By 2014, the number of paid users reached 9.45 million, with a growth rate exceeding tenfold.
However, compared to the advertising revenue sector in the video industry, it still amounted to just a drop in the bucket.
In 2015, the paid market reached a turning point, entering an explosive growth period like a geyser.
The launch of "The Lost Tomb" was the most iconic event of that year.
It adopted the new release model of "members watch the whole series at once," initiating a new attempt in the drama subscription field of domestic video websites and revealing the vast potential contained within the paid market.
Once the news of watching the whole series at once was released, the platform immediately gained over a 100% increase in new weekly members.
On the launch day, within 5 minutes, the instantaneous play requests reached 1.6 billion times, the influx of paid users crashed iQIYI's servers.
