爱奇艺UNVEILS STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS WITH JAPANESE GIANTS, EXPANDING ITS PAN-SECONDARY ECOSYSTEM
In a recent summit held on November 7th and 8th, 2018, in Hainan's Haikou City, the annual iQIYI FUN Festival High-Level Forum brought together industry leaders to discuss the future of entertainment. During this event, iQIYI announced its strategic partnerships with Japanese DeNA Company, Flip Animation Group (翻翻动漫集团), Beijing Light Culture Media Co., Ltd. (北京光彩世纪传媒股份有限公司), Starry Mountain Media Co., Ltd. (星座魔山传媒股份有限公司), and Beijing Century Image Culture Media Co., Ltd. (北京时代光影文化传媒股份有限公司). These collaborations aim to expand the IP ecosystem across various sectors including light novels, comics, and web series adaptations.
According to iQIYI Senior Vice President Geng Daohao: "iQIYI has been at the forefront of China's animation industry as a preferred new media broadcasting platform since 2016. We have evolved from solely broadcasting anime to becoming an integrated animation industry ecosystem that encompasses production, distribution, and community engagement."
The company has made significant strides in its comic book division since September 2016. Focused on healthy content with positive themes such as sunshine and optimism for young audiences aged between 13-25 years old; it aims to establish itself as China's leading original comic book platform for youth entertainment culture.
As of now iQiyi Comic Channel boasts over two billion users with monthly active users reaching five million—ahead of other platforms in terms of user base size.
This year at the festival iQiYi signed up renowned Chinese manga artist Misha for his original work titled《隐世华族》(Hidden Noble Family) under their partnership agreement with Flip Animation Group expanding high-quality comic resources.
Moreover，iQiYi also signed an official cooperation agreement with DeNA officially launching Japanese light novel website EVERY STAR’s quality works into manga format through collaborative development alongside DeNA China creating comics based on these IPs which include《S》and《甜蜜》(Sweetness).
Breaking away from traditional licensing models，the collaboration marks a first-of-its-kind where both parties will jointly develop comics derived from licensed titles along with shared rights over any future adaptations such as video games or animations。
With “Cyan Sky Plan”，a project designed by IQII aimed at bridging gaps between secondary marketplaces like anime fansubs/scanlations & mainstream media industries by adapting popular comic books into live-action TV shows or movies within months after publication；IQII added three more titles 《贫王》（Poor King）and《当代大学生哈哈概论》（A Comprehensive Guide To Contemporary University Students' Lives）to their list under this initiative following initial success in spring season。 The plan is set forth by Li Fei who serves as General Manager for Funimation Division stating that "We are committed towards further strengthening our pan-secondary entertainment matrix construction while working closely alongside our partners aiming to tap into unexplored potential within paid markets."