The "fan sucking" idol talent show variety show stopped, and the advanced on-demand mode of exploring diversified profits was cancelled. What's the next step for the video platform? On November 17, while iqiyi (NASDAQ: IQ) announced the third quarter financial report, iqiyi CEO Gong Yu said that there is still uncertainty in the future market environment, and iqiyi is actively adapting to the new market environment. "While adhering to the content diversification strategy, iqiyi is committed to continuously improving operation efficiency." Gong Yu also revealed that he saw the development momentum of some new businesses, such as iqiyi Express Edition and the company's overseas business. At the subsequent performance conference, Gong Yu revealed that iqiyi app increased month on month in dau (number of daily active users) in many Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, while the speed version developed rapidly mainly in low-line cities, and this part of users consumed more content and advertisements. He also mentioned that the biggest problem encountered by the long video industry at present is the serious shortage of content supply in terms of supply and demand. The reasons include the impact of the epidemic on the progress, the proportion of traditional TV dramas has become less or even only one third of that in previous years, the launch of new online dramas has been delayed due to audit reasons, the quality of online dramas has been discounted... There are relatively large problems in content supply; The objective reason is the contention of short video for user time. Wang Xiaohui, chief content officer of iqiyi, mentioned in the teleconference that the talent shows mainly involving Korean singing and dancing idol have been suspended, but there is still much room for online variety shows such as competitive show and slow variety of emotional life in the future. On the same day, iqiyi released its third quarter financial report, which showed that iqiyi's total revenue reached 7.6 billion yuan (about US $1.2 billion), a year-on-year increase of 6%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of 1.7 billion yuan, a loss of 1.2 billion yuan in the same period last year, an increase of 41.6% year-on-year. Iqiyi's operating loss expanded, with an operating loss of 1.4 billion yuan (about US $212.3 million) in the third quarter, with an operating loss rate of 18%. In the same period last year, iqiyi's operating loss was 1.2 billion yuan (about US $178.2 million), with an operating loss rate of 17%. Behind the loss is the cruel reality of China's video industry's 10-year investment and 10-year loss. Although video websites are saying goodbye to the stage of crazy spending money on dramas in the past, turning to self-made content and producing broken circle online dramas and online integrations, mainstream video platforms including iqiyi, Youku and Tencent video have never reversed the loss situation. From iqiyi's financial report, iqiyi's revenue cost was 7 billion yuan (about US $1.1 billion) in the third quarter. Among them, as an important part of revenue cost, content cost expenditure reached 5.3 billion yuan (about 824.5 million US dollars). High quality content creation and the establishment of a sustainable business model based on user payment are very important for video platforms and content parties who are struggling to pursue positive cash flow and positive circular development. It can be seen that in the third quarter, content distribution generated revenue of 627.1 million yuan (about 97.3 million US dollars) for iqiyi in this quarter, an increase of 60% compared with the same period in 2020, mainly due to iqiyi's release of more content to other platforms in this quarter. In addition, the revenue of online advertising services in this quarter reached 1.7 billion yuan (about 257.7 million US dollars), and other revenue reached 1 billion yuan (about 157.3 million US dollars), an increase of 3% over the same period in 2020. Wang Xiaodong, CFO of iqiyi, also said today that in the long run, iqiyi will continue to invest in more diversified content, and mentioned the need to develop innovative products and services with better return on investment. As of the end of the third quarter, iqiyi's subscription membership reached 103.6 million, a decrease from 104.8 million in the same period last year, but the member service revenue increased by 8% year-on-year. "Although the number of subscription members fluctuated in the third quarter, the revenue of member services increased year-on-year." Wang Xiaodong, CFO of iqiyi, said that it was mainly due to the member strategy of providing diversified content and user experience and the improvement of monetization ability. Behind this, since November 13 last year, iqiyi member service fees have officially increased. As of September 30, 2021, the company has cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments totaling RMB 11 billion (about US $1.7 billion). Iqiyi looks forward to the performance of the fourth quarter of 2021: the total revenue is expected to be between 7.08 billion yuan (about US $1.1 billion) and 7.53 billion yuan (about US $1.17 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 5% to a year-on-year increase of 1%. Before the US stock market on November 17, iqiyi fell by more than 5.8%. (Xinhua News Agency)