Gong Yu of iQIYI: AI is driving the platform's decentralization transformation, and collaboration with content creators will mainly be based on revenue sharing.

Recently, QiYi founder and CEO Gong Yu attended the 2nd China TV Drama Production Industry Conference, delivering a speech themed “Springtime for the Film and Television Industry.” Gong Yu shared insights and reflections on how AI is bringing transformative changes and opportunities to the industry, the decentralization and strengthening of public services in media platforms, and new collaboration models between platforms and creators.

Below are the key points from Gong Yu’s speech:

※ AI will inevitably cause disruptive changes in the industry: reduced costs, increased creators, and more works

Technological innovation in AI will lead to new transformations, summarized as the “One-One-Two-Three Law.”

First, the cost per unit of content will decrease by an order of magnitude. Whether it’s 1 minute, 1 episode, or 1 film, costs will drop to one-tenth, one-fifteenth, one-twentieth, or even one-thirtieth of the original.

Second, the number of creators will increase by at least an order of magnitude. Compared to before, the number of creators could increase 10, 15, or 20 times.

Third, the number of works will increase by at least two orders of magnitude. AI innovation will drive the number of works up by 100, 300, or 500 times.

Based on this, the industry will inevitably undergo disruptive change, with a large influx of creators and a significant increase in content output. As a result, audience attention will surge, and the industry will truly enter a springtime.

※ Building creator and user communities: Four major changes in the decentralization of media platforms

Under the trend of decentralization, four important changes will occur:

First, the brands and copyrights of creators and their companies will become more prominent, with copyrights firmly held by creators and their companies.

Second, creators will have more private domain traffic. Audiences will focus on creators’ content, brands, and personalities, establishing mutual trust.

Third, there will be more direct interactions between creators and users. In the past, comments and bullet screens about brands were indirect; in the future, feedback will be directly addressed to creators, with platforms serving only as connectors.

Fourth, content decision-making will gradually shift from platforms (B2B) to consumers (B2C). This will be a gradual transition, not a sudden change, advancing step by step.

※ Platforms will comprehensively enhance public service capabilities, covering the entire industry chain from content creation, operation, distribution, to monetization

First, develop professional intelligent agents for film and TV creation. These agents can undertake complete tasks—by providing instructions and leveraging past experience, they can work autonomously and deliver phased results. Currently, QiYi is testing its intelligent agent: NaDou Pro. Its core purpose is to facilitate professional film and TV creation. Although it cannot yet complete an entire series, it can break down production into segments, with the intelligent agent handling each part—this is where the value of large models lies.

Second, build powerful creation and operation platforms, such as QiYi’s “QiYi Account.” In the future, tasks like content publishing, traffic monitoring, revenue analysis, audience profiling, and creative suggestions will be handled by intelligent agents, greatly improving efficiency in creation and operations.

Additionally, platforms will continue to provide media management and content distribution services, such as assisting creators in selecting and purchasing IPs, offering IP, funding, and script evaluation support; relying on players for content distribution “hard services,” enabling users to conveniently watch on hundreds of millions of devices; providing “soft services” like publicity and operations; and fairly distributing revenue from memberships, ads, theme parks, and other derivatives to content creators—this is the platform’s responsibility.

※ AI content creation: starting with short and medium-length dramas, then challenging films, series, and variety shows

AI will initially focus on online stories, medium-length dramas, short series, and animation. These areas have lower technical difficulty and align closely with the key promotion directions of the TV drama industry this year.

Subsequently, AI will gradually tackle traditional live-action films, series, and variety shows. These are the core assets of the current film and television industry and the primary carriers of IP.

※ The cooperation model between platforms and production companies will gradually shift toward revenue-sharing

The cooperation mode will increasingly favor revenue-sharing models, which will become dominant.

Pure revenue-sharing content will account for an increasing proportion, followed by models combining revenue-sharing with small platform investments (such as in computing power or IP), then platforms guaranteeing minimum returns plus revenue-sharing, and finally, self-produced content by platforms.

In the future, the proportion of platform-produced content will decline, reflecting an inevitable decentralization trend in transactions.

Finally, Gong Yu summarized the key points of his speech:

First, AI will greatly enrich film and television content, but the greatest asset remains IP.

Second, the decentralization of media platforms will provide public services.

Third, the core categories of AI-driven film and TV production are still dramas, animations, and variety shows—these remain the industry’s mainstay.

Fourth, cooperation between producers and platforms will shift toward revenue-sharing models, becoming the dominant approach.

Lastly, a return to the essence of creativity—art and innovation.