Chinese online entertainment service iQiyi will expand into Southeast Asia with the aim of becoming a key media platform there. iQiyi is an affiliate of the Chinese tech giant Baidu and streams professional and user-generated content. The company announced on March 17 that it will cooperate with Singapore Changxin Media to establish a celebrity management agency that will discover and train influencers in the region.
Yang Xianghua, iQiyi’s president of Membership and Oversea Business Group, told Reuters:
“We’re already growing fast, with Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore as our highest growing markets. We saw 12 times the user growth for the region in 2020.”
Yang said that iQiyi’s goal is to become “an Asian content platform” as the company plans to add more TV shows and films from Southeast Asia, South Korea and Japan. Many of iQiyi’s existing southeast Asian productions have been popular among Chinese viewers. The entertainment platform will also produce a show documenting their new agency’s search for Southeast Asian talent.
Read more:
