It was long predicted that summer was going to be a time of great opportunities and harsh battles for online programming. Not only did the highly anticipated adaptation of popular novel The Lost Tomb bring streaming company iQiyi a huge number of new paying members, a number of other quality online shows set records in the online arena.
A great vacation
A total of 107 new productions were released online in July and August, double the number released during this same period last year. These two months saw 11 online series each receive more than 100 million views. It's quite clear that streaming TV has finally come into its own.
The top performing series was iQiyi's The Lost Tomb. By the time the final episode was released on August 17, it had received 2.4 billion views. The series also set records with its first episode receiving 30 million views within an hour after release and surpassing 100 million views in only 22 hours.
However, despite the show's success, it has also received its fair share of criticism. While book fans were excited to the book's two main male characters Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling reunite after 10 years of separation, the online drama was criticized for its cheap special effects and storylines that deviated heavily from the original material.
Added value
While most online shows are available to viewers for free, paid subscriptions are an important source of revenue for streaming sites. Some platforms offer unique content to paid VIP subscribers - mostly movies - while other platforms offer viewers a chance to watch an entire season of a new series before everyone else, who normally can only watch episodes according what is normally a weekly release schedule.
Despite harsh criticism, no one can deny that The Lost Tomb has been a great success. After the series debuted in June, iQiyi announced on July 3 that it would make the rest of the first season available to paying members. That night the streaming company saw 2.6 million new paying members join the platform.
That same night the series received more than 160 million views. This number was far beyond the company's expectations and nearly brought iQiyi servers down, according to Xu Ruijun, an iQiyi PR representative.
Currently iQiyi has more than 5 million paid members.
Like The Lost Tomb, most of the shows that are put behind a paywall, if only temporarily, tend to be shows that stand out from traditional TV shows in that they include criminal or violent elements or ties to the supernatural. They also seem to be aimed at a younger demographic, suiting the tastes of a generation that is strongly connected to the Internet and favors intelligent plots.
The power of the Internet
The Lost Tomb is not the summer's only winner. However, unlike The Lost Tomb, which had a huge built in fanbase, Wu Xin The Monster Killer and Evil Minds established a positive reputation with well-reviewed episodes and word of mouth. Not relying on any huge IP power nor led by well-known stars, the two shows gathered their own audience base gradually after the first several episodes hit the Internet.
After winning positive reviews online, Wu Xin The Monster Killer even began airing on stations in Taiwan, making lead actor Zhang Ruoyun a hot topic of discussion among Taiwan online communities.
This move by traditional TV stations is also another example of the growing power of online productions.
Another winner this summer was PAL Inn, a show adapted from the popular PAL game series. At the same time the online series aired on Youku, a PAL play incorporating holographic laser techniques was also being performed on the stage. The combination of these online and offline events allowed this light and humorous IP to provide fans with totally different experiences, while also demonstrating a flexible way of combining online shows with offline events.
The success of online series has also influenced the traditional film industry.
Da Peng, the leading man and mind behind summer movie hit Jian Bing Man: A Hero or Not, first got his start producing and starring in his online comedy series Diors Man.
Unlike The Lost Tomb, which was adapted from a previous IP, Diors Man is a show that was born online. Already in its fourth season, the show is incredibly popular in China. A fact that can be seen from Jian Bing Man's 1.1 billion yuan ($172 million) box office.
Keeping a cool head
While a number of online shows have had great success this summer, they are only a small percentage of the 107 series that debuted over the summer.
"I am afraid that online shows will see a trend where we have a few very high quantity productions but most of them are still of low quality," Li Shengli, a professor from the Community University of China who published a paper on online shows in June, told the Global Times.
While last year saw a huge amount of money spent on the purchase of IPs that could be adapted into online programming, Li hopes that the results of this summer will lead cooler heads to prevail.
"There were actually only a few winners. Companies will eventually discover that they still need to buy IPs carefully because not every IP is suitable to be adapted into an online show," Li said.
Li summarized some of the problems he has seen with online shows so far.
"Many online shows are too wordy and their scripts are not logical enough. Some of them get money from companies which end up turning them into advertisements for these companies' products. Though we all know online shows are still young and growing, producers still need to see traditional TV shows, both domestic and overseas, as their competitors. This is the only way they can help make this industry develop in a healthy direction," Li told the Global Times.