iQIYI Launches its "SWEET ON Theater" Romantic Drama Collection

BEIJING,May 24,2021 -- iQIYI Inc. (NASDAQ: IQ) ("iQIYI" or the "Company"),an innovative market-leading online entertainment service in China,is pleased to announce that it has released the first series of its "SWEET ONTheater",a new collection of romantic dramas. The first series,titled Moonlight,has already been released on iQIYI's streaming platform. "SWEETON Theater" will feature seven dramas that focus on different aspects relating to young users' expectations and experiences with love: Day of Becoming You,Make a Wish,Love under the Full Moon,Sweet Teeth,First Love Again,Moonlight,and Forever and Ever. Through the "SWEETONTheater",iQIYI strives to capture and echo the values and emotions that young people today have for romance.

iQIYI Launches its “SWEET ON Theater” Romantic Drama Collection

In a departure from typical romance dramas,the "SWEETON" series combines love with the workplace,fantasy,suspense and other innovative elements to produce more diverse stories and richer character pairings.

Breaking the tendency towards homogenization among sweet love dramas,the new themes will deliver a fresh,exciting experience to aesthetically fatigued audiences. The seven dramas feature more than 20 young up-and-coming actors,such as BAI Lu,BI Wenjun,CHEN Haoyu,DING Yuxi,GE Xinyi,JU Jingyi,LIANG Jie,REN Jialun,REN Youlun,SHI Boyu,THE9's YU Shuxin,WU Xuanyi,ZHANG Xinchengand ZHENG Yecheng. The heartwarming stories will inspire users' yearning for love and offer an outlet for their emotions.

The "SWEETON" series offers users a rich range of romance-focused content that allows each user to find an aspect of romance that they can resonate with. In the new dramas to be released,iQIYI captures the emotional needs and challenges that young people face today. The decision to feature young up-and-coming actors was made specifically so that the stories presented in the series are more relatable to iQIYI's young target audience.

At the recent 2021 iQIYI World Conference,WANG Xiaohui,President of Professional Content Business Group (PCG) and Chief Content Officer of iQIYI,noted that drama series have entered a new development stage,with short-running dramas featuring constant innovation in both style and genre. Globally,short-running dramas are becoming increasingly appealing to audiences,Wang said.

Following the Company's highly successful "LIGHTONTheater",which was dedicated to suspense and thriller series,and with the upcoming launches of "SWEETON" and comedy collection "LAUGHERON",iQIYI's short drama series will run the gamut of human emotion,covering romance,suspense,comedy,and more. Through these collections,iQIYI is stepping up its themed operation model for short drama series,making it a major form in the streaming industry.

As a pioneer in the space,the Company has received both critical and public acclaim for its innovative curated content collections. In the age of mass-decentralized content distribution,iQIYI is working to meet the diversified needs of users through this new model,enhancing their user experience while attracting the fans in the niche segments. The "SWEET ONTheater" series will continue to build upon the Company's curated collection model,delivering multi-faceted romance scenarios and diverse,high-quality content users can relate to and be inspired by.