(Yicai) April 23 -- IQiyi has launched a new e-commerce livestream business in a bid to shore up flagging revenue at the Chinese video streaming site.

The e-commerce venture will center on live broadcast product sales tied to its own intellectual property, artists, and celebrities, with its vast subscriber base expected to form the core consumer group for this initiative, Chief Executive Gong Yu said today at this year’s iQiyi World Conference. The new service is still in trial operation.

The Beijing-based company’s main source of revenue to date has been from subscriptions and advertising, Gong added. 

IQiyi’s shares plunged in February, after it reported a slump in annual earnings, with subscription and ad revenue both down. Net profit more than halved to CNY760 million (USD104.2 million) last year, with income sliding 8 percent to CNY29.2 billion (USD4 billion).

Revenue from subscriptions shrank 13 percent to CNY17.8 billion in 2024, while that from online advertising slid 8 percent was CNY5.7 billion.

In pre-market trading in New York today, iQiyi’s shares [NASDAQ: IQ] were up 3.9 percent at USD1.85 each as of 8.08 a.m. local time, after climbing 7.9 percent yesterday. The stock has fallen 11 percent since the end of last year.

IQiyi will be hoping to tap into the great success of e-commerce livestreaming in China, which has exploded in recent years. As of December 2023, China had 597 million e-commerce livestream users, up 16 percent from 2022 and accounting for 55 percent of all internet users, according to a joint report from the National Institute of Metrology and other institutions.

From January to November last year, China’s retail sales through livestream e-commerce reached CNY4.3 trillion (USD594 billion), contributing 80 percent of the e-commerce sector’s growth, per a report released by the Research Group of the National Academy of Economic Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Chinese Association of Market Development.

Editor: Tom Litting