iQiyi’s net profit sunk 81% in 2025, reports Caixin. This comes as the Chinese video-streaming company grappled with a shortage of blockbuster titles and intensifying competition from short-form video platforms.

The Nasdaq-listed firm reported a 7% decline in full-year revenue to RMB 27.3 billion ($4 billion).  All major revenue streams contracted in 2025. Membership services, the company’s largest source of revenue, fell 5%, while advertising revenue dropped 9%.

The downturn was driven largely by an underwhelming content lineup that failed to replicate earlier successes. iQiyi placed four titles among the top 10 new dramas by effective playback volume in 2025—more than any rival platform—but failed to secure a top-three position, according to consultancy Yunhe Data. Competitors Youku and Tencent Video swept the top three spots.

Richard Liu, founder of China’s retail giant JD.com, has launched a nautical brand to build out the country’s yacht industry, reports the South China Morning Post. The brand aims to ride a wave of policy support to tap a fast-growing domestic market and make the vessels–traditionally associated with affluence and luxury–accessible to “everyday consumers”.

Liu’s brand, Sea Expandary, signed a strategic framework agreement on Tuesday with the coastal cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai in Guangdong, China’s southern powerhouse province, for a high-end yacht industrial base with planned investment of about RMB 5 billion ($723 million), according to social media posts by the city governments.

The venture would cover research and development, manufacturing, sales and after-sales services, including the base in Zhuhai and a headquarters in the provincial tech hub of Shenzhen. Liu said the venture was a personal investment, and the brand would be managed by its own CEO while he continues to focus on JD.com, the country’s largest retailer.

China’s consumer spending rose 8.6% year-on-year in the first four days of this year’s Chinese New Year holiday, reports Caixin. This was backed by an extended holiday and fresh government stimulus that lifted outlays on services and technology.

The increase offers a sign of resilience as policymakers roll out renewed support measures, including a consumer incentive campaign and the issuance of long-term treasury bonds aimed at bolstering domestic demand. Major regional hubs reported solid growth. Shanghai recorded RMB 60.35 billion in total online and offline consumption from February 15-22, up 12.8% from a year earlier. Hubei province posted an 11.6% rise in retail and catering sales to RMB 30.55 billion during the first seven days of the break, while key pedestrian streets saw a surge in both foot traffic and turnover.

The recovery was supported by the “Happy Shopping for New Year” campaign launched by the Ministry of Commerce and nine other government departments. The program earmarked RMB 2.05 billion for vouchers and subsidies, while a pilot invoice lottery in 50 cities offered a total prize pool exceeding RMB 1 billion. In addition, the issuance of RMB 62.5 billion in ultra-long special sovereign bonds late last year to support consumer goods trade-ins helped drive demand for green and smart products during the holiday.

This year’s Chinese New Year holiday period saw both an 8.2% increase in domestic travel, and an 8.6% increase in consumer spending compared to the year before, according to official figures. The holiday for this year was increased from eight to nine days, and a range of stimulus policies were implemented by the Ministry of Commerce to boost spending.

Boosting consumption has been earmarked as a key priority in Beijing’s current Five-Year Plan, and the New Year has started with signs of what may be positive momentum. That said, subsidies are only a short-term solution which runs the risk of front-loading spending. As we have seen in the past, the subsequent removal of subsidies will reduce drastically the amount of purchases made.  

The longer holiday perhaps encouraged more people to travel, but the overall impression is that people traveling for whatever reason are spending much less than they used to. But the holiday period is over now, and China is getting back to work and to reality. It’s going to be a tough year.

ByteDance’s conversational AI app Doubao seized a prime marketing position during China’s Spring Festival Gala, reports Caixin. The app logged 1.9 billion interactions as the company leveraged the nation’s most-watched television broadcast to accelerate mass adoption.

Although ByteDance’s cloud-computing arm, Volcano Engine, served as the official AI cloud partner for the 2026 gala, the consumer-facing Doubao app eclipsed it in visibility through repeated on-screen placements and prominent content integration.

The aggressive promotional push highlights intensifying competition among Chinese technology giants to weave generative AI into everyday consumer life. ByteDance is positioning its flagship AI agent against rival offerings from Tencent and Alibaba in a contest for market leadership.