iQiyi Inc. (IQ.US) released its fourth quarter and full-year financial results for 2025 on February 26. Data shows the company achieved a Non-GAAP operating profit of 640 million yuan for the fiscal year, marking four consecutive years of operating profitability. During the earnings conference call, iQiyi's founder and CEO, Gong Yu, provided an operational update on the company's first theme park in Yangzhou since its opening: visitor numbers have consistently increased since the park opened on February 8, with the Spring Festival holiday period bringing the first significant peak in attendance, and overall performance meeting expectations. Additionally, sales of IP-based consumer products within the park have been robust, with the average transaction value for merchandise exceeding 100 yuan. Gong Yu also revealed that two additional iQiyi theme parks, located in Kaifeng and Beijing, are expected to open successively within the year. The parks business is projected to enter a phase of scaled operations formally in 2026.

As iQiyi's first global offline theme park, the Yangzhou location is designed to be "fun for all ages," offering experiences suitable for everyone from young children aged four or five to seniors in their sixties and seventies. Park revenue is primarily generated from ticket sales and secondary consumer spending. Unlike traditional large-scale outdoor theme parks, iQiyi's parks operate on a light-asset model, leveraging advanced technologies like AI and XR to deeply develop its film and TV IPs, creating a more interactive and immersive offline entertainment experience for visitors. The park features multiple popular IPs, including "The Knockout," "Strange Tales of the Tang Dynasty," "Mysterious Lotus Casebook," and "A Chinese Odyssey." Core experience areas encompass seven major segments, including immersive stage performances, multi-sensory theaters, interactive light and shadow spaces, and impromptu character interactions, alongside numerous photo opportunities based on famous scenes from films and series.

Based on ratings from platforms such as Douyin, Ctrip, Meituan, and Dianping, the Yangzhou iQiyi theme park has consistently scored above 4.8 out of 5, indicating strong user reception and a steadily rising reputation. iQiyi's experience business, which comprises the theme parks and IP consumer products, represents an effective expansion of the company's "one fish, multiple ways to eat" business model, centered around its core IP assets. With Yangzhou's peak tourism seasons in March and April, plus holidays like the May Day break, the summer months of July-August, and the National Day holiday, Gong Yu estimates potential for the park's peak daily revenue to grow by one to two times as operational efficiency improves and targeted marketing efforts for core audiences are optimized.

Regarding the IP consumer products business, iQiyi completed the formation of its core self-operated team in 2025, shifting the business model from a focus solely on licensing to a balanced emphasis on "self-operation + licensing." Gong Yu indicated that in 2026, the company plans to self-operate more product categories for merchandise, anticipating at least a 100% increase in revenue from this segment. Data shows that during the Spring Festival holiday, top-selling items at the Yangzhou park included the "Ten Hardworking Days" luggage tag from Houdoumen, the "Mysterious Lotus Casebook" Yangzhou Delicacies acrylic refrigerator magnet, the "Dreaming in a Book" themed collector's card series, and the "Mysterious Lotus Casebook" Endless Summer series cotton doll blind boxes.

From a global perspective, offline experience businesses are becoming a significant growth driver for major entertainment conglomerates. According to the "Amusement Parks Market Report 2026" by Research and Markets, the global theme park market size is projected to reach $100.8 billion (approximately 730 billion yuan) in 2026, representing a year-on-year increase of 3.4%. Disney's fiscal first-quarter 2026 results revealed that its Experiences segment (including theme parks and cruise lines) reported quarterly revenue exceeding $10 billion for the first time, with an operating profit of $3.31 billion, accounting for 72% of the company's total operating profit. This underscores the substantial commercial potential of the "IP + experience" model.

The official opening of the Yangzhou iQiyi theme park marks a milestone moment for iQiyi's experience business. Leveraging its rich reservoir of IP resources, iQiyi is not only strengthening its content moat but also targeting the long-term value of its IPs, gradually building a commercial loop that extends from content creation to offline experiences and secondary consumption. As the parks business progresses steadily in 2026, the experience segment is poised to become a new growth engine for iQiyi, charting a new course for the long-form video industry in seeking commercial growth opportunities in the offline space.