Tencent Video battles iQiyi in China’s streaming wars腾讯视频与爱奇艺之中国流媒体大战But the two big Chinese streaming platform may onc day settle into a cosy duopoly但两大平台在未来某天或将实现双头垄断L aunched in2010,iQiyi has grown used to the foreign press calling it“the Netflix of China”.Not the worst nickname,given the videostreaming pioneer’s success.But Gong Yu,iQiyi’s founder and boss,insists that his firm is more accurately described as“Netflix plus”.A bold claim for a loss-making business worth one-fifteenth as much as America’s(cash-generating)entertainment powerhouse with a market value of$214bn.Still,Mr Gong has a point.创立于2010年的爱奇艺常常被外国媒体称为“中国版网飞”。
鉴于这家流媒体先驱的成功，这一称号也算名副其实。
但爱奇艺创始人兼老板龚宇坚称，准确来说，爱奇艺是“加强版网飞”。
对于这家仍在亏损的公司来说，这种说法有些张狂，作为美国娱乐业巨头的网飞现已实现盈利，市值高达2140亿美元，而爱奇艺市值仅为其十五分之一。
不过，龚宇所言仍有些许道理。
Like Netflix,iQiyi offers customers a deep catalogue of licensed and original content.Unlike Netflix,which relies almost entirely on subscription fees,iQiyi has multiple revenue streams.“Membership fees”,which start from19.8yuan ($2.87)a month,accounted for just over half of iQiyi’s7.4bn yuan in revenues in the second quarter.爱奇艺和网飞一样，也为客户提供海量版权及原创影视作品。
但不同于几乎完全依赖会员费的网飞，爱奇艺拥有多项收入来源。
在爱奇艺第二季度74亿元的营收中，每月19.8元（约合2.87美元）起的“会员费”占比刚刚过半。
The rest came mainly from an online store(which sells“entertainment-related merchandise”),a nascent mobile-gaming arm,an e-book business and advertisements;iQiyi operates a“freemium”model which allows stingier users to stream some content free of charge provided they agree to watch ads.其余收入主要来自线上商店（销售“娱乐周边产品”）、新成立的移动游戏部门、电子书业务和广告；爱奇艺采用的是一种“免费增值”模式，不愿花钱的用户在观看一段广告后可以免费收看部分内容。
Conveniently for iQiyi,which does little business outside its home market, Netflix is blocked in China,under laws that ban a lot of foreign content.But that is not to say that China is free from the streaming wars of the sort that pits Netflix against rivals like Disney,HBO(owned by AT&T)and NBCUniversal (belonging to Comcast).Far from it.爱奇艺的业务主要集中在本土市场，而网飞在中国无法收看，这对爱奇艺来说无疑是有利的。
但这并不意味着中国市场没有像网飞与迪士尼、HBO（美国电话电报公司所有）和NBC环球（康卡斯特所有）这样的流媒体大战。
中国市场同样竞争激烈。
Mr Gong is battling Tencent Video,part of the eponymous technology conglomerate.It overtook iQiyi at the end of June with114m video subscribers to iQiyi’s105m.Mr Gong’s firm shed14m subscribers in the most recent quarter while Tencent Video,which also runs a freemium model and charges subscribers20yuan a month,added2m.龚宇正在与腾讯视频（腾讯科技集团所有）展开竞争。
今年6月底，腾讯视频会员用户量（1.14亿）反超爱奇艺（1.05亿）。
今年第二季度，爱奇艺流失会员用户1400万，而同样采用免费增值模式、月会员费20元起的腾讯视频则增加会员用户200万。
IQiyi insists the setback was down to one-off factors,such as virus-induced disruption to film production,which temporarily emptied the content pipeline. Perhaps.But Tencent Video offers a richer selection of English-language content, including hit television series like“Chernobyl”and“Silicon Valley”.爱奇艺坚称，用户的流失是偶然因素所致，比如新冠疫情的爆发导致影片制作中断，致使暂无新片上线。
也许真的如此。
但腾讯视频提供了包括热播电视剧《切尔诺贝利》和《硅谷》在内的更多英文资源的选择。
More important,the rivalry between Tencent Video and iQiyi is a proxy war between mighty Tencent and fading Baidu,a search firm that is iQiyi’s majority owner.Indeed,iQiyi seemed to concede as much in its latest annual report,writing that“competitors include well-capitalised companies that are capable of offering compensation packages more attractive to talents.”更重要的是，腾讯视频和爱奇艺之间的竞争是其背后日渐强大的腾讯和日渐衰落的搜索公司百度之间的较量。
事实上，爱奇艺在其最新的年度报告中似乎也提到了这一点，报告提到：“那些资本充足的竞争对手能够开出更具吸引力的薪酬待遇以招揽人才。
”Still,as Westerners who pay for a few video subscriptions can attest,streaming is not a zero-sum game.Gigi Zhou of BOCOM International,a broker,reckons the Chinese market will soon be big enough to sustain both iQiyi and Tencent Video,which also has yet to make money.不过，正如那些愿意为视频订阅付费的西方人所证明的那样，流媒体市场并非零和游戏。
交银国际的经纪人周琪琪认为，中国流媒体市场将很快发展壮大至足以同时容得下爱奇艺和腾讯视频两家，腾讯视频目前也尚未盈利。
Ms Zhou expects400m Chinese to subscribe to video-streaming platforms by 2023,up from some300m in2019.So long as no new rival emerges,each firm could capture around150m,helping them spread costs over more subscribers and so turn a profit.周琪琪预计，到2023年，中国视频流媒体平台的会员用户量将达4亿，而2019年约为3亿。
只要没有新的竞争对手出现，两家公司都将获得大约1.5亿用户，由此可将成本分摊至更多会员用户，从而实现盈利。
Before streaming peace can break out,iQiyi faces another fight.On August 13th it said it was under investigation by America’s Securities and Exchange Commission after a short-seller accused it of inflating sales data,a charge it denies.If found guilty,it may have to delist from New York’s Nasdaq exchange. The firm’s stable share price implies investors’faith in battle-hardened Mr Gong is unshaken.在各大视频流媒体平台实现和平共赢之前，爱奇艺还面临着另一场战役。