From Community Dreams to Core: iQiyi's Community Strategy and Case Studies

The article begins by describing the "community dream" of many products: providing tools and content to meet users' essential needs, hoping that a community of liked people and content will keep users returning, thereby improving frequency, retention, and activity.

It then presents the core formula for a community: Community Core = User + Content + Platform Mechanism . iQiyi identifies its core community users as those roughly from elementary school grades 2‑3 to about thirty years old, noting that younger children and elderly users often lack the typing ability or community intent.

Regarding content, iQiyi's community supports a rich set of carriers—comments, danmaku (bullet comments), topics, circles, posts—and accommodates images, video, text, mixed media, and audio.

The platform mechanism, deemed the hardest part, defines what content is allowed, encouraged, or prohibited.

The piece traces the evolution of danmaku on iQiyi: its early launch four years ago was met with surprise (20‑30% of users enabled it despite poor performance) and shock due to low‑quality content like repetitive numbers and laughter, driven by child accounts using adult accounts and a complex user base without pre‑posting qualifications.

Subsequent refinements included changing danmaku color from brand green to standard white text with black outline, adjusting density, speed, height, and default line limits (3‑4 lines versus B‑site's full‑screen). Distribution rules initially blocked spammy patterns like “1、1；2、2；3、3；呵呵” because iQiyi lacked B‑site’s upstream governance; later, short danmaku restrictions were relaxed.

Channel‑specific danmaku settings were introduced: movie channels keep danmaku off for immersion, TV‑drama channels default on with fewer lines, and variety channels keep danmaku fully open to match user preference for liveliness.

Anti‑spoiler measures combine user reporting and algorithmic detection, the latter relying on product rules (e.g., flagging a user who rewinds to earlier plot points to post danmaku) due to lack of dedicated spoiler feedback.

The article discusses restraint—avoiding features like “+1” quick reposts or shortcut danmaku phrases that merely inflate volume without improving input experience—and notes iQiyi’s solution via full‑screen voice danmaku submission.

Comparing danmaku and comments, the author argues both are indispensable: danmaku mirrors spontaneous real‑time reactions tied to playback moments, while comments resemble post‑view reflections seeking discussion and validation.

Product strategies focus more on consumption than production—optimizing how users see more danmaku/comments and improving viewing experience—rather than aggressively urging users to generate content, preserving a healthy creator‑consumer ratio.

Shifting to IP‑driven community interaction, iQiyi began integrating community capabilities with content IP for deeper operational programs.

Case Study 1 – Love Apartment 5 : (1) Danmaku meme festival ranking users by danmaku likes, rewarding top contributors and adding commercial actions; (2) Danmaku red‑packet rain timed to a spring‑night episode where a character gives birth, granting users red packets when they open danmaku; (3) Comment‑topic operations leveraging the show’s emotional finale to spark user discussions. Results showed meme festival generating over 20% of total site danmaku volume and red‑packet rain attracting 20‑30% of episode viewers.

Case Study 2 – Youth With You 2 : The show’s strong interactivity was linked to community features. Two key activities: (1) letting fans select trainees’ performance songs and post supportive comments that auto‑attach to the trainee’s topic, creating a topic chain; (2) a share page where fan‑to‑fan sharing vastly exceeded page visits. Subsequent fan‑support activities (e.g., earning chat‑room exposure by sending danmaku/comments with an idol’s name) increased chat‑room interaction ten‑fold and helped the show reach a 9000 heat score, gaining recognition from fan communities.

The article concludes by noting iQiyi’s ongoing use of innovations like the “child‑parent screen” interaction (star chat room alongside video playback) and its commitment to balancing community tools with core user needs.