Chinese OTT giants iQIYI and WeTV retain 70% of paying VOD services subscribers

iQIYI and WeTV, respectively operated by Chinese tech giants Baidu and Tencent, claimed a cumulated amount of 217 million paying subscribers at the end of Q2 2020 in China. This represents a 5% drop compared to Q1 2020 which is due to iQIYI losing almost 14 million subscribers over the period as an aftermath of the Chinese government easing COVID-19 lockdown measures during spring. Despite this drop in the last quarter, iQIYI and WeTV have been increasing their cumulated market share. They now account together for more than 70% of the country's video streaming paying users, a 15 point increase over the last three years. The third biggest player on the market is e-commerce giant Alibaba's Youku Tudou but the service has failed to keep up with its two rivals' lead since both their subscriber base exploded after 2017. As competition increases on the market due to smaller services attracting audiences with dedicated content and cheap subscription plans, like anime service Bilibili, the two market leaders have been partnering with many Chinese major companies to attract paying users through very advantageous deals. Tencent for example launched a special offer with retailer Suning, which operates the brand Carrefour in China, for CNY 99 (USD 14.50) a year, five times less than their usual direct to consumer price. As both Chinese main video-on-demand services adopted this aggressive dumping strategy, ARPUs on the market have kept steadily declining over the last four years, pushing some actors in very tense situations. Earlier this summer, Suning's sport focused OTT platform PPTV has seen its English Premier League broadcasting rights canceled after having failed to pay the incumbent fees. In September, Tencent reached an agreement with the soccer club and obtained the season 2020-21 broadcasting rights for a diffusion on its paid membership services.