"Users who pay for our services remain a very small portion of the total user base," Gao Jin, editor-in-chief of iQiyi.com, a domestic Chinese video site invested in by Baidu Inc, also told the Global Times, without disclosing the exact figures.
Gao said that about 95 percent of the website's revenue is still driven by advertisements. Paying for content will become popular in the future, Gao noted, but "it won't be any time soon."
Li Nan, a public relations manager at pptv.com, another Chinese video site, told the Global Times that only a small percentage of the website's users have signed up to be VIP members who pay to get extra services.
In this respect, China's online video industry lags far behind markets such as the US, where paying for online content is well established.
"The year 2012 will be the final nail in the coffin of the old idea that consumers won't accept premium content distribution over the Internet," Dan Cryan, a senior analyst for broadband and digital media at US-based market research firm IHS iSuppli said in a research note earlier this year.
US consumers are even expected to spend more on online video content in 2012 than for physical video formats, "marking the first year that legal, Internet-delivered movies will outstrip those of DVDs and Blu-ray discs combined," said the research note.
Feedback
RSS
