iQIYI's Q1 earnings report highlights innovation, growth

The company revealed that generative AI has revolutionized advertising material production, improving ROI (return on investment) for advertisers.

With over 70 percent of key new dramas launched in Q1 being original, the premium content powerhouse has armed its producers with an advanced AI toolkit to streamline production process. New AI features go beyond summarizing novels and scripts to crafting story outlines and character profiles, boosting producers’ reading efficiency by 9 times, the report said.

Partly thanks to the use of innovative technologies such as generative AI, the cost of revenues was 5.6 billion yuan, decreasing 5 percent year over year. Content costs as a component of cost of revenues were 4 billion yuan, decreasing 5 percent from a year ago.

According to the financial report, membership services revenue was 4.8 billion yuan, decreasing 13 percent year over year, primarily due to the high base effect in the same period last year.

The company, without disclosing data on membership numbers, reported its monthly ARM (Average Revenue per Membership) achieved 6 consecutive quarters of sequential growth, propelled by optimized operations, enriched product offerings and enhanced membership benefits.