本文选自《经济学人》1月25日刊文章。目前中国流媒体行业，爱奇艺与腾讯视频两家独大、平分秋色，但这两个视频平台仍处于亏损状态。中国的娱乐市场有巨大潜力，预计到2023年，中国将有4亿人订阅视频流媒体平台。除了靠订阅创收外，中国的流媒体平台还有很多其他营收渠道，比如在线商店、新兴的移动游戏业务，电子书业务和广告。以中国庞大的市场容量来看，视频流媒体未来无可限量。
选文精讲
Tencent Video battles iQiyi in China’s streaming warsBut the two big Chinese streaming platform may one day settle into a cosy duopoly但这两家大型中国流媒体平台有一天可能会适应两家独大LAUNCHED IN 2010, 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.
- cash-generating: 创造现金的，这里指“盈利的”
爱奇艺于2010年推出，它已经习惯了被外国媒体称为“中国的Netflix”，想想奈飞这家视频流媒体先驱的成功，这不是最糟糕的绰号。但爱奇艺的创始人兼老板龚宇坚称，他的公司更准确地应该称为“Netflix升级版”。对于这个亏损的企业来说，这是一个大胆的声明，其市值仅为美国娱乐产业巨头(这家公司是盈利的)的十五分之一，美国娱乐产业巨头（Netflix）的市值为2140亿美元。尽管如此，龚先生的说法还是有道理的。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 from 19.8 yuan ($2.87) a month, accounted for just over half of iQiyi’s 7.4bn yuan in revenues in the second quarter. 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.
和Netflix一样，爱奇艺也向用户提供覆盖广泛的授权视频和原创内容。与几乎完全依赖订阅费的Netflix不同，爱奇艺有收入来源多样。爱奇艺第二季度74亿元的收入中，月薪19.8元(合2.87美元)起的“会员费”仅占一半多一点，其余的收入主要来自在线商店(销售“娱乐相关商品”)、新兴的移动游戏业务，电子书业务和广告；爱奇艺还运营一种“免费”模式，这种模式可以让吝啬的用户免费观看一些内容，前提是他们要同意观看广告。
