On Thursday, Chinese video streaming platform iQiyi reported its first-quarter revenue of RMB 7.3 billion ($1.1 billion), an 8.7% drop compared to the same period last year despite beating analysts’ estimates. However, the 12-year-old firm recorded its first-ever net profit, making RMB 169 million in this quarter, compared to a RMB 1.3 billion net loss in the same period in 2021. The company attributed the net profit to cutting operating costs and expenses consistently in the previous three quarters. The company had started wide layoffs late last year, cutting 20%-40% across departments. Revenues from membership services were the only business area to see a yearly increase, hitting RMB 4.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Gong Yu, the CEO and founder of the firm, attributed its performance to premium content, better operations on content scaling and promotions, higher operational efficiency, and “initiatives to boost our monetization on membership and sales.” [iQiyi, press release]
