Baidu Receives Offer To Buy Online Video Platform iQiyi

The Chinese internet giant Baidu has received an offer to buy its online video platform iQiyi. Baidu owns 80.5% of iQiyi, and has allegedly been offered 2.8 billion US dollars to sell its share of the video business. It's unclear whether Baidu will accept the offer, but its latest financial report revealed that iQiyi was responsible for content costs rising by 125% and bandwidth expenditure rising by 81% compared to last year, making selling up a financially appealing option for Baidu. The Chinese video market is extremely lucrative, with Youku Tudou, iQiyi and Tmall Box Office being the top 3 market leaders in the country. YouTube is banned in China, and Netflix has so far held back from entering the Chinese market. 
X