iQIYI, Inc. (NASDAQ:IQ) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

At the script level, we rely on the professional teams and get them relative flexibility in screening the creative ideas, emphasize on polishing scripts, which build a solid foundation for the content creation process. At the production level, once we have the solid content creation foundation in place, we will follow by rigorous process before projects entering into the billing process. In addition, we will collaborate with highly professional, creative and reliable partners in the production process, select the most suitable actors based on our comprehensive forecasting mechanism. All of the above will safeguard the continuous creativeness and the high quality of our original production. The second factor was contributed by we have established a mature and highly efficient mechanism running through the entire process from developing an idea into original drama series to broadcasting and marketing it.

This mechanism enables highly efficient decision-making, strict quality controls and optimal content scheduling based on user preferences. And going forward, we will continue to seek an effective balance between embracing the diversity of content creativeness and efficiency in the production process. The third effect is that our intelligence reduction system is getting more sophisticated, which also helps in terms of increasing the possibilities of creating blockbuster content and improving efficiency.

Operator: The next question comes from Lei Zhang of Bank of America Securities.

Lei Zhang: My question is mainly regarding cash flow. I noted that we have a meaningful improvement in free cash flow and operating cash flow with a positive free cash flow this quarter. So can you give us more color on the driver behind it and how should we look at the trend going forward?

Yu Gong: So I think that to answer the second part of the question first, yes, we are very confident that this trend could continue in the future. And behind that, we do see if we can review the entire process of the turnaround, we will say that the starting point of the turnaround is a very disciplined expense management. It’s a very ROI-focused talent strategy, and we have continued to do that throughout the 3 quarters. But on top of that, in the third quarter, we do see some new catalysts coming in and these UCAs including a virtuous cycle, which starts with our investment in the content. Then our investment content generate more hits, more hit titles and give users more value proposition, which in turn attracted more members than creating possibility for generating derivative revenues.

Then on top of that we will cover into the profit then in turn, bring us more free cash flow. And we will certainly continue to do that, and we do believe this success is reputable, which support the trend — which supports the positive free cash flow trend. So that’s point number one. So on top of that, we also like to comment that because we have been very much focused on original content, as you guys have been asking questions around that. Now original content means IP value and IP value can generate derivative revenues with higher margin and this is consistent with our experience and observation of the media conglomerates globally. So this if not — this creates the whole new opportunities for the company in the future.

Operator: The next question comes from Daniel Chen of JPMorgan.