<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/3cc7fbe2-fa3f-4fe3-88ab-a1e05fb483e7.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="Image" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/3cc7fbe2-fa3f-4fe3-88ab-a1e05fb483e7.png"/>
Author | Huang Yu
After experiencing the pain of two consecutive years of revenue decline and its core business reaching a plateau, iQIYI—the only independently listed platform among the &#34;iQIYI, Tencent Video, Youku, and Mango TV&#34; quartet—has decided to knock on the doors of the capital market once again.
On March 30, iQIYI officially announced that the company has confidentially submitted a listing application to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX), seeking permission for its Class A ordinary shares to be listed and traded on the Main Board of the HKEX. This move aims to broaden its financing channels in the Hong Kong capital market and expand its investor base in the Asian region.
To soothe market sentiment and demonstrate confidence in its long-term business prospects, iQIYI approved a share buyback plan on the same day, effective immediately, which will repurchase up to $100 million of its shares over the next 18 months.
Concurrently, iQIYI announced that its self-developed intelligent agent product, &#34;Nadou Pro,&#34; specifically designed for professional long-form video generation, has officially entered commercial public testing.
Listing, buybacks, and new product launches—behind this &#34;combination punch&#34; lies iQIYI's sense of urgency in the current industry's zero-sum game.
Furthermore, internet analyst Zhang Shule pointed out to Wallstreet News that, unlike other long-form video platforms, iQIYI's current offline location-based strategy urgently needs the funding infusion of an IPO.
In 2018, iQIYI, which was not yet profitable but in desperate need of capital injection, joined the IPO frenzy in the US. However, its performance in the US stock market over the years has validated the prediction made by iQIYI founder and CEO Gong Yu back then: it is no easy task to make overseas capital markets truly understand the business model of Chinese local entertainment companies.
At that time, iQIYI suffered a break issue price on its first day of listing, with its closing price falling more than 10% below the $18 issue price, and its stock price continued to decline thereafter. As of the close on March 27, iQIYI's stock price was only about $1.2 per share, with a total market capitalization of only a little over $1 billion, representing a nearly 90% evaporation from its first day of listing.
iQIYI's desire for a secondary listing in Hong Kong has long been an open secret in the industry. After all, compared to Tencent Video and Youku, which are housed within large tech conglomerates, the independently listed iQIYI has weaker financial backing and must seek more external funding.
As early as August 2020, Bloomberg reported that iQIYI was discussing a potential secondary listing in Hong Kong with Credit Suisse.
At the time, the market generally believed that the return of Chinese concept stocks to Hong Kong or the mainland's A-share market was an inevitable trend. According to Wallstreet News statistics, around 2020, internet companies such as Alibaba, JD.com, NetEase, Baidu, Bilibili, and Kuaishou flocked to list in Hong Kong.
Although iQIYI's return plan did not materialize that year, news of its potential Hong Kong listing has surfaced frequently since then.
In 2023, when rumors resurfaced, Gong Yu told the media that the company was conducting a feasibility study on the technical details of a listing, but no specific timetable had been set. At the same time, he expressed the company's eagerness to attract new investors to provide fresh capital for increased investment in original content and AI utilization.
That year, Gong Yu's confidence stemmed from the improvement in iQIYI's financial indicators.
By relying on cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and hit shows like A Lifelong Journey, Love Between Fairy and Devil, New Life Begins, and Wild Bloom, iQIYI reached an inflection point in 2022, achieving full-year operating profitability for the first time. That year, iQIYI's losses also narrowed significantly, with the net loss attributable to the parent company decreasing from 6.17 billion yuan in 2021 to 136 million yuan.
Gong Yu even called 2022 iQIYI's &#34;year of breakthrough&#34; and &#34;year of miracles.&#34;
By 2023, The Knockout brought massive growth to iQIYI again, with core indicators such as total revenue, operating profit, net profit, and cash flow all hitting historical highs.
However, the good times did not last. Under the impact of the film and television winter and short dramas, iQIYI has had a tough time over the past two years, with revenue declining for two consecutive years—falling 7% year-on-year in 2025.
Dragged down by the revenue decline, although iQIYI has achieved Non-GAAP operating profit for four consecutive years, this profit amount shrank by 70% year-on-year in 2025, and the net profit attributable to iQIYI turned from profit to loss.
Five years ago, the long-form video industry was at the tail end of &#34;burning money&#34; for scale, with various players fighting for absolute dominance in the industry.
However, times have changed. Now that iQIYI has finally taken a substantive step toward filing for a Hong Kong listing, the underlying logic has changed profoundly: from &#34;seeking development&#34; and &#34;grabbing territory&#34; back then to &#34;seeking a breakthrough&#34; under pressure on its core business today.
Facing the dual pressure of a ceiling on its core business and the need for profitability, iQIYI must pitch a new growth story to the capital market, and offline theme parks have become one of its most important chips at this stage.
It is reported that the first iQIYI Park opened in Yangzhou on February 8 this year. Compared to traditional theme parks, it aims to provide users with an immersive experience by combining IPs with technologies like AI and XR. According to iQIYI's plan, two more iQIYI Parks are expected to open in Kaifeng and Beijing within the year, marking the move into scaled operations for the theme park business.
Zhang Shule believes that even with high-quality film and television IPs, their direct returns (box office, pre-roll ads, etc.) often only break even or make a small profit. Learning from Disney and Universal by turning IPs into offline experiences and merchandise, creating a powerful derivative chain to achieve an ideal revenue ratio of 3:7 between content and merchandise, has always been a fervent ultimate fantasy for domestic film and television companies.
Although iQIYI claims to operate its parks using a light-asset model—primarily responsible for IP content output, technical support, and operations management—building a complete IP ecosystem loop remains a long-distance race that severely tests capital and endurance.
Beyond this story of extending to offline operations, iQIYI's other growth engine is anchored in frontier AI technology and overseas market expansion.
Whether it is building an offline immersive entertainment map, fully embracing large AI models, or expanding overseas, all require ample capital as a foundation. This makes listing in Hong Kong a highly practical and inevitable choice for iQIYI.
This is not only a self-rescue move by iQIYI to combat growth anxiety but also a brave attempt by the Chinese long-form video industry to explore the &#34;Oriental Disney&#34; model. The prospects are indeed promising, but the road ahead remains long, and the market is waiting for iQIYI to provide a more convincing answer.

- iQIYI plans to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after two years of declining revenue and peak core business performance, aiming to expand its financing channels and investor base in Asia.  
- The company also approved a share buyback program of up to $100 million to reassure investors and demonstrate confidence in its long-term business outlook.  
- Additionally, iQIYI aims to commercialize its new AI product, highlighting its urgent need to attract new funds amidst increasing competitive pressures in the video streaming industry.

iQIYI Files for Hong Kong Listing to Re-enter Capital Market: The Long-form Video Giant's Anxiety and Self-Rescue