Abstract:
Recently, iQiyi members were accused of appearing in “the most disgusting advertisement of the year.” According to Jimu News, the person involved, Xiao Min (pseudonym), said that on the evening of November 3, as a platinum member of iQiyi, she was watching a TV series through the iQiyi App on her tablet and cast the TV series to a TV with the Kiwi App installed. As a result, when the key plot of the plot was approaching, a large number of barrages with the "CS Scanner King" logo suddenly flew up, down, left and right on the screen.
Videos posted online show that although iQiyi’s barrage ads are somewhat relevant to the plot, the copywriting is relatively stiff and very deliberate.
Xiao Min said that a few minutes later, this situation occurred again in the same episode, but not in other episodes. The two advertisements were about 20 seconds long together. I had never seen a similar delivery method before, and my perception was seriously affected.
In response, Xiao Min wrote in a post shared online, "CS Scanner King's advertisement has chosen the most vicious way to pollute my noble eyes."
However, the advertising company CS Scan King expressed "grievance" to the media and denied that the interference was related to the company. Its customer service staff directly stated that the company normally places advertisements on the iQiyi platform, but it is not clear how to operate this advertisement, so it is recommended to consult the platform.
As the incident unfolded, Kiwi customer service responded by claiming that members’ advertising privileges mainly include exemptions from some pre-roll ads before viewing on-demand content. The content that appeared this time was a “barrage advertisement” and was not included in members’ advertising rights.
The customer service stated that the platform will control the number and frequency of commercial barrages, and will continue to optimize the product experience in the future. If users encounter the above advertisements, they can press the return button on the remote control, drag the progress bar, or perform blocking operations.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that iQiyi has caused controversy due to member advertising.
As early as 2024, some members complained that nearly full-screen advertisements appeared as soon as the video was paused, and the original screen was squeezed into the corner. Since then, "basic members cannot jump to the pre-roll advertisement" has also caused controversy. iQiyi explained at the time that basic membership is an option for users who can accept more advertisements and want to pay lower prices.
In April of this year, eye-catching advertisements with bizarre images and copywriting such as "tying up and pouring drugs" appeared on the pause pages of some iQiyi dramas. To this end, iQiyi also specifically promised that it would further strengthen the review mechanism.
On the other hand, for consumers, in addition to watching TV dramas, paying for membership is often just to watch less advertisements. But in fact,
iQiyi has never promised that members can be ad-free throughout the entire journey
.According to the current member rights page of iQiyi’s official website, the advertising privileges enjoyed by Gold, Platinum, and Star Diamond VIP members mainly include reducing the duration of pre-roll advertisements before the playback of some on-demand videos, so members may still encounter commercial advertisements delivered in other ways.
The reason why iQiyi is willing to face controversy and frequently confront members is because advertising monetization is still one of its important businesses.
According to the financial report, iQiyi’s online advertising revenue totaled approximately 2.49 billion yuan in the first half of this year. Among them, online advertising service revenue in the second quarter was approximately 1.25 billion yuan. Although it dropped 2% year-on-year, it still accounted for nearly 20% of its total revenue.
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