On March 13, the second China TV Drama Production Industry Congress opened in Shenzhen. Gong Yu, Vice Chairman of the China Television Drama Production Industry Association and Founder and CEO of iQiyi Inc. (IQ.US), attended the event and delivered a keynote speech titled "The Spring of the Film and Television Industry." He stated that AI technological innovation is bringing unprecedented transformation and opportunities to the film and television industry, driving platforms toward decentralization, focusing on the production of high-value IP-driven head content, building communities for creators and users, and enhancing the public service nature of platforms. Gong Yu emphasized that while AI technology profoundly changes content production, IP remains the industry's most significant asset, and creativity and art are always the essence of film and television creation. Within the developmental opportunities brought by AI technology, diligent individuals are bound to attain immense fortune, and the film and television industry will usher in a new spring of development. AI innovation is fundamentally altering long-standing industry pain points such as high costs and lengthy production cycles, greatly enriching the supply of film and television content and bringing transformative change to the sector.
Gong Yu believes that the deep application of AI will inevitably lead the film and television industry to realize the "One-One-Two Law": a reduction in unit content production costs by one order of magnitude, an increase in the number of creators by at least one order of magnitude, and an increase in the number of works by at least two orders of magnitude, which will inevitably lead to a disruptive shift in the industry landscape. In response to this change, he pointed out that film and television platforms will transform into decentralized social media, focusing on producing head content with high IP value while simultaneously building communities for creators and users. By optimizing content production and operational models, platforms can better serve both creators and audiences.
Gong Yu further elaborated on how film and television platforms can enhance their public service function across the entire industry chain, encompassing content production, operation, distribution, and monetization. First, by providing production AI agents and creator operation platforms to facilitate more convenient professional content production and operation for creators. Second, by assisting creators with IP acquisition, offering financial support, and providing mid-office services such as script evaluation. Third, by helping creators' content reach a broader audience through "hard services" like video viewing and "soft services" such as promotion and marketing operations. Fourth, by enabling fairer and more reasonable revenue distribution for creators through diverse monetization methods including memberships, advertising, and merchandise.
Using iQiyi Inc. as an example, the AI agent platform "Nadou Pro" integrates globally leading foundation models with iQiyi Inc.'s extensive experience in professional content production, comprehensively optimizing the production process from script evaluation to final output. Currently, Nadou Pro supports internal teams and key partners across various professional content domains like movies, series, and animation, and will soon be launched publicly. The creator operation platform "iQiyi Hao" provides creators with a more convenient support system, fully optimizing entire process services from content operation to revenue settlement.
Under this new platform ecosystem, the nature of collaboration between platforms, creators, and production studios will also evolve. Creators will possess greater ownership of their content brands and copyrights, have more comprehensive control over their private traffic, and engage in more direct interaction with users. The revenue model for creators will gradually shift from the traditional B2B model towards a consumer-driven B2C model. Simultaneously, the collaboration model between production studios and platforms will progressively transform, moving from traditional platform self-produced content towards a pure revenue-sharing model. In the future, purely revenue-shared content is expected to constitute the vast majority, while the proportion of platform self-produced content will gradually decrease.
Currently, AI technology is rapidly disrupting categories such as online feature films, mid-length dramas, short series, and animation, and has entered a phase of rapid implementation. However, theatrical movies, head series, and variety shows represent the core content stronghold and primary carrier of IP for the film and television industry, and will be the final frontier for AI technology to conquer. Gong Yu concluded that while seizing these opportunities, film and television platforms should also return to the essence of content, steadfastly upholding creativity and art. iQiyi Inc. welcomes more outstanding creators to join and collaborate in jointly embracing the industry's new spring!
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