iQIYI

iQIYI, pronounced eye-CHEE-yee, began life as Qiyi in January 2010, a brainchild of Baidu with backing from Providence Equity Partners. The platform went live on April 22 of that year and rebranded to its current name in November 2011. Baidu bought out Providence in November 2012, taking sole ownership, and in May 2013 acquired PPStream Inc.'s online video business for $370 million, folding it into iQIYI as a subsidiary. The company launched its own film production arm, iQIYI Motion Pictures, in July 2014. On March 29, 2018, iQIYI went public on the NASDAQ under the ticker IQ, raising $2.25 billion in its initial public offering.

Headquartered in Beijing's Chaoyang District, the company operates a comprehensive online entertainment ecosystem that includes subscription video-on-demand, advertising-supported content, original productions, content distribution, online games, talent agency services, e-commerce, comics, literature, movie ticketing, and short videos. Its original hits include The Story of Yanxi Palace (the most googled TV drama of 2018), Idol Producer, The Rap of China, and Hot Blood Dance Crew. In 2025, iQIYI expanded into IP-based experiences: collectible trading cards generated RMB100 million ($14.1 million) in gross merchandise value in the first half of the year, and the company operates over 50 immersive theaters across roughly 30 Chinese cities, with theme parks in development.

iQIYI serves more than 500 million monthly active users who stream nearly 6 billion hours of content each month. The platform is available in six languages: Chinese, English, Indonesian, Tamil, Vietnamese, and Thai. Its global expansion includes plans for over 280 Chinese-language shows and more than 35 Southeast Asian series. In fiscal year 2024, iQIYI reported revenue of CN¥29.23 billion (approximately US$4 billion). As of December 31, 2025, the company had 4,603 employees. In 2019, Brand Finance named iQIYI the world's fastest-growing brand, with a 326% year-over-year increase in brand value, placing it 76th on the list of most valuable Chinese brands. [edit]