Once upon a time, iQIYI was the benchmark in China's long-form video industry and one of Baidu's most notable incubation successes. Shortly after going public in 2018, its stock price once surged past $46, with a market value reaching $31 billion, rivaling NetEase and far surpassing Ctrip, shining brightly. Now, eight years later, iQIYI's stock price has repeatedly hit new lows, with the latest market value only $1.2 billion, a 97% plunge from its peak, evaporating over $30 billion, equivalent to more than 200 billion RMB, making it the worst-performing among well-known Chinese internet companies.

The harshness of the capital market stems from iQIYI's continuously deteriorating fundamentals. With 310 million monthly active users and nearly 100 million paying members, ranking second in the long-form video industry, such a user base should guarantee profitability. However, iQIYI has fallen into a strange cycle of "users without profits." After reaching a revenue peak of 31.9 billion RMB with "Rebel" in 2023, its revenue declined to 27.3 billion RMB in 2025, ending its previous profitability and posting a net loss of 206 million RMB for the year.
The collapse of core revenue sources is especially deadly. As the fundamental membership service revenue, which was 20.3 billion RMB in 2023, plummeted to 16.8 billion RMB in 2025, advertising revenue also shrank simultaneously. Users are unwilling to renew subscriptions, and advertisers are reluctant to spend, exposing deep-seated issues in iQIYI's business model and operational strategy.
To maintain revenue, iQIYI's series of actions can be seen as classic examples of "pushing away users." The company frequently raises membership prices and拆