The company’s unaudited consolidated results reflect a significant surge in revenues, operating profit, and user engagement metrics, underscoring its dominant position in the digital economy.

A robust start to 2024

In Q1 2024, Kuaishou reported revenues of RMB 29.4 billion, marking a 16.6% increase compared to the same period in 2023.

This growth was accompanied by a notable rise in gross profit, which reached RMB 16.1 billion, up from RMB 11.7 billion in Q1 2023, reflecting a gross profit margin of 54.8%.

The company’s operating profit soared to RMB 3.99 billion, reversing the operating loss of RMB 698 million from the previous year.

Strategic initiatives driving growth

Kuaishou’s strategic initiatives have been pivotal in driving its growth. The company’s innovative traffic recommendation mechanism, enhanced monetization strategies, and robust e-commerce operations have all contributed to its strong financial performance.

In Q1 2024, Kuaishou rolled out a new traffic recommendation mechanism, aligning user experience improvements with increased monetization efficiency.

This strategy has attracted higher buyer budgets and boosted the company’s e-commerce business, which grew by 28.2% year-over-year to RMB 288.1 billion in GMV.

Financial highlights

Kuaishou’s financial metrics paint a picture of robust growth and strategic success. The company achieved an adjusted net profit of RMB 4.39 billion, a staggering increase from RMB 42 million in Q1 2023.

The adjusted EBITDA also saw a significant rise, reaching RMB 5.98 billion, up from RMB 1.99 billion in the same period last year. These metrics highlight Kuaishou’s effective cost management and revenue generation strategies.

User engagement and platform growth

Kuaishou’s user engagement metrics have shown impressive growth, with average DAUs reaching 393.8 million, up from 374.3 million in Q1 2023.

Average MAUs also increased to 697.4 million, reflecting the company’s successful user acquisition and retention strategies.

The average daily time spent per DAU on the Kuaishou app was 129.5 minutes, further emphasizing the platform’s ability to engage users effectively.

Kuaishou’s adjusted net profit of RMB 4.39 billion and adjusted EBITDA of RMB 5.98 billion are indicators of strong financial health. The substantial increase in these metrics from the previous year highlights the company’s effective cost management and revenue generation capabilities. Additionally, the significant reduction in administrative expenses by 49.7% year-over-year is a positive sign of operational discipline.

The growth in Kuaishou’s overseas business, with revenues reaching RMB 991 million, up 193.2% year-over-year, and the narrowing of operating losses in these markets, indicates successful international expansion. The company’s localized strategies and investments in content generation and platform optimization are paying off, contributing to overall revenue growth and improved operating efficiency.

For the fourth quarter, Bilibili reported total net revenues of RMB 6.3 billion ($894.3 million), a modest increase of 3% year-over-year.

This growth reflects the platform’s diversified revenue streams, with significant contributions from advertising and value-added services (VAS). Advertising revenues soared by 28% year-over-year to RMB 1.9 billion ($271.7 million), while VAS revenues increased by 22% to RMB 2.9 billion ($402.4 million).

However, mobile game revenues dipped by 12% year-over-year to RMB 1.0 billion ($141.8 million), primarily due to a high comparison base from the previous year.

The fiscal year 2023 painted a similar picture of resilience and growth, with total net revenues reaching RMB 22.5 billion ($3.2 billion), up by 3% from the previous year.

The growth in advertising and VAS revenues stood out, increasing by 27% and 14% respectively, highlighting Bilibili’s ability to monetize its content effectively. Despite challenges in the mobile gaming sector, which saw a 20% decline in revenues to RMB 4.0 billion ($566.4 million), the company’s broad portfolio of revenue sources helped offset impacts from specific segments.

Bilibili’s focus on cost management and operational efficiency became evident in its gross profit, which surged by 41% year-over-year to RMB 5.4 billion ($766.5 million), reflecting an improved gross profit margin of 24.2% for the fiscal year 2023, up from 17.6% in 2022.

The company also made strides toward profitability, with net loss narrowing by 36% to RMB 4.8 billion ($677.7 million) for the year, and adjusted net loss decreasing by 49% to RMB 3.4 billion ($480.9 million).

A key highlight of Bilibili’s performance is its robust user engagement, with average daily active users (DAUs) reaching 100.1 million in the fourth quarter, an 8% increase from the same period in 2022.

This user growth, coupled with an average daily time spent of over 95 minutes, underscores the platform’s strong appeal and user retention capabilities.

Looking ahead, Bilibili’s management expressed optimism about the company’s strategic direction, emphasizing continued investment in content and creator ecosystems to drive community growth and further monetization.

With a commitment to improving financials and achieving profitability, Bilibili is poised to navigate the evolving digital entertainment landscape with agility and strategic focus.

Top traffic driver compared: TikTok/Douyin vs. Kuaishou vs. Bilibili vs. RED

A recent unveiling at the “2024 WeChat Open Class PRO” has shone a light on its video account e-commerce business, demonstrating a nearly threefold increase in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in 2023. This growth is complemented by a more than 244% rise in order volume and an approximately 300% increase in product offerings.

Industry insiders estimate that live commerce via WeChat’s video accounts generated a GMV between 40 to 50 billion yuan in 2022. Following the reported threefold growth, the 2023 figures are projected to hit between 120 and 150 billion yuan.

Li Chengdong, an e-commerce analyst and founder of Dolphin Think Tank, acknowledges the impressive growth rates of video account e-commerce in 2023. However, he notes the sector’s scale remains modest compared to giants like Alibaba, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, whose GMVs have breached the trillion yuan mark, alongside emerging live commerce platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou.

A significant development is Tencent’s integration of video account e-commerce with its WeChat advertising system, allowing for video account livestreams to be promoted within Moments. This new feature opens up fresh avenues for traffic acquisition, potentially boosting conversion rates by shortening the consumer journey from ad click to purchase.

The integration extends beyond advertising, as various e-commerce formats within the WeChat ecosystem, such as social commerce and mini-program commerce, are linking up with video account e-commerce. This strategic move positions video accounts as a foundational infrastructure within WeChat e-commerce, facilitating a seamless flow of both public and private domain traffic within the social network.

WeChat’s new social e-commerce platform integrates Shopping Accounts

Launched in 2020 as a counter to Douyin and Kuaishou, WeChat’s video accounts rapidly developed a comprehensive suite of short video functionalities. By integrating with other WeChat services like Official Accounts, Search, and Mini Programs, video accounts have become a crucial part of the ecosystem.

The platform’s commercial exploration, especially in live commerce, started in earnest around the first half of 2021. According to Yu Haijun, founder and general manager of Guangzhou Zhi Ling Network Science and Technology Co., Ltd., early adopters included notable brands drawn by the platform’s promise of a refined operational framework focusing on user experience.

Tencent’s Q3 2023 earnings report highlighted a more than 50% year-on-year increase in total video account views, with WeChat’s video account content ecosystem and creator base continuing to expand. Partnering platforms like Weimob reported a 47.6% increase in video account merchants and a 50.5% increase in their GMV in the first half of 2023, further underscoring the growing importance of video accounts in the e-commerce landscape.

Despite these advances, some insiders express dissatisfaction with the growth rate, pointing to a relatively low ad load rate in video content compared to other platforms. This limitation suggests a need for increased user engagement and refined recommendation algorithms to boost traffic and conversion rates.

The integration of WeChat Moments ads with video account commerce represents a deepening of video accounts’ role within Tencent’s ecosystem, offering merchants enhanced promotional opportunities and streamlined customer purchase pathways. However, achieving a significant uplift in conversion rates through this integration will require meticulous data alignment and robust cross-departmental collaboration.

As Tencent doubles down on its investment in video account and live commerce, the future of WeChat e-commerce hinges on the harmonious fusion of advertising and transactional capabilities, underscoring the platform’s commitment to enriching its commercial ecosystem.

WeChat expanding e-commerce reach with mini program integration on JD, Xiaohongshu

Kuaishou started to lead the short video market by reaching over 200 million MAU in November 2017.

Tik Top, part of Toutiao, saw astonishing growth in MAU from September 2017. In February 2018, Kuaishou continued to dominate this market with DAU of exceeding 100 million, followed by Tik Tok.

Read our online entertainment market briefing to understand the latest about short video segment, Douyin, and Kuaishou.

Top traffic driver compared: TikTok/Douyin vs. Kuaishou vs. Bilibili vs. RED

The majority of China’s short-video users (over 70%) is between 18 and 35 years-old and more are located in tier-3 and tier-4 cities than the top tier cities.

The DAU/MAU ratio of Kuaishou and Tik Tok both reached 0.45, which means each user equally launch Kuaishou/Tik Tok app almost every other day.

15 seconds short video is Tik Tok’s main product, which meets users’ need for fragmentation of the network transmission. Tik Tok users have a longer duration of the engagement. Around 30 million users opened Tik Tok at 9:00 and don’t turn it off until 23:00 at late night. It seems that only after they fell asleep did they stopped watching short videos.

In particular, after a meal and before sleep are peak periods for browsing Kuaishou and Tik Tok.

In February 2018, Tik Tok users aged 24-35 accounted for 46.71% of the total users on Tik Tok. Compared with users aged under 24 who were the majority in July 2017, they have higher income and consumption power. Moreover, users live in super tier 1 and tier 1 cities accounted for 63.87% of the total. Hence, it becomes easier for Tik Tok to achieve traffic monetization.

Female young users aged under 24 represent the majority of Kuaishou/Tik Tok users. Kuaishou had higher penetration rate than Tik Tok in fourth-tier cities or below while Tik Tok performed better in first and second tier cities than Kuaishou.

The number of users with a bachelor degree or above of Tik Tok was 10% more than that of Kuaishou. However, the income levels of the two short-video mobile apps were almost the same.

The most attractive elements of Kuaishou lie in its interesting and down-to-earth, versus fun, cool, and young elements of Tik Tok.

57% users of both apps follow interesting ordinary people; and, 53.3% users follow the talented. Currently, both Kuaishou and Tik Tok tend to offer more support and exposure to the interesting ordinary people.

After seeing other users’ interesting videos, 77.8% of Tik Tok users would try to imitate the video by themselves compared with 50.9% Kuaishou users. The motivation of recording life on short video drives 59% Tik Tok users and 49.1% Kuaishou users to post a video.

For users who had used both Kuaishou and Tik Tok, 15% of them uninstalled both of them. For users who have used both apps but eventually keep at least one of them, 4.4% of them choose Kuaishou while 31.5% of them choose Tik Tok.

Both Kuaishou and Tik Tok saw higher user churn rate in female users than male ones, higher in the second- and fourth-tier cities or below than the first- and third-tier cities. Kuaishou loses most users in the second-tier cities compared with Tik Tok in fourth-tier cities or below.

Compared with Tik Tok, users are more likely to leave Kuaishou for boring content or application design not hitting the spot.

Users spend more time on Tik Tok.

Chinese influencer platforms: Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu

The average mobile MAUs of short video app Likee increased by 86.2% to 150.3 million from 80.7 million in the corresponding period of 2019.

The average mobile MAUs of global live streaming services increased by 20.4% to 102.3 million from 85.0 million in Q2 2019, among that:

• 41.2 million were from YY, which increased by 6.0% year over year;
• 61.1 million were from outside of China
  • 29.4 million from Bigo Live, which increased by 41.3% year over year
  • 31.7 million from HAGO, which increased by 25.3% year over year.

The average mobile MAUs of video communication service was 204.4 million. The total number of paying users of YY decreased by 2.2% to 4.1 million from 4.2 million in the corresponding period of 2019, primarily due to the impact of COVID-19.

During the quarter, Bigo Live’s mobile MAUs and paying users achieved very impressive growth, and live streaming revenues of Bigo segment contributed more than half of Joyy’s total live streaming revenues for the first time ever.

On the short-form video front, Joyy also focused on cultivating Likee’s global ecosystem by diversifying its content offerings, refining its product features, and tailoring its expansion initiatives to different regions.

Likee’s total MAUs increased by 86.2% year over year to 150.3 million in Q2 2020.

Financial Highlights

Net revenues increased by 36.3% to RMB5,840.1 million (US$826.6 million) from RMB4,284.8 million in the corresponding period of 2019.

Net income from continuing operations attributable to controlling interest of JOYY Inc.2 was RMB619.4 million (US$87.7 million), compared to net loss RMB6.1 million in the corresponding period of 2019, primarily due to the impact of income from fair value change in investment.

Non-GAAP net income from continuing operations attributable to controlling interest and common shareholders of JOYY Inc increased by 38.3% to RMB493.6 million (US$69.9 million) from RMB357.0 million in the corresponding period of 2019, primarily due to the decrease in the operating loss of Bigo Inc (“Bigo”).

Kuaishou (Kwai) Technology and Jingdong (JD) Retail Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement on 27 May 2020 that enables users to buy JD products on Kuaishou platform directly.

The two companies will cooperate in the supply chain capability building, brand marketing, and data capabilities building of the Kuaishou Store, and jointly create a new ecosystem of short video live streaming.

Sales from Alibaba live streaming platform grew by 150% for 3 consecutive years.

JD Retail provides superior products to Kuaishou Stores and Kuaishou anchors will select and sell the products. Users can buy JD.com products directly on Kuaishou Shop and enjoy the delivery and post-sales services provided by JD.

This partnership is happening soon during China’s 618 Shopping Festival and will kick off during JD’s 17th Anniversary Grand Promotion (“618”) and Kuaishou’s June 16th Shopping Festival. From June 16th to 18th, products from JD’s first-party business will be available for to a portion of Kuaishou’s live streaming KOLs.

At the same time, JD Retail and Kuaishou will collaborate to strengthen brand marketing capabilities. Kuaishou’s anchors will do live streaming and short video marketing, and JD will provide joint marketing capabilities and fulfillment services, to enhance the core competitiveness of both brands.

The two parties will also explore targeted marketing based on JD’s insights on customer shopping behavior and Kuaishou’s understanding of short video and e-commerce live streaming.

“The retail industry is facing the opportunities and challenges of more and more diversified consumer demand and consumption scenarios. JD Retail has China’s leading retail supply chain, and is trusted by hundreds of millions of customers because of its quality product offerings and services. It is committed to driving the transformation of the retail industry through opening up its own capabilities. Kuaishou is a short video social platform loved by hundreds of millions of users. The partnership between JD Retail and Kuaishou will provide Chinese consumers with a high-quality experience in richer shopping scenarios,

said Lei Xu, CEO of JD Retail.

Since the beginning of this year, short video live streaming in e-commerce has been developing rapidly. Check out Taobao Live’s Stunning Growth in 2020.

As a short video live broadcast platform with more than 300 million daily active users, Kuaishou is the earliest explorer in the e-commerce live streaming industry with leading advantages in the number of users and the creation of new scenarios.

As early as June 2019, Kuaishou announced that users can view JD products in the Kuaishou app and be redirected to the JD app to make a purchase.

The latest cooperation is an upgrade and will supplement and advance Kuaishou in terms of product offering, and is also in line with Kuaishou’s goal to expand its boundaries to brands and high-quality goods.

JD will gain in terms of being able to reach new users and push into new scenarios in the emerging e-commerce live streaming market.

Explore 9 Brands’ great results from WeChat Mini Program live streaming campaigns

WiMi priced its IPO of 4,750,000 American depositary shares (ADSs) at US$5.5 per ADS for a total of US$26.1 million dollars.

WiMi offers AR-based holographic services and products to cater to the customers’ needs. Currently, its offerings consist primarily of holographic AR advertising services (80.3% of total revenues in Q1 2020; 80.5% in 2018; and, 69.3% in 2017) and holographic AR entertainment products.

WiMi is the largest holographic AR application platform in China, in terms of the total revenue in 2018, according to Frost & Sullivan. It has built the most comprehensive and diversified holographic AR content library among all holographic AR solution providers in China.

It has developed the professional media player in China specifically designed for holographic AR contents. It has built in a comprehensive set of setting parameters and editing tools used for holographic AR content playback and allows end-users to playback complex high-fidelity simulations quickly and cost-effectively. End-users are able to adjust the contrast, saturation and vibrancy of the displayed holographic AR content and create their own custom visual effect.

Holographic AR Advertising Services

Currently, advertisement is the biggest vertical of AR. According to Frost & Sullivan, the market size was estimated at RMB1.5 billion in 2016, and is expected to be at RMB7.8 billion by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 71.6%, much higher than the growth of total online advertising market, which has a CAGR of 32.4% from 2014 to 2018.

In 2025, the market will be valued at RMB143.9 billion with a CAGR of 79.1%, indicating a larger market share in total online advertising market in the next five years.

WiMi’s holographic AR advertising software enables users to insert into video footages real or animated 3D objects that integrate seamlessly within the scene of such footages. Their online holographic AR advertising solution embeds holographic AR ads into films and shows that are hosted by leading online streaming platforms in China.

During Q1 2019, holographic AR ads produced using WiMi’s software generated a total of approximately 2.3 billion views, as compared to approximately 1.2 billion views during Q1 2018, representing an increase of 91.7%.

During Q1 2019, it had 65 customers, as compared to 49 customers during Q1 2018. The average revenue per customer was approximately RMB 1.0 million during Q1 2019, as compared to RMB 0.7 million during Q1 2018.

In 2018, WiMi had 121 customers, as compared to 97 customers in 2017. The average revenue per customer was approximately RMB 1.5 million in 2018, as compared to approximately RMB 1.4 million in 2017.

Through its proprietary image and video recognition technologies, its software enables users to analyze the underlying video footage at a pixel level to identify ad spaces that can be augmented by 3D objects.

Advertisers and their agencies purchase these ad spaces through application programming interface, or APIs, integrated with our systems, specifying their target audience and budgets and typically providing the 3D models to be embedded in the videos.

When the ad space is detected and 3D objects are generated, the 3D objects are embedded into the underlying streaming videos automatically on a batch-processing basis as determined by its software.

Holographic AR Entertainment Products

Entertainment, including gaming and video, takes a huge share of AR sector as well, and it is expected to have a higher growth rate. In 2016 the market size was estimated at RMB0.6 billion and is expected to be at RMB6.8 billion by 2020, with a CAGR of 83.5%.

WiMi holographic AR entertainment products consist primarily of payment middleware software, game distribution platform, and holographic mixed reality (“MR”) software.

Payment middleware is a software solution that connects mobile apps to payment channels, giving mobile app users convenient access to a wide range of online payment options. WiMi has cooperated with more than 55 app developers and its payment middleware has been embedded to over 1,100 marketed mobile apps of over 300 customers in 2018, most of which were featured by AR functions.

Its mobile payment middleware facilitates app developers to build an in-app payment infrastructure that allows micropayments to be made or received through an efficient, secure system, without any interface redirection.

Such mobile payment middleware enables app developers to store users’ payment credentials in a trusted and safe environment and eases user’s burden of repeatedly entering and authenticating payment information for each transaction.

Its payment middleware can be fully integrated with various types of mobile apps, especially those employing AR technologies, such as live streaming, gaming, selfie, photo editing, and video-sharing apps. Currently, the payment middleware supports substantially all of the major online payment channels in China, and is compatible with the mainstream mobile operating systems.

Content Production

WiMi has built a comprehensive holographic AR content library. The formats of its holographic AR contents range from 3D models to holographic short videos.

As of December 31, 2018, it owned 4,654 ready-to-use AR holographic contents that were available to be adapted to its holographic AR products and solutions covering a wide category, including animals, cartoon characters, vehicles, and foods.

2,961 proprietary and licensed intellectual properties (“IP”) were for education scenarios, 851 for tourism, 739 for arts and entertainment and 103 for popular science.

The average mobile MAUs of Likee (formerly known as Like) increased by 208.3% to 115.3 million in Q4 2019 from 37.4 million in Q4 2018.

The average mobile MAUs of JOYY’s global live streaming services increased by 21.5% to 158.9 million from 130.8 million in Q4 2018, 102.8 million of which were from China, including 41.2 million from YY, which increased by 3.8% year over year, and 61.6 million from Huya, which increased by 21.5% year over year.

56.1 million live streaming MAUs were from outside of China, including 23.1 million from BIGO LIVE, which increased by 18.6% year over year, and 33.0 million from HAGO (casual-game-oriented social media platform), which increased by 57.9% year over year.

Average mobile MAUs of imo was 211.0 million.

The total number of paying users of YY increased by 9.8% to 4.5 million from 4.1 million in Q4 2018. Total number of paying users of Huya increased by 5.9% to 5.1 million from 4.8 million in Q4 2018. See Huya’s competitor Douyu here.

YY’s financial highlights in Q4 2019:

• YY’s net revenues increased by 64.2% to RMB7,618.2 million (US$1,094.3 million) from RMB4,640.9 million in Q4 2018.
• Net income attributable to controlling interest of JOYY Inc.1 was RMB172.8 million (US$24.8 million), compared to RMB694.7 million in Q4 2018.
• Non-GAAP net income attributable to controlling interest of JOYY was RMB600.8 million (US$86.3 million), compared to RMB846.9 million in Q4 2018, primarily due to the impact of the consolidation of Bigo Inc (“Bigo”)

YY’s net revenues increased by 62.2% to RMB25,576.2 million (US$3,673.8 million) from RMB15,763.6 million in 2018. Net income attributable to controlling interest of JOYY Inc. was RMB3,445.2 million (US$494.9 million), compared to RMB2,209.0 million in 2018.

Non-GAAP net income attributable to controlling interest of JOYY was RMB2,252.6 million (US$323.6 million), compared to RMB3,274.1 million in 2018.

9 Brands’ great results from WeChat Mini Program live streaming campaigns

In 2019, a total number of 250 million users published on Kwai’s platform with accumulated likes of over 350 billion. Its competitor Douyin or Tiktok DAU exceeded 400 million in early 2020.

Find out how Kuaishou grew its DAU by 40 million in 5 months here.

Kuaishou generated RMB 50 billion (around $7.1 billion) in revenue in 2019, with live-streaming revenue accounting for the largest share with RMB 30 billion revenue, according to Chinese media Jiemian.

Kuaishou’s advertising revenues in 2019 reached RMB 13 billion with 20% from SME advertisers according to Tencent News. And, its target for 2020 is RMB 40 billion.

The DAU for Chinese short video apps reached 574 million during this year’s extended Spring Festival (Jan 24 to Feb 2) according to research company QuestMobile.

As the exclusive interactive partner of the 2020 Spring Festival Gala aired on the Chinese New Year’s Eve, January 24, Kuaishou Technology announced that 63.9 billion user engagements have been made during the live broadcast, which is the highest amount in the history of the gala according to its official press release.

Kuaishou handed out five rounds of virtual “red envelopes,” totaling a record-breaking 1 billion yuan ($144 million). During the event, 2.21 million people snatched envelopes with extra amount ranging from 66.6 yuan to 2020 yuan.

Kuaishou platform also supports live streaming; its daily active live streaming users exceeded 100 million in December 2019.

There are now over 990,000 creators of educational videos on Kuaishou, more than doubled in 2019 compared to the previous year. The educational live streaming platform now has over 100 million daily audiences.

See a comparison of Tik Tok vs. Kwai

In the video interface, users can like, share, and follow video bloggers of Pinduoduo. In the upper right corner, “Duoduo video” provides an incentive scheme for users to watch short videos.

Watching short videos can get hundreds of virtual gold coins, and 10,000 gold coins can be converted into one yuan of cash. However, in addition to the first withdrawal, the minimum amount is 10 yuan, which means that you need to watch at least hundreds of videos to withdraw, which undoubtedly increases the user stickiness and user duration of the platform.

In the interface of “Duoduo Video”, there is a button to “search for the same product”. Users can click to search for products by analyzing the elements of the video screen.

This differentiates Duoduo Video from the mainstream short video apps, which usually embed shopping carts for the corresponding product in the videos. This means the product being searched on Duoduo Video is unlikely associated with the video blogger.

In December 2019, the top short video platform TikTok made a major adjustment of its shopping cart function. Consumers could see other video bloggers’ recommended products through a video showcasing the same product.

Pinduoduo has attracted many top online influencers to join the Duoduo Video platform; yet, it’s still in an early stage of development.

Short video penetration exceeded 70% in Q3 2019 with 810 million active users. Read more here.

Top 2 short video apps compared: Tik Tok vs. Kwai 

The four main contents of Kuaishou fashion live broadcast are skincare, beauty makeup, hairdressing, and manicure. They have the largest number of anchors and total comments, and the largest amount of virtual gifts received.

Live broadcast has become a main growth driver for many e-commerce businesses in 2019. Anchor Han Chenghao sells high-end personal care in Kuaishou live broadcast. He only has 500 thousand fans but is able to sell up to 10 million yuan products overnight.

Live broadcasting has extended to unexpected products areas.

Major enterprises also use Kuaishou live broadcast to generate sales. Sany Heavy Industry sold 31 road rollers in one hour, each of which was sold for more than 350,000 yuan. Xiaopeng Automobile gained 4 billion exposures and more than 600 new test drive orders in five days of live broadcast. One live broadcast of Xinjiang Agriculture received more than 200 purchase intentions.

Kuaishou’s daily live broadcasting users under the gaming category has exceeded 51 million. The number of online viewers exceeded 25 million on the first day of this year’s live broadcast of the final of the League of Heroes (S9), and the total number of participants reached 74 million.

Kuaishou has been connected to e-commerce platforms including Taobao, Jingdong, Youzan. And, it has launched a shopping cart and Kwai Shop. The scale of e-commerce business is gradually expanding. Being a top competitor of short-video leader TikTok, Kuaishou expands from entertainment to education.

The number of Kuaishou e-commerce authors has exceeded 1 million, with a daily reach of 100 million consumers and 10% increase month-over-month according to its official data announced at a Youzan conference. The monthly income of e-commerce authors with 100,000 + fans can reach 50,000 yuan.

Tencent is in the final stages of negotiations with Kuaishou for a $2 billion investment in its $3 billion pre-IPO round, which would give Kuaishou a valuation of around $28.6 billion according to LatePost’s WeChat Official Account.

Check out How Kuaishou grew its DAU by 40M in 5 months or mobile shopping users and top e-commerce apps in China in Q3 2019

The revenues of China’s short video market grew by over 7 times to 46.7 billion yuan (US$6.6 bn) in 2018. It’s expected to continue the fast growth and exceed 100 billion yuan (US$14.16 bn) in 2019 and 211 billion yuan (US$29.87 bn) by 2021.

The advertising revenues of China’s short video market reached 18.8 billion yuan in 2018 with an increase of 733% YoY, accounting for over 40% of total revenues in this market. It’s expected to exceed 100 billion yuan (US$14.6 bn) by 2021.

Short video apps are among the most accessed daily apps in China. Its growth in MAU remains strong. As of Jun 2019, this market saw 95.44 million new MAU, compared to 72.12 million MAU in Jun 2018. New user growth was driven by tier-3, tier-4 35 y-o and above users. Learn how Kwai (Kuaishou) grew its DAU by 50 million in 4 months here.
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Top short video apps compared: Tik Tok vs. Kwai – Part 1 Platforms, Part 2

Vlog has become the new theme of user growth competition on several video platforms in China. One of the new players who recently joined the arena is iQiyi.

iQiyi, whose main content is professional copyright videos such as movies, TV dramas and variety shows, has recently launched a Vlog application called “iQiyi Suike”, which is obviously intended to share a piece of vlog market with the leaders such as Kwai, TikTok, Bilibili, Weibo, etc.

Vlog can be regarded as a kind of “video log” with popular themes of travel, food, pets and so on. Its production is relatively simple, the creator uses the camera to record what he sees and thinks in his daily life, and then through later editing, with music, text or stickers, can produce a Vlog.

Usually, it’s a little longer than the 15-second short video on TikTok, and a little shorter than the professional copyright content on iQiyi. It’s a little more delicate than the food broadcasting on Kwai.

In order to encourage users to create Vlogs, the design of iQiyi Suike App is very simple, with only three interfaces: main feed, publishing, and personal homepage. There is no search function for vloggers or content, nor any categories of bloggers or content. Users can get content by pulling down feed pages and triggering updates.

Several video platforms have started promoting vlog since the second half of 2018. Bilibili’s vlog content upload has increased by 7.6 times in April 2019, compared with April 2018, according to 36Kr.

This month, Kwai began to test the long video, limiting the video length to more than 57 seconds, less than 10 minutes. A month ago, its competitor TikTok also started internally testing videos of up to 15 minutes long. In April, TikTok opened the limit for 15 seconds longer short videos, and the original Vlog with a duration of more than 30 seconds can participate in the “Vlog Billion Incubation Plan”.

Xigua, another video platform under the same company Bytedance as TikTok, also launched their campaigns to support vlogger this month. In comparison, Weibo’s vlogger growth mainly focuses on celebrities.

From Baidu search trend shown below, we can see a surge of interest in vlog since the second half of 2018:

However, Vlog’s current penetration rate is still very low. Nearly 60% of the users surveyed, conducted by Tencent’s Penguin Intelligence, have never heard of Vlog, and 70% of users claim to have never seen Vlog. Vlog users are currently mainly high-education female, concentrated in the first- and second-tier cities. The main platforms are Weibo and TikTok.

42% of Weibo Vlog users are post-95s (those born between 1995 and 2000) in Q1 2019, followed by post-90s (22%) and post-00s (20%), according to Eefung Software. The number of views on Weibo topic #VLOG# is 4.57 billion, and the number of users in related discussions is nearly five million.

Weibo Vloggers with over 1-million followers only account for 0.4% of the total; and, those with 10,000 or fewer followers account for 96%, according to Eefung data. The top topics covered by Weibo Vloggers are food, travel, celebrity, entertainment, and humor.

Marketing: Short Videos or Vlog?

Vlog contents, compared with seconds-length short videos on platforms like TikTok, are more difficult to create. Technical hindrance is not the real obstacle to its growth; video platforms will make it easier and more convenient for vloggers. However, high-quality vlogs take both delicate planning and good storytelling skills, which is much more challenging than creating short videos. It’s far behind short videos in terms of both quantity and quality.

Vlog is rising and trending, definitely worth marketers’ attention and experiments. The nature of vlogs is “log”, which can be easily boring, while the short videos focus on just eye-catching moments. So, it can’t be any serious threat to the popular short video content for reaching the mass audience but a very good complement to overall content mix.

To get you some sense what it could potentially do for marketing, take a look at the three videos below:

Vlog for Apple iPad Pro

In addition to feeling the atmosphere of the launch conference, experiencing the magnetic features of the new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, they also incorporate many daily elements of New York’s food and lifestyle in vlog and present the experience content of the conference from the perspective of life.

Vlog for LV Exhibition

Louis Vuitton held a large exhibition and invited some top vloggers. The look and feel of the scene were presented in different Vlog styles. Among them, LV also provides vloggers with branded products such as clothing, shoes, handbags, and ornaments, which were also recorded in the vlogs.

Hyatt Presidential Suite

A couple on Weibo, boy Sid is Chinese, girl Kat is from the United States. In this vlog, they received an invitation from Grand Hyatt Xi’an to experience the 31,000-yuan presidential suite. With the arrangement of the hotel, Kat and Sid followed the timetable and introduced the hotel’s room profile, double room spa service, and an Italian restaurant.

The most important thing about Vlogger sharing life is to resonate with free expression to attract people in the same circle. Compared with traditional TVC or celebrity endorsement ads, Vlog gives the audience a smaller sense of distance and is more realistic, in addition to its much lower production cost.

How a popular vlog celebrity in China expanded from online to offline retail

Enterprise live streaming services reached 760 million yuan (US$110.49 mn), experiencing fast growth in the past 4 years when it first exceeded 100 million yuan in 2015. It’s expected to reach 1.14 billion yuan (US$165.73 mn) in 2019 and grow further to 2.21 billion yuan (US$321.29 mn) in the year 2021.

By total revenues, the first tier enterprise live streaming service companies are Gensee, Vzan, and Vhall, followed by the second-tier players including POLYV, CC Video, Mudu.tv, and Baijiayun. Vzan and CC Video rank on top in China’s enterprise live streaming market by the total number of clients, followed by POLYV, Mudu.tv, Vhall, Baijiayun, and Gensee.

China’s top live streaming mobile apps

TikTok signed a 7-billion yuan agreement with Taobao including 6 billion yuan ads and 1 billion yuan commission according to leaked news online. TikTok denied the accuracy of those numbers but the news got the attention of many in the e-commerce market.

As of 25 June 2019, the number of users who activated shopping cart functions has exceeded one million, 10 times more than last December.

During China’s mid-year shopping festival 618, active TikTok shopping cart user ratio exceeded 68%. The top 30 users referred over 400 million yuan worth of products sales.

TikTok e-commerce is originally based on short videos as the main carrier. TikTok influencers’ e-commerce sales capability is correlated to the number of fans, content categories, etc. But, live streaming is more about real-time sharing with sales techniques, with a relatively lower requirement on the number of fans.

Since the beginning of commercialization, the main way to monetize TikTok is advertising while Kwai relies on live broadcasting.

Top short video apps compared: Tik Tok vs. Kwai – Part 1 Platforms

Kwai recently hired executives from Tencent and Weibo to take up important positions. After setting a target of 300 million DAU (TikTok’s current DAU) by Chinese New Year 2020 and starting a battle mode, Kwai is no longer low-key and fully exerted its strength.

When viewing videos on Kwai app, the sharing button automatically becomes a WeChat Moments share icon, prompting users to share. Tencent opens this function only to Kwai in addition to its own short video platform Weishi.

7 Lessons for marketers on top short-video platforms: Tik Tok vs. Kwai

Online penetration in video entertainment grew by 4.2% to 71.3% in December. On average, 205.6 million users watched videos online daily. Tencent Video, iQiyi, and Youku were the top three players in this market.

Market penetration of online video was 71.3%, an increase of 4.2% year-on-year. Its average DAU declined to 205.6 million from 219.3 million a year ago.

Tencent Video topped the ranking with a penetration rate of 47.6%. iQyi took the next spot with a penetration of 43.6%. Youku (29.7%), Bilibili (8%), and MangoTV (7.7%) ranked in the third, fourth, and fifth position, respectively.

The average DAUs of Tencent Video increased to 120.7 million from 116 million three months ago. iQiyi’s average DAUs decreased to 82 million from 85.6 million three months ago.

Read more on top live streaming apps and short video apps.

The number of iQiyi’s total subscribing members reached 96.8 million as of March 31, 2019, 98.6% of whom were paying subscribing members. This compares to 61.3 million of total subscribing members as of March 31, 2018, up 58% year over year.

iQiyi’s revenues in Q1 2019 were RMB7.0 billion (US$1.0 billion), representing a 43% increase from the same period in 2018.

• Membership services revenue was RMB3.4 billion (US$513.4 million), representing a 64% increase from the same period in 2018.
• Online advertising services revenue was RMB2.1 billion (US$315.8 million), flat compared to the same period in 2018
• Content distribution revenue was RMB442.6 million (US$66.0 million), representing a 66% increase from the same period in 2018

Its operating loss was RMB2.0 billion (US$301.9 million) and operating loss margin was 29%, compared to operating loss of RMB1.1 billion and operating loss margin of 22% in the same period in 2018.

Net loss attributable to iQIYI was RMB1.8 billion (US$270.3 million), compared to net loss attributable to iQiyi of RMB395.7 million in the same period in 2018. Diluted net loss attributable to iQIYI per ADS was RMB2.52(US$0.35).

iQiyi mobile app ranks the fourth by total unique visitors in March 2019 according to data from iResearch. It’s the top video app based on the same data with about 578 million UVs, followed by Tencent Video.

For the second quarter of 2019, iQiyi expects total net revenues to be between RMB6.91 billion (US$1.0 billion) and RMB7.29 billion (US$1.1 billion), representing a 12% to 18% increase YoY.

Live video broadcasting has proven to be a fun, engaging way to connect with followers and grow the audience. 78% of online viewers are watching video on Facebook Live as of 2018. In China, live streaming has stepped up the game and become a useful tool to drive e-commerce traffic and sales.

Audiences are quite active in live streaming in China, which makes it a good channel for marketing. 50.5% of them would make comments, over 40% of them would like it, reward hosts (free-to-play), and share videos to others, according to a study by iResearch.

86% of users thought positively about live streaming marketing. Among them, those younger than 24 years are more likely to be attracted by new products release and buyer’s sharing.

In 2018, Taobao’s live broadcasting platform Taobao Live delivered more than 100 billion yuan sales of products, a year-on-year growth rate of nearly 400% according to Alibaba.

A total number of 81 live rooms on Taobao Live reached 100 million yuan sales; a total of 5 organizations broke 1 billion yuan sales. Taobao Live aims to deliver 500 billion yuan sales in the next three years.

80% of the broadcasters are female. The number of Taobao Live broadcasters with a monthly income of over one million yuan has exceeded 100 people.

Meet Viya, a top broadcaster on Taobao Live

Viya used to be a small star in the entertainment industry. She, born in the “fashion family”, circled back to the apparel industry while working as a model and operating offline apparel stores. In 2011, she saw the business opportunity and closed all offline stores and moved to the Taobao platform.

Her fifth year on Taobao, 2015, had a total sales of over 10 million yuan on Double 11 but suffered a net loss of three million yuan.

In May 2016, Viya started the first live broadcast on Taobao. She managed to close 20 thousand sales orders by one live broadcast in the second month.

And, her live broadcast on October 10, 2017, made her a top sales girl.

This very broadcast helped drive 70 million yuan (US$10.6 million) sales to a Taobao store who has zero followers. It started at 7 pm until 40 minutes past midnight and attracted over 1.53 million viewers with 12.3 million likes.

She broke her record in last year’s Tmall Double 11 with over 300 million yuan in sales.

Live video broadcasting is now a critical part of a successful e-commerce operation on Alibaba’s e-commerce ecosystem. Many stores have hired a team of broadcasters with many simultaneous broadcasts of different products.

There is now a group of online shoppers who don’t check out the product details pages. They just watch live video broadcast and place orders.

Said Mr. Zheng during my interview with him, an e-commerce business owner in south China.

Related: Top 20 Chinese video mobile apps in overseas market

E-Commerce Live Broadcasting in WeChat Ecosystem

Tencent launched a live broadcasting tool for WeChat Official Account (OA) in March 2019, currently supporting audio and video broadcast. Influencing WeChat OA can utilize their fanbase on WeChat, in combination with quality live broadcasts, to drive e-commerce sales.

A fashion digital media Ta Du (She Reads) did a live broadcast e-commerce show in April for two hours. It attracted 11,951 viewers and received 1,228 orders with a conversion rate of 18.32% according to 36Kr.

This broadcast utilized both a mobile app and a WeChat mini-program. It started from the mobile app to generate a mini-program card or embeddable code for an official account article. Users can click on that to book, watch, and interact.

Tencent Live serves WeChat’s Official Account. The mobile app can be used to create and operate live broadcasting while the mini-program client serves users for booking, watching, and interacting with the live video broadcasts.

It’s in testing and not available yet in the App Store. WeChat Official Account (OA) owners can get the app download link from Tencent Live Assistant WeChat OA and apply for an account before being able to test it. With about 1.1 billion monthly active users, WeChat could be potentially a massive platform for e-commerce sellers.

Related: How to use live streaming for successful marketing in China in 2018

Other e-commerce live video broadcasting platforms

Some other leading e-commerce platforms in China run their own live video broadcasting channels as well, including Jingdong, Vipshop, Mogujie, etc.

Seeing over 500 million live broadcasting users in China, businesses can also utilize independent popular live video broadcasting platforms and social media to drive brand awareness and product promotions.

Tik Tok has been testing e-commerce integration for over a year, starting from a Taobao e-commerce traffic driver to building its e-commerce ecosystem.

Kuaishou, another top short video platform in China, has integrated with multiple e-commerce platforms including Taobao, Tmall, Youzan, etc. Sellers can drive the traffic directly to the online store and complete the purchase.

Others you could consider include Weibo Live, Momo, Douyu, YY, etc.

If you haven’t started, you should focus on one platform, build your success, and expand from there. Different platforms could have very different demographic users; so, make sure you conduct your research and identify the channels with users meeting your audience profiles.

E-Commerce Live Broadcasting

Live video broadcasting for e-commerce is now a game for professional operations. Broadcasters are carefully tested, selected and trained with a mix of celebrities, Taobao owners, and the professionally trained.

Alibaba recently launched a tool to enable broadcasters to select products from 12 pools of 5 industry categories and about 130 thousand products. Broadcasters can either broadcast anywhere after receiving a product sample or visit the Taobao with additional services.

It appears easier than it actually is when it comes to driving e-commerce sales with live video broadcasting. Merchants must figure out the whole process including personas analysis, products selection, post-sales service, delivery, logistics, etc.

Delivering quality products with a relatively lower price is the key. You need to develop demographic and psychographic profiles of your fans to select the right product. Another critical factor for a successful live broadcast is the content.

Live video broadcasting is a valuable channel that consumer brands should tap on. Working with one of the influencer broadcasters whose fans match the same profile of your audience is a quick way to get started. Alternatively, you can outsource to companies who specialize in this area.

5 consumption trends of post-90s on Tmall Global

Huya, a leading game live streaming platform in China, delivered non-GAAP net income for five consecutive quarters, reaching a record high of US$67.0 million for the fiscal year of 2018. The average mobile MAUs and MAUs reached 50.7 million and 116.6 million, respectively. Total paying users increased by 73.1% year-on-year to 4.8 million.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, the average mobile MAUs of Huya reached 50.7 million, an increase of 30.7% year-on-year. Average MAUs totaled 116.6 million, an increase of 34.5% year-on-year. The total number of paying users increased by 73.1% year-on-year to 4.8 million.

Related: China’s video cloud market to grow by 37.5% in 2019

Huya generated more than 1.6 billion viewership from over 400 e-sports events broadcasted in 2018. Furthermore, Huya has acquired more than 10 million active monthly overseas users in less than a year.

As the first domestic game live streaming platform being published, Huya’s total net revenues increased by 113.4% year-on-year to 4,663.4 million yuan (US$678.3 million) in 2018. Net revenues reached 1,504.9 million yuan (US$218.9 million) for the fourth quarter, a 103.1% increase compared with the prior year period.

For the fourth quarter of 2018, Non-GAAP net income attributable to Huya grew by 486.8% year-on-year to 166.9 million (US$24.3 million) yuan. The non-GAAP net margin went up by 160 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 11.1%.

The high rise of 34.5% in average MAUs was mainly driven by the improved desktop viewing experience, the launch of a series of eSports competitions in the fourth quarter, and its major competitor Douyu being removed from app stores.

On the other hand, the rising number of paying users also played a part in it. Noteworthy, mobile MAUs exceeded 50 million with a 30-day retention rate of over 70%. With a higher monetization capacity and conversion rate, this part contributed over 80% of live streaming revenues, which increased by 108.15 year-on-year to 1,441.8 million (US$209.7 million) in the fourth quarter.

The technology innovation on bandwidth utilization promoted the booming gross profit. In the fourth quarter of 2018, bandwidth costs increased by 42.1% year-on-year to 161.6 million yuan (US$23.5 million), whose presence in total cost of revenues has been declining, partially offset by improved efficiency in bandwidth utilization as a result of the deployment of new technologies in content distribution.

Apart from that, profited from a better user experience, the gross profit surged by 120.7% year-on-year to 238.6 million yuan (US$34.7 million).

Huya generated more than 1.6 billion viewership from over 400 e-sports events including LOL S8, and KPL Autumn broadcasted in 2018. Also, Huya had held nearly 20 competitions by itself, which attracted over 58 million viewership.

Holding competitions by themselves is a major part of their differentiation strategy, which not only brings traffic and users but also helps cultivate premium game hosts, according to Mr. Rongjie Dong, Chief Executive Officer of Huya. In 2019, Huya will put more to premium e-sports content.

Huya established a strategic partnership with Tencent in June 2018 to march into the South Asia market. It has acquired more than 10 million overseas active users as of December 2018. Check out top 20 Chinese video mobile apps in the overseas market.

How China’s short video app Kuaishou grew its DAU by 40M in 5 months

In January 2019, Tik Tok took the first spot of the top 20 most downloaded video/live streaming apps list with nearly 75 million downloads from App Store and Google Play overseas. Roughly 46% of its downloads came from India. The downloads of the top 20 apps grew by 167% to reach 164 million, with 55% coming from India, 5.3% from the US, and 5% from Indonesia.

Among the top 20 apps with most downloads from overseas App Store and Google Play in January 2019, Tik Tok, short video Douyin’s overseas version, took the lead, with nearly 75 million downloads from App Store and Google Play, which roughly summed that of the players ranked from second to the eighth position.

Related: ByteDance: A Chinese Mobile App Factory

India was still the biggest overseas market for Tik Tok, accounting for nearly 46% of total downloads. Then there were the US and Indonesia with a presence of 10% and 3%, respectively.

On the other hand, Huanju Shidai-backed LIKE Video was the first runner-up, whose downloads keeping rising sharply since its entry into the Indian market in September 2018. The newly released two apps Nimo TV and Yome Live also performed well and made it up to the 12th and 13th places, respectively. The game live streaming platform Game.ly Live that has focused on the Indonesian market since January 2019 saw downloads from Indonesia accounted for  97% of the total.

Combined together, the downloads of the top 20 apps reached 164 million, an increase of 167% year-on-year. To be specific, 55% of downloads came from the Indian market, 5.3% from the US, and 5% from Indonesia.

By total earnings, Guangzhou Huanju Shidai Information Technology Co., Ltd. is home to 6 apps on the list, namely, BIGO LIVE, LIKE Video, Huya Live, Nimo TV, YY, and Cube TV.

Noteworthy, Tik Tok earned US$4.5 million from the overseas market in January, which was only 23% as much as that of BIGO LIVE, though its earning had kept growing in the previous four months. 67% of its earnings came from the US, 8.5% from the UK, and 4.6% from Canada.

The total overseas earnings of BIGO LIVE amounted to nearly US$19.5 million, 40% of which derived from Sadi Arabia and 21% from the US.

Overall, the top 20 apps altogether generated over US$36 million in earnings from the overseas market in January, a 57% increase from the prior year period. Check out top video mobile apps in China.

WeChat launched two new sections -“Time Capsule” and “Top Stories”- and several news features for WeChat iOS 7.0 on December 21, 2018. That’s the biggest upgrade since version 6 four years ago and one big move into the short video market. The new version is not yet available for Android smartphone users.

Time Capsule – users can post 15-second short videos that disappear 24 hours later

A feature similar to Facebook or Instagram’s Stories, there are three main entries for Time Capsule,

• An unclosed circle: it means someone has posted Time Capsule whenever you see the unclosed circle in WeChat. The unclosed circle appears at the upper right corner of profile picture in WeChat Moment, on the right of the group name in Group Chat, and also on the starred friend bar. You can view the videos by simply touching the unclosed circle.
• Profile photo: users can double-click friends profile photo to check the Time Capsule and other information.
• Profile: users can check their own Time Capsule by pulling down the Me tag – if he drags it to the lower left corner, videos will be played silently – or clicking Camera at the right upper corner to shoot videos. If users click friend’s profile photo and get into the profile interface, they can also view that friend’s Time Capsule.

Users can delete his published short video on Time Capsule through a long press. They can at most post nine shorts video a day, each of which should be no longer than 15 seconds.

After shooting or uploading videos, users will be able to add text descriptions, emoji or selfie sticker, background music (10 recommended music based on the video content unlike other short video apps’ playlist), and locations.

By swiping up/down, users can view different friends’ video posts while by swiping left/right, they are viewing video posts from the same friend.

They can interact with friends by clicking on bubbles to like it or long press the video to leave comments. By clicking bubbles, they would be able to see who has liked their videos or comments.

The Time Capsule seems an aggressive move by Tencent to compete for the short video market with players like Tik Tok.

Friends’ recommendation feed in WeChat “Top Stories”

WeChat takes this chance to connect Official Account and Top Stories by changing the “Like” button at the lower right corner of an Official Account article to “Recommend”. If any friend clicks the “Recommend” button that article will be simultaneously synchronized to Top Stories section of Wechat. Friends will be able to read that article in Top Stories and hence know what kind of articles are this friends’ favorites.

One view is that, this helps attract users to share their favorite articles without feeling depressed since it weakens the connection between people and articles. Previously, users might feel awkward if friends don’t like or leave comments to their shared articles in WeChat Moment and hence stop sharing anything.

Forced notifications appear in full screen once a marked friend send messages

If users don’t want to miss any message from someone, they can enable the “Chat Alert” function in Details (Chat Infor) of that friend in a set time slot.

After touching someone’s profile photo to open a chat, users can touch the upper right corner (3 dots) to set up chat alert. By doing so, WeChat will notify you by vibrating 8 times for the first message from that contact. It will become full-screen vibration if users just open WeChat after turning it off for a while.

Wallet was renamed to WeChat Pay

The previous “Wallet” entry under one of the four main menu “Me” is now named “WeChat Pay”.

Design update

WeChat version 7 has several design changes including a whitened background of the navigation bar that used to be black. On the whole, it seems more light and flat in visual.

China’s top mobile news feed advertising platforms in 2018

Total revenues of iQiyi grew to RMB6.9 billion (US$1.0 billion) in Q3 2018, representing a 48% increase from the same period in 2017. Membership services revenue was RMB2.9 billion (US$415.3 million), representing a 78% increase from Q3 2017. Online advertising services revenue was RMB2.4 billion (US$348.9 million), down 4% YoY.

China’s online video market remains dominated by iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Youku. Check out the top mobile video apps in China here.

Net loss attributable to iQIYI was RMB3.1 billion (US$457.3 million), compared to RMB1.1 billion in the same period in 2017. Diluted net loss attributable to iQIYI per ADS was RMB4.34 (US$0.63).

The number of its total subscribing members was 80.7 million as of September 30, 2018, over 98% of whom were paying subscribing members. This compares to 42.7 million of total subscribing members as of September 30, 2017, up 89% year over year.

iQiyi’s record-breaking drama series Story of Yanxi Palace turned out to be a mega-hit for the entire summer, demonstrating its potentials in producing high-quality premium content. Leveraging our extensive content offerings and expanding distribution network.

iQiyi ranked No. 1 across reach and engagement operating metrics in Q3 2018 according to its press release.

The QIYU VR II headset from iQiyi reached the top ranking on both JD.com and TMall in the ‘Over 2,000 RMB mid-to-high-end VR all-in-one’ headset category. The QIYU VR II won the 2018 METIS Award for Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Innovation, a.k.a. the AM Turing Award.

Also read: Paid content is becoming a mainstream in China

Online live streaming market obtained a total of 398 million users in 2017, an increase of 28.4%, which is estimated to reach 460 million in 2018 and 507 million in 2019. This market showed signs of a slowdown since 2017.

Within China’s live streaming market, Douyu took the lead with a penetration of 4.1%, a negative growth of 0.4%, followed by Huya (3.5%) and YY (3.0%).

On average, Douyu and Huya both saw rises in daily active users to 7.616 million and 5.705 million, respectively. While YY suffered loss from 5.325 million to 4.552 million.

Get an overview of China’s online video market here, short video apps market here, or top mobile apps here.

Related CIW Dossiers: Dossier: China Online Videos, mobile apps