Representatives from Chinese video-streaming giants meet journalists on Oct 23, 2019. From left: Li Jie, senior vice-president of Alibaba Pictures and chief executive officer of its ticketing arm Taopiaopiao; Yang Xianghua, senior vice-president of iQiyi; Chang Bin, vice-president of Tencent Penguin Pictures. [Photo by Li Ping/chinadaily.com.cn]

Turning from quantity to quality

The idea of online movies in China was born in 2014, for films screened on the internet instead of cinemas.

Broadcasted on China's Netflix-like service iQiyi, Tencent Video and Alibaba's Youku, such movies became popular among young people in a short time span, especially those in third- and fourth-tier cities where access to theaters is not as easily won as in big cities.

Because of the large potential market, relative ease of distribution and short production cycle, both professional and amateur filmmakers vied with one another to tap into the new industry since its advent five years ago.

Statistics show the number of online movies grew from 450 in 2014 to nearly 1,900 in 2017, and the market size rose from 2014's 100 million yuan ($14 million) to 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in 2017.