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Paid content has become a driving force in China's online entertainment market. In 2019, the revenue of the paid online video sector was about **** billion yuan. It was estimated to reach almost 100 billion yuan by 2022.

The fights and struggles

In China, more than *** million people were watching online video content as of December 2020. Pay-TV channels have a much narrow choice of content compared to free online video platforms. Due to a low monthly subscription fee, pay-TV operators have a limited budget to invest on their content. The lack of imminent competition has given free room for online video sites to thrive. Tudou and Youku were one of the pioneers in the sector. They merged into Youku Tudou when iQiyi and Tencent Video arrived on the market. Financially backed by Alibaba, iQiyi was able to take the exclusive streaming rights of many foreign blockbuster titles. It did not take long for the “Netflix of China” to overtake Youku Tudou’s dominance in the online video market.

A feasible roadmap

Recently, iQiyi has shifted its focus to premium domestic productions. The mega-hit historical drama "Story of Yanxi Palace" brought a considerable amount of paid subscriptions to the platform, pushing its mobile app version to be one of the top apps in China. However, the online paid video competition remains intense with soaring content costs. TV dramas and movies will continue to be the major pillars in the market. To attain new members, well-established platforms need to produce and acquire strong original content.