iQiyi, the film unit of Chinese search giant Baidu, will have distribution rights to over 1,000 U.S. movie titles next year to meet swelling demand from its users for Hollywood content. The group has already revealed plans to make seven local films and one Hollywood- style film next year.
iQiyi CEO Gong Yu led a team to the American Film Market looking for movies.
"American movies are hugely popular in China. This summer U.S. films overtook Chinese and other international titles to become the most popular titles for paying viewers on iQIYI's platform," Gong said in a statement.
Baidu is one of numerous Chinese tech firms which are emerging internationally as possible studio buyers, content acquirers and distribution outlets for Hollywood fare in the world's second biggest film market.
Baidu is, alongside Alibaba and Tencent, one of the three big firms known as "BAT" which are revving up for major moves in the China market.
"Through events like AFM we hope to expand our international partnerships, particularly for American motion pictures," said Gong.
iQiyi has been making some significant moves in the movie business of late. Over one million users took part in iQIYI's crowd-funding program for The Golden Era, the recently released film by Ann Hui, raising nearly $3 million in three minutes.
iQiyi also signed deals for 90 movies at Korea's Busan film festival last month.
The group's senior vice president Yang Xianghua said he hoped Hollywood studios could shorten the window between U.S. release and online release in China to ensure that their users see Hollywood movies at the earliest opportunity, as this would help combat piracy and increase revenues that Hollywood movies can earn from online paying users.