(Source: The Paper)
In recent years, Changning has proactively adapted to new demands for overseas business expansion under the current circumstances. Innovative development models such as “brand going global,” “district going global,” and “going global along the industrial chain” have continued to emerge in the “fertile ground of industry.” With the official release of the (Action Plan for the Hongqiao Overseas Enterprises Headquarters Cluster 2026–2028), Changning’s efforts to enable companies to go global have fully embarked on a new journey. To this end, the district integrated media center, together with the district commerce commission, launched a series of reports titled “‘Ning’ to Start a New Chapter: New Forces in Going Global,” providing a comprehensive view of Changning’s ecosystem building and development achievements in overseas expansion. This installment focuses on iQIYI’s journey in going global. Through a pragmatic operating approach of “mutual prosperity between long and short content, and intensive focus on regional markets,” it has achieved a deep transformation from exporting a single type of content to exporting a full-chain platform ecosystem. It has grown steadily into a core Asian entertainment media streaming platform covering nearly 200 countries and regions worldwide.
Content as the foundation, culture as the voice
iQIYI's overseas journey has always been grounded in content as its most solid foundation. In the first half of 2026, the total platform content views on iQIYI International increased by more than 130% year on year, with Chinese-language dramas and short dramas becoming the core consumption categories for overseas audiences. This achievement is the natural result of its long-term commitment to a premium content strategy.
In the long-form drama segment, iQIYI-produced works cover diverse genres such as costume legends, urban romance, and real-life coming-of-age stories. (Zhu Yu) broke out through its weighty narrative of family and country sentiments and highly distinctive Eastern aesthetic expression, earning widespread praise from audiences at home and abroad; (Jia Ye), which incorporates the cultural narrative of Hui ink-making techniques, allowed overseas viewers, while binge-watching, to truly feel the subtle warmth of traditional Chinese culture hidden in the details; the three works (Yi Xiao Sui Ge), (Ai Ni), and (Shuang Gui) have, thanks to their solid content quality, maintained stable viewership over the years, fully proving the lasting appeal of quality Chinese-language content across time and geography.
Short dramas have become a new key growth driver. iQIYI International launched vertical-screen short drama content in 2025, and, with product characteristics of high emotional value, strong plot conflicts, and fast-paced storytelling, it fits the fragmented mobile consumption habits of overseas users. Among globally popular Chinese-language short dramas, urban romance and female coming-of-age themes dominate, and (Shen Ye Chen Lun), which focuses on women's growth and equal respect, has been well received. Beyond dramas, diverse content such as Asian animation, films, and variety shows continues to be supplied, fully meeting the diversified viewing needs of global users.
Today, iQIYI International has formed a complete content ecosystem of "stable foundation with long dramas, growth from short dramas, and expanded boundaries through multiple categories." More than half of its content is Chinese-language works, while also gathering特色 Asian content from Southeast Asia, East Asia, and other regions, making it a core platform for overseas users to consume diverse Asian pop culture.
One place, one strategy; deep cultivation by region
From the export of single content copyrights to building a globally controllable streaming platform, the core of iQIYI's advancement lies in deep regional cultivation through a "one place, one strategy" approach. In response to the cultural habits and content preferences of different regions, iQIYI has developed differentiated operating plans, providing subtitles in 13 languages and multiple localized dubbing versions, combined with in-depth local marketing activities and online-offline integrated promotional methods, steadily consolidating its user base in global markets step by step.
In the Southeast Asian market, the platform has leveraged its natural advantages of cultural proximity and strong language adaptability, gradually building a complete communication chain of "content going global + emotional connection," with a dual-engine effect driven by "premium Chinese-language dramas + local特色 content" continuing to unfold. On this basis, it has advanced the "iQIYI Starship Plan," joining forces with Chinese artists to go global, and, through overseas launch events, strategy conferences, drama promotions, membership activities, and other formats, enhanced the overseas attention and influence of Chinese-language content.
For the Middle East and Latin American markets, the platform has also explored mature localized adaptation paths. Users in the Middle East have shown a high level of recognition for realistic and military-themed works; after launch, related premium long-form dramas have achieved very high user loyalty and strong word-of-mouth feedback. In Latin America, full-process localized translation and dubbing in Spanish and Portuguese effectively lowered the barrier to cross-cultural understanding, driving steady growth in regional user activity and content consumption at a sustained pace.
As of the second quarter of 2026, iQIYI's overseas business continued to maintain rapid growth, with overseas membership revenue increasing by 40% year on year.
Technology as the foundation, ecosystem empowerment
iQIYI's steady progress in overseas markets has always been backed by solid technical capabilities. The platform's self-developed "bitrate adaptive technology," powered by AI and big data analytics, can dynamically adjust transmission strategies according to different network environments, ensuring a smooth, buffer-free playback experience throughout and greatly optimizing the viewing experience for global users; its large-language-model-driven intelligent translation system has been fully deployed in overseas operations, where, by inputting subtitle text, culturally specific terms, plot context, and other core information, it can quickly produce high-quality translated and dubbed results that fit the drama's context and adapt to local native-language expressions, effectively removing barriers to cross-cultural communication.
In recent years, Changning has continuously fostered an overseas-expansion industrial ecosystem, while iQIYI AIGC (Shanghai) Creative Center has worked to strengthen the technical production foundation, injecting a steady stream of Changning momentum into iQIYI's global布局. Relying on the deep momentum of "Digital Changning," iQIYI has built a comprehensive digital asset library and equipped itself with a full-chain suite of professional AI content production tools, lowering the threshold for content creation and providing stable production support for continuously delivering diverse and high-quality content to overseas markets. Today, AI is no longer merely a single auxiliary tool for iQIYI, but a "new infrastructure" deeply integrated into the entire content production chain. At the same time, iQIYI has deeply integrated into Changning's overseas service network, leveraging the district's full-chain overseas expansion support resources covering compliance consulting, cross-border operations, and market promotion, further reducing the costs of overseas landing coordination and operations, and successfully achieving efficient integration of "local high-efficiency production capacity + the vast global market."
As content becomes more premium, operations more localized, and technology more intelligent, iQIYI will, through one high-quality work after another, let the world see a more vivid, more three-dimensional, and richer charm of Asian culture.
Image source: iQIYI
Reporter: Li Songnan
Editor: Shi Huanhuan
Editor: Yao Wenjun