iQIYI Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the ITE Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year twenty twenty four Earnings Conference Call. All participants are in a listen only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Chang Yu, IR Director of the company.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining ITE's fourth quarter and fiscal year twenty twenty four earnings conference call. The company's results were released earlier today and available on the company's Investor Relations website at ir.ite.com. On the call today are Mr. Yun Gong, our Founder, Director and CEO Mr.

Speaker 1

Jun Wang, our CFO Mr. Xiaohui Wang, our CFO, our CFO, Chief Content Officer Mr. You Chao Zuan, Senior Vice President of our Membership Business and Mr. Zheng Huaiyao, Senior Vice President of Movies and Overseas Business. Mr.

Speaker 1

Gong will give a brief overview of the company's business operations and highlights. Babou Baidu, who will go through the financials. After the prepared remarks, the management team will participate in the Q and A session. Before we proceed, please note that the discussion today will contain forward looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provisions of The U. S.

Speaker 1

Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are now limited to, those outlined in our public filings with the SEC. ITE does not undertake any obligation to update any forward looking statements, except as required under applicable law. I will now pass on to Mr.

Speaker 1

Gong. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Starting from late November, we have observed a significant rebound in business performance across multiple metrics, including net additions of subscribing numbers and user time spent, along with reinforced leading position in the total drama viewership market share according to enlightened data. This was boosted by the robust comeback of our top tier content. In just three months, two of our highly popular dramas, We Are Criminal Police, or Xuntyou, and Drifting Away, Kaoban, surpassed 10,000 in the IT popularity index, and further solidifying IT's and rival leadership in the suspense gyro. We also enhanced our supply of premium female oriented content, which is also one of our key content categories with Moon, Embraiser, Baiyue Fanxin exceeding 9,500 and Lhasang in winter, Dongzhi exceeding 9,000 in IQ Popularity Index.

Speaker 2

Alongside the strong return of our premium long form video content, we have made breakthroughs in the mini driver space. Now our portfolio carries a selection of over 10,000 titles. We have also revamped our products to improve user experiences. On top of that, we have upgraded our ad placement system to more effectively monetize the growing traffic of mini drummers. All these efforts have led to swift growth in our user base and look forward to what the future holds.

Speaker 2

In addition to operational improvements, we are encouraged by the healthy recovery in consumer sentiment towards quality long form videos as evidenced by historical high theatrical movie box office performance during the Chinese New Year. This trend reinforces our confidence in the quality long form video content and we are optimistic for a long form video industry in the coming year. As we step into 2025, we aim to boost membership revenue by raising the quality and the share of gaming content. We also aim to expand the advertising revenue by enlarging our ad inventory, which will benefit from the growth of mini driver business. Together, these two elements will serve as the dual engine, driving our revenue growth.

Speaker 2

Now, let's move on to the details of our core business segments, Starting with long form videos, which is the cornerstone of our content ecosystem, we have sustained our leadership in the core genre category, capturing the highest total viewership market share in Q4 and for the full year 2024 according to enlightened data. This was underpinned the exceptional performance of our highly acclaimed titles across multiple genres. In Q4, our dominance in the real estate chain of suspense genres remain unchallenged North Blade where criminal place become the fifteenth drama to break the ITE Popularity Index score of 10,000 and recorded the highest score of our platform in 2024. Additionally, new releases like Light Beam Go Buy, from our Light on Seltzer brand and End of the Skin Season two get it together high acclaim from viewers. Our exciting slate of offering goes beyond Q4, notably, drifting away from our flagship Light on Shelter brand surpassed a popularity in that score of 10,000 within just the sixth of its release.

Speaker 2

It was also the first drama with fewer episodes to reach such highs. In Q4, for premium female oriented content, we made great progress in stabilizing our content release schedule and captivating audiences with love stories soon our love on culture. Notable among this is the Asian custom drama, fans of fortune, some really, which successfully attracts new members size up. In addition, Golden Java, Lost Song in Winter was praised for its innovative blend of suspense and romance, meeting a peak IKEA Popularity Index score of over 9,000. Looking ahead, we are committed to further refining our production lineup and release timing for both Asian customer customers and the modern tales that resulted with our female audiences.

Speaker 2

Turning to movies in Q4, we have maintained our leading position in viewership for self conducting partners according to enlightened data. The performance was highlighted by our original production of Frozen Wind, which was the best performing comedy movie on our platform this quarter. There are notable releases like Upstream, Yixin Renshun and the World Series The Battle of Life and Adapt, Zheijun, Zuan Zheijan also secured top positions on the ITU Popular Factory test during Q4. For animations in Q4, our production capabilities for Chinese animations continue to improve the legend of Sky Log. Shenmue Tianzi remains its popularity among audiences.

Speaker 2

We also further boosted our offerings with exclusive new IPs such as Urban Miracle Doctor, Zu Shi Fu Xianyi and Unlimited Lab, Breakthrough. For Japanese animations, we exclusively released Dragon Ball Daima, Rungu Damo on our platform receiving positive feedback. Looking forward to 2025, we are dedicated to enhancing the production and the management of our long form videos. Our primary goal is creating exceptional content, elevating its commercial potential, while optimizing the production and the distribution process for increased efficiency. For drummers, we will focus on improving the pipeline's stability and the share of our top tier premium content.

Speaker 2

We aim to strengthen our leadership in realistic and suspenseful themes while enhancing our premium content that appeals to female audiences, which have shown strong momentum. Other than the titles grew well rated class such as drifting away, we are also going to release titles from light on shelter, including Breaking the Shadow, Hu Yun ZheShang, justifiable defense Zhengdong Hengwei, a life for a life demiressions and low IQ crime feature Zhang Sanwei. Our strong line art also features highly anticipated female oriented dramas Moon, Embracer, Baiyue Fanxing, The Film at Season two, Buso Beichu and the Love of the Divide Tree, Shenzhen Youfu have already been released and have gained strong traction among female audiences, while more compelling releases to come. For very short, our strategy is centered on our visibility. We are committed to maximizing the commercial value of our classic IPs while exploring innovative new shows.

Speaker 2

For flagship multi season IPs, our strong lineup includes Become Our Farmer, Zhongli Ba, Season five, The Director of China Twenty Twenty Five and The King of Standard Up Comedy two, We are also introducing several fresh new IPs including the blooming journey XinAsia Xia Zhongxiang and The Greatest Showman Notably, Notably, the blooming journey was released in January and quickly received a peak IT popularity index score of about 8,000 while topping the enlightened rankings. For the comedy jacket, Jairo, building up the success of the King of Sanhana comedy. Last year, we launched a spin off show, Happy Off Work during the Chinese New Year holiday, further strengthening the IP's influence. For movies, premium content is our top focus, especially original article releases that can generate top box office revenue. In 2025, our original movie Winter to Summer Yilu Tokiman and Momo Busheohanae, they are hit the sales charge.

Speaker 2

Audiences can also enjoy the article hits on our movie channel, including Her Story, Burning Stars, Hu Xingqiuha, hot pot artist, Huo Guo, Yifuya and Octopus with Broken Arm, Wu Sha. We also plan to increase our production capability for online films. In the field of animation, we are sent to thousands of collection of enduring various and devoted resources for C6 collect to a high quality Chinese animation. Our objective is to raise both the quality and financial performance of our original work. Major panels to be launched includes Super Cubed Tong Liefang, Over the Divine Realms, Shen Guozhisha, The Fitted Magical Princess, and the sequels to beloved children's animations, including The Ru Fu Shueiwei and The Princess Story Me Season four.

Speaker 2

Moving on to mini drama. We achieved exciting milestones in just three months. Firstly, we have successfully revamped our apps. Now the mini driver in the HE main app focus primarily on subscription based model, while the HE light app acquire all PCIe three mini driver supported by advertising model. Secondly, we have largely completed the construction of back end systems, especially for content recommendations and advertising capabilities.

Speaker 2

This not only elevates the viewing experience, but also unlocks fresh monetization opportunities. Furthermore, our mini driver portfolio has quickly expanded to over 10,000 titles now, capturing 95% of the leading mini driver content providers in the market. This expensive and diversifies content portfolio has paved for our next stage of development. The recent program has likely increased our user base and the real time spent on mini dramas in the fourth quarter with this positive trend expected to continue. Notably, in December, our platform had its first mini drama generating monthly revenue sharing in Q1, exceeding RMB1 million.

Speaker 2

As we enter the next phase, we are aiming to refine our products and service offerings with personalized recommendations, fine tune our advertising system to appeal our broader base of new advertisers, broaden our content catalog with fresh and elaborate titles and cultivate IT's original mini driver ecosystem to provide a steady stream of high quality content. Moving on to membership services. Membership revenue in the first quarter was RMB4.1 billion, down annually and sequentially, primarily due to a lighter content slate during the first two months of the quarter. However, starting from late November, we have observed a strong comeback in premium content offerings as previously discussed, driving a significant turnaround in our membership business. To be specific, we have improved our long form video content and introduced improved mini driver for members, aiming to improve member retention and attracting new subscribers.

Speaker 2

Additionally, we have maintained a supply of premium content and stepped up our promotional efforts, so subscribers can eagerly anticipate new releases, thereby driving their loyalty to our platform. Beyond content enhancement, we have reclassified our membership offering into two primary categories. One category tailored for individuals, the other for families. Both categories include and supported basic service service tier as well as our vendor service tier. Moreover, the family category also features our premium service level, which is an outstanding plan.

Speaker 2

This plan grants additional privileges, including unlimited access to express packages that provide early access to finals of our premium content. The ability to log in on up to eight supported devices and opportunities to participate in major offline events. This weak classification benefits our membership business in multi base. One, it simplifies the structure of our membership plan, making their positioning clear. Two, it captures broader user needs and the user group from value seeking individuals to those desiring more premium perks.

Speaker 2

Three, it effectively addresses the issue of unauthorize the hardware sharing. In the first quarter, to offer an improved solution to account sharing, we introduced the extra member feature. Additionally, our ad supported basic plan has seen a consistent uptick in subscriptions, especially among users in low tier CTSS and within the young demographic throughout the quarter. In a move to further elevate the value we offer, we also introduced more joint membership options, which gained traction with our members. Looking into 2025, our strategy focuses on building a membership business that better caters to mass audiences.

Speaker 2

We also intend to optimize member offerings, streamline operations and improve distribution channels. Moreover, we aim to elevate the IT member brand and the service standard, ultimately boosting the value experienced by our members. Moving on to the advertising business. Revenue during the quarter came in at RMB1.4 billion, growing 7% sequentially and showing a reduced rate of annual decline when compared to the prior period. For brand ad revenue show double digit sequential growth, this was primarily driven by the double digit brand ad revenue growth generated by our premium drummer.

Speaker 2

In 2025, we aim to evolve our brand advertising business by diversifying our revenue streams and exploring new innovative advertising opportunities, we plan to refine client service, which will help return our current hydro testers and attract new commerce from sectors like food and beverage, cosmetics and toiletries and communications. We will also keep our eye on emerging factors such as health care, home furnishing and tourism. Additionally, we aim to increase the art of top tier clients and explore opportunities in mini drivers and advertiser customized shows. Performance ads continue to grow both annually and sequentially. This was largely driven by operational improvements and the major e commerce campaigns and the robust service provided to clients from Internet services sector.

Speaker 2

Notably, revenue contribution from the e commerce sector during the W11 shopping festival increased by over 40% annually and the revenue from the Internet services during the quarter increased by over 30% year over year. To the ten days momentum going forward, we are enhancing our technical and platform capabilities to secure a larger share of budgets from top tier clients in sectors such as the e commerce, Internet services and the video game sectors. We will continue leveraging AI for video and the production and expand our client base to improve monetization efficiency. We are also excited about the incremental and inventory that Mini Driver could bring in 2025. Moving on to technology and the products.

Speaker 2

We continue to advance the industrialization of the video business, thereby improving our operational efficiency. Our intelligent production management system has become essential for production crews, managing various tasks on-site, providing them with advanced production tools and management capabilities. In the first quarter, we further enhanced the system to incorporate highly efficient production supplies management coverability. With regard to virtual production, we have increased the technology to push the boundary of content creation. We are proud that our project Fonts of Fortune and My Journey to You, Yintiyue, have both won multiple prestige industry awards for their excellent use of water production.

Speaker 2

Meanwhile, we have made impressive progress with our digital asset collection. Throughout the year, we have assembled in mass digital asset library from hundreds of dramas, variety shows, movies and animation. Today, it is recognized that as one of the leading collections in China, we are now leveraging their assets in new video products and expanding into offline experiences. Looking forward, we are setting our sights on wider applications, including content creation, IP value added services and immersive virtual reality experiences. Moreover, we have been expanding AI applications across content production and operations.

Speaker 2

AI's influence has been transformative notably in refining our project assessment process, providing valuable insights for a pretty nearly 5,000 screenplays and novels. Additionally, AI plays in character design and the custom selection as a project approval stage based on the character description from screenplays that streamlining the creative process. Lastly, for our business performance in regions outside of Mainland China, we maintained solid performance in the fourth quarter with both total revenues and the membership services revenue gained annual and sequentially growth. Notably, membership revenue from Hong Kong, UK, Thailand and Australia grew by over 30 year over year. The average daily number of subscribing members also increased both annually and sequentially with Hong Kong and Thailand growing over 40% year over year, 50% year over year.

Speaker 2

The popularity of our original content continues to strengthen Songs of Fortune was the best performing Sea China drama on our overseas platform in 2024 with a high dubbed version topping the viewership rankings in Thailand. Additionally, our first original overseas variety show, satellite wise expanded its success beyond our platform, achieving top position in local Google rankings for variety shows across numerous Southeast Asia countries. Furthermore, Thai dramas have emerged as a popular content hub upgrade on our international platform, ranking second only to see dramas. Encouraged by this trend, we are planning to increase our investments in original Thai productions. We have been focusing on expanding our international brand recognition soon reach specific events.

Speaker 2

Last quarter, we launched our first ever iQI Conference overseas, which set a new benchmark as the most comprehensive and best attempt press conference ever hosted by our Chinese video platform in Thailand with exceptional artist participation. As we set our eyes on 2025, our main focus abroad will be to drive revenue expansion. We plan to enhance our free drama offering and improve the monetization ability of region content having established our footprint presence in Asia, especially Southeast Asia. We are set to expand our footprint into Middle East, Latin America and Brazil. Our approach includes reinforcing health with telecom partners seeking innovative collaborative opportunities and working up marketing initiatives to boost our brand and content impact.

Speaker 2

In summary, we closed the year by embracing a series of reinventions and innovations that successfully propelled our business forward, setting a strong start to 2025. We are confident that the strong comeback of premium long form videos coupled with our continuous innovation in mini dramas will serve as fuel engines during the tenth growth for 2025. Now let me pass it on to Qing to go through our financial performance.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Mr. Gong, and hello, everyone. As Mr. Gong mentioned earlier, driven by the premium content, we have experienced a significant rebound in main operating performance in comparison to November 2024. Now let's take a look at Q4 key numbers.

Speaker 3

In Q4, the total revenues were RMB6.6 billion, down 14% annually. Membership services revenue reached RMB4.1 billion, down 15% annually, primarily due to a lighter recondent slate. However, as Mr. Gong just mentioned, premium content had a strong rebound from late November twenty twenty four to now. For online advertising, revenue decreased by 13% year over year to RMB1.4 billion.

Speaker 3

This was primarily due to the decrease in brand advertisement business, partially offset by the growth in performance ad business. Content distribution revenue reached RMB406.6 million, down 20% annually, primarily due to a lower revenue from distribution of theatrical movies invested by iQiyi and a decrease in other transactions, partially offset by increased revenue from cash transaction. Other revenues decreased by 10% annually to RMB670.2 million. Moving on to cost and expenses. Covenant cost was RMB3.4 billion, down 9% annually, primarily driven by our improvement in the covenant strategy as well as a lighter covenant slate in the quarter.

Speaker 3

Total operating expenses were RMB1.3 billion, down 5% annually, primarily due to disciplined marketing spending. Turning to profits and cash flows. Non GAAP operating income was RMB405.9 million and its corresponding margin was 6%. Net cash provided by operating activities totaled RMB519 million, positive for 11. As of the end of Q4, we had cash, cash equivalents, short term investments and long term restricted cash included in the prepayments and other assets of RMB 4,500,000,000.0.

Speaker 3

For detailed financial data, please refer to our press release on our IR website. Now I will open the floor for Q and A.

Operator

Thank you. Your first question comes from Sooking Zhang with CICC. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thanks management for taking my question. We have noticed that IJI had launched many hit drama series since the beginning of this year. Looking ahead to 2025, what's your content pipeline or what about the quality of these titles? How many of them have the potential to become blockbusters? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Xueqing. We will invite our Chief Counsel Officer, Mr. Xia Weiwang to answer this question. Go ahead. We had a good start of the year for 2025 with the new season of the Vietnam theater drama, Drifting Away launched in January, reaching ITE popularity index of over 10,000 in just six days.

Speaker 1

It is a milestone for us because it is not only the first drama of the year to break the 10,000 in popularity, but it also is ITE's light on theaters and our first drama with limited number of episodes to achieve this milestone. Our main goal for this year 2025 is to intend both the quality and the share of our premium top long form video content, also ensuring a greater stability and a continued strong start to the year. In most the most critical areas such as the drama genre, The number of premium top tier dramas claimed for release this year will significantly increase compared to last year. We will also focus on creating a tighter narrative pace that better aligns with the current social sentiment and the user aesthetic changes. And then for suspense and crime dramas and the female oriented content that are our two main programming pillars, for this year, we will continue to maintain our absolute leading advantage in the sustained and prime genre.

Speaker 1

And for this year, the Light On Theater has several works planned in addition to the already launched Drifting Away, there will be more releases such as Creaking Shadows, justifiable dispense, a life for life, low crime decline, dead end and beneath the undertow. In terms of the female oriented content and market season titles, we will further strengthen our offerings and continuous programming with plans to launch titles such as The Best Thing, Love in Pavilion, Fox Spirit Matchmaker, Sword Envelope, A Dream Within a Dream, Build and The Strange Tale of Tang Dynasty Season three. Additionally, we'll continue to maintain our advantage in the realm of realistic genre. The pipeline includes Northport, What a Wonderful World, How Things Born, 8,000 Miles of Clouds and Moon, Shaoxing, Lonely Old Town. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from Li Zhang with Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead. Thank you, management, for taking my question. I want to know further updates on your short mini

Speaker 1

drama area and do we

Operator

have any strategic plan on mini drama in 2025? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Our CEO is actually taking this question. Keith, first of all, would like to clear the definition of mini dramas that we've been talking about in his opening remarks. So for mini dramas, we identified them as the vertical format, one to three minutes long. And then this is the main area that we're focusing on. For the horizontal mini dramas, which is quite similar to the long form video content that we have the edge on, so this is something different.

Speaker 1

So we decided to invest in the mini drama business about one quarter ago. The reasons are two aspects. First of all, right now, because the users are more close to the fast paced content and that they have a shorter attention span and then they also enjoy content in a more fragmented time as well. So that's the first reason. And also from the industry perspective and a market perspective, for 2024, the market size for mini dramas, although there are different data that's estimated by third parties, but we believe it should be greater than the Chinese post office for 2024.

Speaker 1

For 2025, we are glad to see a strong rebound of the theoretical post office during the Chinese New Year. However, that we still think the melodrama market should still over exceed the Chinese box office in 2025. Our menu drama business actually have successfully completed the key task that we set for the first phase, achieving significant results in three areas for user product transformation, content portfolio and also building a second system development. Currently, actually, our mini drama content library has over 10,000 titles and it has reached a scale that's comparable to the leading mini drama platform in the industry. There are two reasons about how we achieved achieved such a significant improvement in a very short amount of time.

Speaker 1

First of all, for our team, actually, we have a very mature whether it's IT team, a technology team, product team and also the operational team. All these have us over ten years of experiences. Although, mini drama is a new genre, but there are a lot of the know how that we can replicate from the long form video experience. That's the first reason. The second reason is we have a very deep connection with the industry and also the industry resources, specifically for content providers for the industry.

Speaker 1

Most of them, we have existing we have actually collaborated with them in the past or we have existing collaborations. So the above three two reasons help us to achieve such progress in short amount of time. For our main IT app, the position is still focusing on the long term digital content and then focusing on the subscriber based revenue model. For IG Lite, we have quickly revamped this app and then now it is prioritized in three mini dramas and then supported by the advertising model. In terms of the user time spent for the Mei ID app, the mini drama timeshare now is actually close to the scale of animation, cartoon and also variations.

Speaker 1

For IC Light, the mini drama timeshare is the second largest content genre, only second behind long form video content. I'll quickly introduce the next stage, a key task. The first one is we'll focus on introducing the leading mini drama titles and then for iQIYI. Second is to build the ITE original mini drama ecosystem for the Chinese New Year period. Actually, we have already launched quite a few titles.

Speaker 1

And next, two tasks are focusing on to hopefully, we can increase the inventory of mini drama advertisement and also to enhance the monetization capabilities of mini dramas. We would like to actually explore more advertising budget and also the new format of advertising budget from this app space. Last but not least, we will try to increase more investment in terms of user growth. Hopefully, we can attract more users to bring them to IT to watch mini dramas.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Sean. Thank you.

Speaker 1

And that's it. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from Lincoln Kong with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

So thank you management for taking my questions. My question is about the membership business. So regarding the recent content performance and how is the impact from those measures like Family Card or Star Diamond member, extra content gives on those the impact on the membership business as well as the strategy for full year 2025? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Lin Tian. We'll invite Mr. Yoshao Zuan, the Senior Vice President of Membership System to take his questions. Go ahead. Since late November twenty twenty four, the continuous programming of premium titles, dramas, has actually driven the membership business to a turning point, resulting in a significant increase in subscribing members.

Speaker 1

We actually rolled out several key initiatives since 2024. We have reclassified our membership offering into two primary categories, one for individuals and for families. For individuals, there are actually two plans with no large screen access. And for families, there are three plans with large screen access. The membership rights and benefits are divided into three tiers, basic, standard and premium.

Speaker 1

The new reclassified membership system actually allows users seeking either high cost effectiveness or premium benefits experience to find products that suit their needs. Second, we strengthened the crackdown on password sharing, while introducing the extra account service as an authorized sharing solution, effectively expanding the membership base and improving member retention. The third point that we did was we enhanced the benefits for premium members. The newly added benefits for S Diamond members, the limited complimentary early access to the express packages that provide early access to finales of our premium content increased value and perception of premium membership. After the launch of the new benefit, the number of s Diamond members have largely increased with most of the new members attracted by the Express Back package benefit and the existing s Diamond members have also been noticeable more active on the platform.

Speaker 1

We have a few areas that we're focusing on for 2025. First, we'll continuously enhance the stability and continuity of our child care premium content programming and strengthen the pre release promotion for upcoming content, establish mindshare among users to improve their loyalty to ITE. Second, we'll build focusing on building a mass market membership service to increase membership scale and revenue. While focusing on attracting new members, we'll prioritize improving member retention and user engagement and also will increase the revenue scale and revenue share from external channels. Third, we will systematically continue to optimize the membership products and operations, including further refining the membership product system and pricing strategy, also enriching membership benefits and perks, improving the member user experience and also crafting a membership model tailored for MiniDuo.

Speaker 1

Fourth, we will strengthen the quality of membership services and IT trends, enhance the perception of membership benefits and privileges and also improve the overall net promoter score for IT among members. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from Maggie Yi with CLSA. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Just now we heard about some encouraging performance in overseas markets in terms of both membership revenue and subscribing members. Would you please provide an update on the core strategy for our overseas business in 2025? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Maggie. We'll invite Mr. Zhang, the Vice President of our overseas business to take this question. Go ahead. The overall strategy for business outside of Mainland China in 2025 is to pursue rapid revenue growth while retaining profitability.

Speaker 1

In the past few years, we have focused on several markets, including Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau and North America and have achieved satisfactory development. And for 2025, we have set different strategies for different markets. For the markets where we entered since the early days, such as Thailand, Malaysia and North America, our goal is to achieve both profit and revenue. For the new core markets such as Indonesia and South Korea, the focus is on revenue growth for 2025. At the same time, we're also planning and preparing for the long term growth of our business hoping to break into new markets in 2025, such as The Middle East, the Spanish speaking Latin American region and also Brazil.

Speaker 1

For content wise, we'll strengthen the programming for speed dramas in 2025 and the content slate is actually more suitable for the preferences of our overseas viewers in 2025 compared to this content we launched last year. In terms of local drama and local content, after years of efforts, we have actually accumulated some experience and we'll continue to invest in markets such as Thailand and Malaysia, which will serve an important support for our user growth in the For content promotion, advertising placement and also the collaboration with telecom carriers and other channels, our core method of leads to content value. So in 2025, we will increase our investment in these areas in more market. So overall speaking for 2024 overseas business in terms of the membership growth and also revenue also maintained relatively high speed of growth. And since December 2024, with the ongoing amount of high quality content, the overall growth rate of our business has been even faster than 2024, so which gives us more confidence in the revenue growth for 2025.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Operator

That concludes our question and answer session. I'll now hand back to management for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you everyone for participating in the call today. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us. Thank you and see you next quarter.

Speaker 2

Bye bye.

Operator

That does conclude our conference for today.

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Earnings Conference Call
iQIYI Q4 2024
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