Chinese online video platform iQiyi said its mobile app has topped the free app popularity chart and claimed the number two spot among all apps in the China Apple App store.
iQiyi attributed its success in the app rankings to the popularity of its original content. Earlier this month, it released the full series of its self-produced TV show The Lost Tomb to its paid subscribers.
The company said the number of user clicks on The Lost Tomb episodes, which had been viewed over one billion times, had surpassed 160 million within five minutes following the release of the action and adventure series.
“Providing access to premium online TV content to paid subscribers is a promising new frontier in China’s online video industry,” said Yu Gong, founder and CEO of iQiyi.
“The success of The Lost Tomb demonstrates the huge potential of iQiyi’s subscription service to drive enormous traffic to our platform by providing high quality content and excellent user experience,” he said.
Through a recent collaboration with Paramount, iQiyi, which counts five million paid streaming subscribers as of June this year, will also have access to Paramount’s library of over 800 movie titles.