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China's video streaming platforms have seen signs of stagnation in user growth. In January 2022, the Netflix of China, iqiyi.com, ranked first among its rivals with a total of *** million unique visitors in China, down about million in the previous year. Alibaba's youku.com, commonly known as the Chinese equivalent of YouTube, recorded a monthly traffic of around *** million unique visits.

Online video market in China

Over the past decade, the number of internet users in China has doubled. As of the end of 2021, about **** billion Chinese had used the Internet. While the absolute number of users seems high, there is yet a massive potential of internet users to be unlocked, as the internet penetration in China was still relatively low compared to other large economies in the world. Soaring user numbers have had an immediate impact on the development of online video platforms. Whereas a mere *** million Chinese had watched videos online in 2008, this number increased almost fivefold in 2020, surpassing the *** million benchmark. That year, online video user penetration had ranged at **** percent.

The engaged audience

Most of the internet users in China watched online videos via their smartphone every day. While male users tend to prefer gaming content, female users are more likely to choose content related to daily life. Recently, mobile-first and short videos have become the industry trend in the Chinese online video arena. Industry experts have projected the number would very likely continue to increase with double-digit growth in the coming few years. This would push China's online video market size to *** billion by 2022. By then, paid content would account for more than half of the online video market revenue.