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iQiyi, the video platform that laid off Mr. Zhao, had a lousy quarter, losing nearly $268 million. Share prices are down 85 percent from their 2021 high, reflecting investors’ concerns that the company that once aimed to become China’s Netflix won’t be able to find shows that can attract more subscribers and advertisers.
“The biggest problem for our industry is the severe shortage of content,” Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi, told analysts in November. In part, he blamed the slow approval of censorship. IQiyi did not respond to requests for comment.
(Mr. Zhao confirmed the details on his social media account, but declined to comment further.)
People in the industry said that many movies, TV and streaming projects have been canceled or killed due to increasingly harsh and unpredictable censorship concerns.
Lilian Li, a writer in Beijing, said a studio working with Tencent and iQiyi approached him last year about creating a streaming series based on one of the history novels. A few weeks later, both companies told him they had decided not to continue as there was little hope of getting censorship approval for a history series. She said she received far fewer collaboration requests from content providers in 2021.
Chinese content creators are always joking about dancing with shackles, meaning they try to satisfy censorship while appealing to their audience. So far, it’s clear that no matter the creative compromises, there’s no guarantee their projects will see the light of day.
One of the most anticipated movies for the 2021 Christmas season had to change its name from “Moses in the Plain” to “Fire in the Plain”, possibly due to a Christian reference. Then, four days before its release, the production team said it was delayed without explanation.
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