Q2 2019.

Net income attributable to Baidu was RMB 3.6 billion ($507 million), and diluted earnings per ADS was RMB 10.31 ($1.46). Net income attributable to Baidu Core was RMB 4.4 billion ($626 million).

Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu was RMB 5.1 billion ($719 million), and non-GAAP net margin was 20%. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS amounted to RMB 14.73 ($ 2.08). Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu Core was RMB 5.7 billion ($801 million), and non-GAAP net margin for Baidu Core was 30%.

Adjusted EBITDA was RMB 7.0 billion ($993 million) and adjusted EBITDA margin was 27%. Adjusted EBITDA for Baidu Core was RMB 7.8 billion ($1.1 billion) and the adjusted EBITDA margin for Baidu Core was 41%.

As of June 30, 2020, cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments were RMB 154.1 billion ($21.80 billion), and cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments excluding iQIYI were RMB 144.6 billion ($20.46 billion).

Free cash flow was RMB 7.3 billion ($1.04 billion). Free cash flow excluding iQIYI was RMB 8.8 billion ($1.24 billion).

Baidu may spin off its online storage business

Baidu recently plans to split multiple internal businesses, which may be listed independently, according to Business Data.

Baidu declined to comment on the news.

If spun off, Baidu online storage business can benchmark the US cloud storage company Dropbox for its valuation. The market value of Dropbox has exceeded $9.016 billion at the intraday price on July 28.

After 360 Cloud disk, Kingsoft Online Disk, Xunlei Express Disk, Netease Cloud Disk, and other similar products stopped services, Baidu Online Disk, launched in February 2012, continues its service with a large storage capacity of 100G and clean interface.

According to 36Kr, in November 2019, the number of MAU (monthly active users) in China’s personal online storage industry was 107 million, with a penetration rate of 22.1% for mobile Internet users nationwide. Baidu Online Disk market share is 82.9%, followed by Tencent Weiyun, about 8% market share.

Questmobile’s data show Baidu Online Disk has a market share of over 85% with 600 registered users and over 100 million MAU. It currently generates revenues from users, advertising, information, mini programs, and etc.

Baidu starts offering Microsoft’s MSN ad inventory on a new ad platform

Baidu announced on 8 July 2020 that it is providing advertisers direct access to Microsoft’s MSN native desktop inventory via Baidu’s MediaGo advertising platform. The agreement enables advertisers around the world to reach consumers in the United States through premium placements on multiple MSN properties.

Rather than requiring advertisers to purchase bulk inventory, as is standard practice for many digital ad companies, this collaboration allows advertisers to secure the placements that fit their goals and budget on MSN’s desktop site.

As part of Baidu’s ongoing effort to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western markets, Baidu works with Microsoft to offer their premium MSN placements to its advertising partners in China, the U.S. and beyond. It will continue to explore meaningful ways to provide mutual growth opportunities to global advertisers and U.S. media.

The cooperation allows advertisers worldwide to access high-visibility, native placements on the MSN homepage, as well as other sister pages throughout the MSN site, via Baidu’s MediaGo ad platform.

With MediaGo, advertisers can upload assets, select placements on top-tier MSN properties and measure campaign success on a single centralized platform. MediaGo also offers 24/7 local language account management services.

“Baidu’s MediaGo platform streamlines the process for global advertisers to purchase high-visibility ad placements on MSN, helping them reach new customers,” said David Carkeek, Principal PM Lead at Microsoft.

Baidu International launched MediaGo overseas advertising platform last year when it had established cooperation with Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, etc., which will provide a very good channel for China’s domestic small and medium-sized enterprise owners to promote overseas.

Mobile reach in Q1 2020: Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance

ByteDance-owned TikTok and UC Browser (Alibaba) top App Annie‘s most downloaded app list in 2010s, ranking the 7th and 8th respectively.

By all-time consumer spend between 2010 and 2019, three video apps from China top the list: Tencent Video, iQiyi, and short-video app Kwai (Kuaishou).

Tencent’s Honour of Kings and Netease’ Fantasy Westward Journey are among the top mobile game apps by total spend in the past decade.

Check out who dominates China mobile app stores in 2019, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, or ByteDance?

Vlog has become the new theme of user growth competition on several video platforms in China. One of the new players who recently joined the arena is iQiyi.

iQiyi, whose main content is professional copyright videos such as movies, TV dramas and variety shows, has recently launched a Vlog application called “iQiyi Suike”, which is obviously intended to share a piece of vlog market with the leaders such as Kwai, TikTok, Bilibili, Weibo, etc.

Vlog can be regarded as a kind of “video log” with popular themes of travel, food, pets and so on. Its production is relatively simple, the creator uses the camera to record what he sees and thinks in his daily life, and then through later editing, with music, text or stickers, can produce a Vlog.

Usually, it’s a little longer than the 15-second short video on TikTok, and a little shorter than the professional copyright content on iQiyi. It’s a little more delicate than the food broadcasting on Kwai.

In order to encourage users to create Vlogs, the design of iQiyi Suike App is very simple, with only three interfaces: main feed, publishing, and personal homepage. There is no search function for vloggers or content, nor any categories of bloggers or content. Users can get content by pulling down feed pages and triggering updates.

Several video platforms have started promoting vlog since the second half of 2018. Bilibili’s vlog content upload has increased by 7.6 times in April 2019, compared with April 2018, according to 36Kr.

This month, Kwai began to test the long video, limiting the video length to more than 57 seconds, less than 10 minutes. A month ago, its competitor TikTok also started internally testing videos of up to 15 minutes long. In April, TikTok opened the limit for 15 seconds longer short videos, and the original Vlog with a duration of more than 30 seconds can participate in the “Vlog Billion Incubation Plan”.

Xigua, another video platform under the same company Bytedance as TikTok, also launched their campaigns to support vlogger this month. In comparison, Weibo’s vlogger growth mainly focuses on celebrities.

From Baidu search trend shown below, we can see a surge of interest in vlog since the second half of 2018:

However, Vlog’s current penetration rate is still very low. Nearly 60% of the users surveyed, conducted by Tencent’s Penguin Intelligence, have never heard of Vlog, and 70% of users claim to have never seen Vlog. Vlog users are currently mainly high-education female, concentrated in the first- and second-tier cities. The main platforms are Weibo and TikTok.

42% of Weibo Vlog users are post-95s (those born between 1995 and 2000) in Q1 2019, followed by post-90s (22%) and post-00s (20%), according to Eefung Software. The number of views on Weibo topic #VLOG# is 4.57 billion, and the number of users in related discussions is nearly five million.

Weibo Vloggers with over 1-million followers only account for 0.4% of the total; and, those with 10,000 or fewer followers account for 96%, according to Eefung data. The top topics covered by Weibo Vloggers are food, travel, celebrity, entertainment, and humor.

Marketing: Short Videos or Vlog?

Vlog contents, compared with seconds-length short videos on platforms like TikTok, are more difficult to create. Technical hindrance is not the real obstacle to its growth; video platforms will make it easier and more convenient for vloggers. However, high-quality vlogs take both delicate planning and good storytelling skills, which is much more challenging than creating short videos. It’s far behind short videos in terms of both quantity and quality.

Vlog is rising and trending, definitely worth marketers’ attention and experiments. The nature of vlogs is “log”, which can be easily boring, while the short videos focus on just eye-catching moments. So, it can’t be any serious threat to the popular short video content for reaching the mass audience but a very good complement to overall content mix.

To get you some sense what it could potentially do for marketing, take a look at the three videos below:

Vlog for Apple iPad Pro

In addition to feeling the atmosphere of the launch conference, experiencing the magnetic features of the new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, they also incorporate many daily elements of New York’s food and lifestyle in vlog and present the experience content of the conference from the perspective of life.

Vlog for LV Exhibition

Louis Vuitton held a large exhibition and invited some top vloggers. The look and feel of the scene were presented in different Vlog styles. Among them, LV also provides vloggers with branded products such as clothing, shoes, handbags, and ornaments, which were also recorded in the vlogs.

Hyatt Presidential Suite

A couple on Weibo, boy Sid is Chinese, girl Kat is from the United States. In this vlog, they received an invitation from Grand Hyatt Xi’an to experience the 31,000-yuan presidential suite. With the arrangement of the hotel, Kat and Sid followed the timetable and introduced the hotel’s room profile, double room spa service, and an Italian restaurant.

The most important thing about Vlogger sharing life is to resonate with free expression to attract people in the same circle. Compared with traditional TVC or celebrity endorsement ads, Vlog gives the audience a smaller sense of distance and is more realistic, in addition to its much lower production cost.

How a popular vlog celebrity in China expanded from online to offline retail

Online penetration in video entertainment grew by 4.2% to 71.3% in December. On average, 205.6 million users watched videos online daily. Tencent Video, iQiyi, and Youku were the top three players in this market.

Market penetration of online video was 71.3%, an increase of 4.2% year-on-year. Its average DAU declined to 205.6 million from 219.3 million a year ago.

Tencent Video topped the ranking with a penetration rate of 47.6%. iQyi took the next spot with a penetration of 43.6%. Youku (29.7%), Bilibili (8%), and MangoTV (7.7%) ranked in the third, fourth, and fifth position, respectively.

The average DAUs of Tencent Video increased to 120.7 million from 116 million three months ago. iQiyi’s average DAUs decreased to 82 million from 85.6 million three months ago.

Read more on top live streaming apps and short video apps.

The number of iQiyi’s total subscribing members reached 96.8 million as of March 31, 2019, 98.6% of whom were paying subscribing members. This compares to 61.3 million of total subscribing members as of March 31, 2018, up 58% year over year.

iQiyi’s revenues in Q1 2019 were RMB7.0 billion (US$1.0 billion), representing a 43% increase from the same period in 2018.

• Membership services revenue was RMB3.4 billion (US$513.4 million), representing a 64% increase from the same period in 2018.
• Online advertising services revenue was RMB2.1 billion (US$315.8 million), flat compared to the same period in 2018
• Content distribution revenue was RMB442.6 million (US$66.0 million), representing a 66% increase from the same period in 2018

Its operating loss was RMB2.0 billion (US$301.9 million) and operating loss margin was 29%, compared to operating loss of RMB1.1 billion and operating loss margin of 22% in the same period in 2018.

Net loss attributable to iQIYI was RMB1.8 billion (US$270.3 million), compared to net loss attributable to iQiyi of RMB395.7 million in the same period in 2018. Diluted net loss attributable to iQIYI per ADS was RMB2.52(US$0.35).

iQiyi mobile app ranks the fourth by total unique visitors in March 2019 according to data from iResearch. It’s the top video app based on the same data with about 578 million UVs, followed by Tencent Video.

For the second quarter of 2019, iQiyi expects total net revenues to be between RMB6.91 billion (US$1.0 billion) and RMB7.29 billion (US$1.1 billion), representing a 12% to 18% increase YoY.

Half the top ten apps that generated the most revenues from the Apple Store were from Chinese tech companies. Notably, all those apps turned out to provide some sorts of subscription services for video or music streaming and social interactions. 

Tencent-affiliated Tencent Video took the second position with a remarkable US$490.2 million in revenue. Baidu-backed iQiyi and Kwai (Kuaishou) ranked fourth and fifth with a revenue of US$420.5 million and US$264 million, respectively. Alibaba’s Youku and Tencent’s QQ made it up to the eighth and ninth places with a revenue of US$192.9 million and US$159.7 million, respectively.

Wondering the top mobile apps in China in Q3 2018?

Total revenues of iQiyi grew to RMB6.9 billion (US$1.0 billion) in Q3 2018, representing a 48% increase from the same period in 2017. Membership services revenue was RMB2.9 billion (US$415.3 million), representing a 78% increase from Q3 2017. Online advertising services revenue was RMB2.4 billion (US$348.9 million), down 4% YoY.

China’s online video market remains dominated by iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Youku. Check out the top mobile video apps in China here.

Net loss attributable to iQIYI was RMB3.1 billion (US$457.3 million), compared to RMB1.1 billion in the same period in 2017. Diluted net loss attributable to iQIYI per ADS was RMB4.34 (US$0.63).

The number of its total subscribing members was 80.7 million as of September 30, 2018, over 98% of whom were paying subscribing members. This compares to 42.7 million of total subscribing members as of September 30, 2017, up 89% year over year.

iQiyi’s record-breaking drama series Story of Yanxi Palace turned out to be a mega-hit for the entire summer, demonstrating its potentials in producing high-quality premium content. Leveraging our extensive content offerings and expanding distribution network.

iQiyi ranked No. 1 across reach and engagement operating metrics in Q3 2018 according to its press release.

The QIYU VR II headset from iQiyi reached the top ranking on both JD.com and TMall in the ‘Over 2,000 RMB mid-to-high-end VR all-in-one’ headset category. The QIYU VR II won the 2018 METIS Award for Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Innovation, a.k.a. the AM Turing Award.

Also read: Paid content is becoming a mainstream in China

Tencent Video and Baidu’s iQiyi are the top two mobile video apps by the number of monthly active users in China in March 2017. Both have exceeded 400 million MAU.

The other mobile video apps in top 10 include Youku, Kuaishou, Letv Video, Xiaomi Video, MangoTV, Sohu Video, Baofeng, and Tudou.

Netflix recently agreed to provide television series to China-based iQiyi.com.

Find out top vertical video apps, short video apps, and video broadcasting apps in China in Q1 2017 here. Or, download our e-book Mobile Trend in China 2017.

iQiyi ranks on top in China’s mobile video category with 245.61 million active users in Feb 2017, followed by Tencent Video, Youku, Letv, and Mango TV.

Sohu TV, Baofeng, PPTV, Tudou, and Migu Video apps are also in the top 10 video apps by MAUs in Feb 2017. Bilibili Cartoon ranks first in the vertical digital video mobile apps category with 30.52 million active users, followed by Hanju TV (Korean drama), Migu Movie, AcFun, Renren Movie, 1905 Movie, etc.

CCTV mobile app is the top one in TV programs category, followed by Migu, Mobile TV, and Yuntu TV.

In the short videos category, Kuaishou mobile app ranks on top in China in Feb 2017 with over 86 million active users, followed by Meipai, Xiaokaxiu, Miaopai, and Doupai.

Douyu, Huya, Inke, YY Live, and Huajiao are the top 5 digital video broadcasting mobile apps by MAU in Feb 2017.

Case Studies: Native Video Ads on WeChat Moments

Despite the continuous weak growth and even decline in smartphone sales in China, major domestic mobile phone manufacturers still set a “big leap” of shipping target in H1 2015. Although foreign brands iPhone and Samsung still held a large market share, domestic brands as Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi and TCL etc. all set their phone sales volume at 100 million units.

In Q2 2015, Xiaomi was the top smartphone vendor in China by total shipments volume of 15.9%, followed by Huawei (15.7%). Apple ranked third, followed by Samsung and Vivo.

China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, the three Chinese telecommunications companies accounted for 90% of the market.

4G network penetrated quickly into Chinese people’s life while users accessing to the internet through Wi-Fi accounted for 52%, mainly because of the high data charges of 4G network.

25% China mobile internet users on average opened less than 5 apps per day while over 60% would use less than 10 apps. Only 2.9% users would open more than 20 apps in one day. Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu still led China’s mobile internet market.

Among the top 20 mobile apps by total number of monthly average users, seven apps were from by Tencent. And among all the mobile apps in China in July 2015, WeChat and QQ ranked first with the monthly average users of 556.48 million and 424.28 million respectively.

WeChat and QQ were the social communication platforms with the highest penetration rate. Among the usage of the top 20 apps, users spent about 27% of the total apps usage time on WeChat and QQ. Search engine, video, and music player apps were also popular among mobile internet users.

Tencent held a strong position in the mobile social platform. Mobile internet users spent more time on WeChat compared with QQ; however among the post-00s, QQ was the major communication tool.

In the mobile video player market, Tencent, iQIYI and Youku led the market, with fierce competition and little gap of MAU (monthly active users) and total usage.

In the mobile music player market, Kugou music undoubtedly took the lead, followed by QQ Music and Kuwo Music.

Tencent News enjoyed a large share in China’s news apps market while Toutiao was in the process of fast penetration. Toutiao and Tencent News were quite close in total usage time. The daily usage of Toutiao was even twice that of Tencent News .

Offers from China online travel providers such as Ctrip and Qunar have extended to provide more on “things to do” in travel destinations. China online travel providers have also expanded to provide lifestyle offers such as food delivery, movie ticketing and car renting. In H1 2015, Ctrip and Qunar continued the growth momentum, which contributed to the tourism market of China.

Resulting from the convenience of online banking and online payment, mobile online banking apps developed quickly. China Construction Bank ranked first with monthly average usage of 2.32%.

China became the largest e-commerce market since 2014. About 53% users were women in 2015. Taobao held an unaltered position in the online e-commerce market, followed by JD and Vipshop.

In the mother care market, Beibei ranked first with an overwhelming advantage, whose monthly average usage was more the sum of other four apps.

Competition was fierce in the  cross-border hopping market, and Red ranked first in H1 2015 with a market share of 0.19%.

Meituan still ranked top on the group-buying apps in H1 2015, followed by Dianping and Nuomi while Ele continued to compete and was expected to be competitive to Meituan in the monthly average usage.

Meituan and Ele dominate the food delivery market. Ele led the market in Beijing and Shanghai while Meituan held an obvious advantage in other cities. Beijing made up of nearly 10% of the total food delivery share.

Car calling market was basically shared by Didi, Kuaidi and Uber. Although Uber China made much effort in the localization of Uber, the number of daily average users was only one third that of Didi Cars/Kuaidi One.

WeChat payment has gradually been adopted by more users. Many apps supported payments by WeChat. Didi and Meituan were first two apps that used WeChat payment as the primary payment method.

Also read: China Top 100 Mobile Apps in July 2015

As of June 2014, the number of China online video users exceeded 439 million. And, the number of mobile video users was 294 million according to data of CNNIC.

According to Tencent’s latest research, China online video users have various needs nowadays. Their habit of paying for online videos is expected to advance in China in 2015.

The research shows 75% of China online video users watch video which indicates great consumption potential in the market.

China online video users watching videos for over one hour accounted for 73.2% in Tencent’s research. 47.5% watch over two hours on a daily basis.

Popular categories of online videos among users are movies, TV play, news, variety live show and so on in 2015. Compared with traditional television, internet users can choose to watch their favorite movies, TV plays with flexibility of forwarding or pause.

Only 25.1% China respondents would like to pay for variety live show videos.

The data indicates the habit of paying for online video is still not developed well in China. Nearly 80% of respondents didn’t pay for online videos. Further, online video providers’ better service may stimulate users’ consumption potential in online video market.

In terms of consumption on online videos, 63.9% respondents would accept spend lower than 20 yuan every month in China.

Among paid users, 85% respondents choose to buy VIP membership directly while 13.4% choose to  pay for single online video.

78.4% respondents buy VIP membership on online video official websites.

Most of the online video users who buy VIP membership are attracted by various content of online video.

Many frustrations among users exist after buying VIP membership, such as some videos are not smooth when watching.

Also read: China Online Video Market in 2014

Following iQIYI announced an exclusive worldwide broadcast in 2015 CCTV Spring Festival Gala for Year of the Goat, Gong Yu, iQIYI founder and CEO, and Wang Gaofei, Weibo CEO, announced deep collaboration on this event on Weibo. Weibo users can comment and win Hongbao while watching Spring Festival Gala.

This year, China internet users can watch the live broadcasting of Spring Festival Gala and comment and interact with other Weibo users without switching the screens. Weibo will also give away 400 red envelopes to active users, each of which contains 4,999 yuan cash.

Their collaboration covers mobile. iQiyi has 500 million active users according to Gong Yu. Its accumulated users on mobile client has reached 860 million, contributing 63% of its total traffic. In contrast, the percentage of users who login Weibo on mobile exceeded 78%.

While during the first 7 months in 2014, iQiyi/PPS remained the leader by total number of reached users on mobile, followed by Youku Tudou, and Tencent video.

Read more: Weibo and Alipay’s Hongbao Campaign Gone Viral

In October 2014, Youku mobile app’s daily UV exceeded 40 million in a single week and then it successfully broke through 40 million in October 2014. The total UV in a week reached 80 million which made new records in online video market in October 2014 in China according to data of iResearch.

The total effective usage time of Youku in the week (from 20th Oct to 27th Oct) was 16.88 billion minutes which is equivalent to 30 thousand years; and weekly access was 1.5 billion times which was 1.5 times more than iQiyi in Oct 2014.

What’s more, Youku app users exceeded 600 million recently in early December 2014 which indicates Youku will be the first mobile app to make such records in China online video market. Besides, its monthly coverage was over 500 million and daily UV was over 650 million in October in China. Total accumulated usage time of Youku was over 10,000 years per day in 2014.

In August 2014, with monthly browsing time of 775.515 million hours, Youku ranked top among China online video providers, followed by IQiYi and Letv. While during the first 7 months in 2014, iQiyi/PPS remained the leader by total number of reached users on mobile, followed by Youku Tudou, and Tencent video.

In TNS Connected Life study, it found that one third (33%) in mainland China, 32% in Hong Kong, watch online video every day, on either PC or mobile devices.

Also read: China Online Video Overview in Q3 2014

In July 2014, iQiYi, owned by Baidu, ranked top among China online video providers with monthly browsing time of 786.45 million hours, followed by Youku and Letv according to data from iResearch.

In July, total number of iQiyi’s users on mobile device increased by 9.57% from June in 2014. It is estimated that the number of iQIYI’s total users will likely double by the end of 2014. In August, with monthly browsing time of 775.515 million hours, Youku ranked top among China online video providers, followed by IQiYi and Letv.

Besides iQiYi’s good performance in July and August 2014, Letv is also running on a good track as it is still in top 3 list by monthly browsing time whose CEO was awarded the Best CEO among China’s public listed companies in 2014 on Forbes.

Youku Tudou’s loss continued and Youku Tudou reached Over 500M Users in Q2 2014.

Also read: Top Mobile Video Providers in China in July 2014

The number of mobile video  users increased to 270 million in China in July 2014 with an increase of 134% from the same period in 2013.

The top three mobile video providers in China were iQiyi, Youku Tudou and Tencent video with total number reached users of 134 million, 129 million and 77.7 million respectively according to data from iResearch in July.

During the first 7 months in 2014, iQiyi/PPS remained the leader by total number of reached users on mobile, followed by Youku Tudou, and Tencent video. In July, total number of iQiyi’s users increased  by 9.57% from June in 2014. It is estimated that the number of iQIYI’s total users will likely double by the end of 2014.

Among China’s mobile video player apps in July 2014, Mobile QQ Video Player ranked first by total number of active users, with 867 thousand users, followed by MoboPlayer with 774 thousand according to EnfoDesk.

When it comes to factors that make China online users favor and stick with a specific video websites, “rich and broad content” rank on top, followed by video stream quality (definition) and loading speed. Read more here.

Also read: Top Mobile Browsers in China

Baidu

On September 23 2013, Baidu announced that Baidu video app users hit 100 million which was the number one in mobile video market.

Baidu video is an OTT (Over the Top) – search, aggregation and play videos. When Baidu video users reached 100 million, in a degree, it has controlled the entrance to mobile videos. Besides, Baidu will list iQiyi videos in the front when several video websites have broadcast rights.

Baidu just declared its mobile video app was now open for advertisements to video websites partners, which means Baidu mobile video app not only aggregates large amount of videos to attract millions of users, but also sells ads to video websites. Baidu takes advantage of its technology to attract resources and make money without producing its own videos.

Sohu

Sohu video claimed to be number one in monthly visitors, in June and July’s UV, etc. Besides, Sohu also announced its self-made drama strategy, making it a high profile.

In 2013, Sohu video is driven by American drama broadcasting, TV variety show and self-made drama. They all cater for the highlights of this year, and it’s no wonder Sohu ranked top in monthly visitors and others. However, Sohu has to pick the new hit for the American drama and TV variety show has too much uncertainty and is constantly changing. This explains why Sohu cannot stay on the top for long.

ifeng

ifeng, too, announced its video app users reached 20 million on September 23 2013. It ranked the number one in news videos.

In China, almost all major video websites focus on entertainment except for ifeng video, which has the support from ifeng TV. It almost dominated in news video websites. On one hand, ifeng video owns the video resources from its partners such as ifeng TV, dragon TV. On the other hand, ifeng video also has its own UGC (User Generated Content) team.

But, it also faces huge challenges. First, how to transfer public attention from entertainment to news requires both effort and time. Second, ifeng video need to strengthen its promotion and advertising.

Though Baidu, Sohu and ifeng all claim to be number one in mobile video market, they have different focuses. Baidu has controlled the entrance to mobile videos, Sohu aims at topping in video industry and ifeng’s ambition is to secure its position in news videos.