iQIYI Releases Q1 2026 Earnings Report: Total Revenue of 6.23 Billion Yuan, Membership Revenue Grows Quarter-over-Quarter

On May 18, iQIYI (NASDAQ:IQ) released its unaudited first-quarter earnings report for the period ending March 31, 2026. In Q1, iQIYI's total revenue reached 6.23 billion yuan. Of this, membership service revenue was 4.2 billion yuan, a 2% increase quarter-over-quarter. Online advertising revenue was 1.24 billion yuan, content distribution revenue was 360 million yuan, and other revenue amounted to 430 million yuan.

Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI, stated: 'We are strengthening our core business while igniting new growth engines to build long-term development. In the first quarter, blockbuster series drove a quarter-over-quarter increase in membership revenue, and our effective playback market share led the industry. Meanwhile, overseas operations continued their strong growth momentum, with overseas membership revenue reaching an all-time high in Q1. Moving forward, we will leverage AI to reduce content production costs, accelerate production timelines, and continuously enrich our content ecosystem.'

Interim CFO of iQIYI, Zeng Ying, stated: 'In March this year, iQIYI announced plans to list on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and launched its first stock repurchase program, demonstrating the company’s commitment to creating value for shareholders.'

In Q1, iQIYI maintained its leading position in the core drama segment with consistent hits, holding the top market share in total effective playback for TV dramas according to Yunhe data. Both 'The Punishment 2' and 'Chasing Jade' surpassed 10,000 on iQIYI's Content Popularity Index (hereinafter referred to as 'Content Popularity Index'), while the self-produced historical drama 'What’s Proper' exceeded 9,000 on the index. The new self-produced variety show 'Please Note the Universe Blink' ranked first in cumulative main content effective playback among Yunhe variety shows for Q1. Premium animated works like 'The Great Ruler: Yearly Series 2' and 'What’s Proper Season 2' received positive reviews from audiences. The currently airing dark comedy crime drama 'Low IQ Crimes,' produced by iQIYI, gained widespread acclaim for its innovative blend of comedy and suspense, surpassing 10,000 on the Content Popularity Index on May 13, becoming iQIYI's third title to break the 10,000 mark this year.

In the first quarter, iQIYI made significant breakthroughs in exploring AI-powered content innovation. The 'Peter Pau · iQIYI AI Theater' launched 16 works covering genres such as science fiction, thriller, martial arts, and fantasy, all of which utilized iQIYI's professional-grade film and TV production platform, Nadao Pro, demonstrating AI's disruptive potential in professional content creation. Built on public large models and self-deployed large models, Nadao Pro integrates iQIYI's extensive experience in film industrialization and professional content production into a proprietary intelligent film-making agent. Combined with iQIYI’s IP library, digital asset repository, and creator community, it forms unique callable platform capabilities, providing creators with one-stop support across the entire chain from content production to operation and commercial cooperation.

During the quarter, iQIYI's total costs amounted to 5.23 billion yuan, representing a 3% decrease year-over-year. As the main component of costs, content expenses reached 3.74 billion yuan. Sales and administrative expenses, as well as R&D expenses for the quarter, were 820 million yuan and 400 million yuan, respectively.

In the first quarter, under the Non-GAAP (non-US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) standard, the operating loss was 150 million yuan. In terms of liquidity, net cash inflow generated from operating activities during the quarter was 190 million yuan, with free cash flow at 110 million yuan. As of March 31, 2026, iQIYI's cash balance (including cash, cash equivalents, short-term restricted funds, short-term investments, and long-term restricted funds within prepaid and other assets) totaled approximately 4 billion yuan. As of May 18, iQIYI had repurchased about 6.5 million American Depositary Shares at a total cost of 8 million US dollars. $iQIYI (IQ.US)$

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