Online goes out of the box

Edison Chen stars in Blind Spot, which is directed by Danny Pang and broadcast on v.qq.com. Provided to China Daily

Top video portals move into creation and production

What Chinese video websites have achieved in the past few years is revolutionary. By licensing eye-opening overseas content and offering full coverage of domestic entertainment, they have drawn Chinese audiences, especially the well-educated young, away from television to mobile devices.

As the number of China's online video viewers passed 450 million, nearly half of the entries on Baidu's list of 50 most -watched TV series in the first quarter this year were not broadcast on television. Leading video website iQIYI.com is visited through as many as 130 million mobile devices daily.

"The quantitive change has truly led to qualitative change. And we call this qualitative change independence," iQIYI's CEO Gong Yu said in April during the company's annual marketing conference in Hainan.

To rely less on programs made by others, iQIYI is speeding up efforts to make its own.

It has a new production company with three studios led by industry veterans including former CCTV host and producer Ma Dong. Last month the website announced a long-term plan to produce an array of Internet series and entertainment shows.

As the government steps up its fight against piracy, the number of China's video websites has decreased from about 300 to only a dozen. The price of licensing a local show has increased accordingly - by tenfold to as much as 1 million yuan for a hit show.

More pressure comes from the fact that a TV show is usually licensed to multiple online platforms, so it's hard for a single website to maintain audience loyalty.

So its more cost-effective for video websites to produce their own programs, a task even more urgent after traditional broadcaster Hunan TV launched a new-media platform called Mango TV to carry its own shows.

The notion that Internet-produced series can be widely accepted by Chinese audiences gained credence with Diors Man, a Sohu.com production that parodies pop culture and topical social issues with cheeky humor. The show's three seasons have been viewed more than 700 million times.

After adopting a "dream works" strategy in 2013, Sohu will reportedly invest twice as much this year and aims to raise the view counts of its self-made content fourfold. The content will include full-length plays and reality shows made by local talent and top South Korean production teams.

Youku Tudou said it will invest 300 million yuan ($48 million) in making its own programs. Tencent Video is planning joint efforts with the country's top production companies to adapt the most popular Web fiction into 500 episodes of Internet plays.

Statistics from industry consultancy EntGroup show China's major video websites are expected to produce 1,500 to 1,700 episodes of self-made dramas this year, an increase of 45 percent over 2013. Yet the quality of most Chinese Internet productions is hardly compelling.

"Because the Internet has a relatively free environment for creation, most productions play edge ball with erotic and supernatural subjects. Some of them end up being plain and cliched. They can hardly appeal to a wide audience," said Yang Shuting, analyst with EntGroup.

Some video websites are now planning to invest in self-made content that is far from "big moves", said Peng Kan, a consultant with Legend Media. China's TV industry is booming and high-rated channels are willing to spend as much as 250 million yuan on a single talent show.

Though many Internet productions lack originality, Tina Ma, chief producer at Tencent Video, said websites willing to invest generously in original creations with star-studded programs made by the industry's top-notch talent will be successful.

Earlier this year Tencent itself produced a star-studded ghost-themed mini series titled Blind Spot. Directed by Danny Pang and starring Canada-born Hong Kong pop star Edison Chan, it was viewed a record-setting 30 million times in the three days after its release.

Liu Chun, former head of Phenix TV who has recently joined iQIYI as a producer, said Internet productions have been embracing some positive changes - full-length dramas are taking over unit series, professional productions are replacing amateur work and the subjects are becoming more diverse.

Though works of high influence and quality are still rare, they are slowly drawing the attention of advertisers.

Last year a local smartphone company spent 20 million yuan on product placement in the Tencent Video production Happy E-LIFE . Also on Tencent Video, two upcoming shows this year have attracted a record-setting 30 million yuan in sponsorship from a local furniture firm.

Several entertainment shows on Youku.com had their name rights sold to high-profile brands such as Infiniti and Mercedes Benz.

"But in general, original Internet creations are underestimated in terms of advertising value. Most Internet plays haven't tapped the hidden advertising value that matches their view counts," said Ma with Tencent.