Why iQiyi Replaced Its View Count Feature With The Popularity Index

Chinese video streaming giant iQiyi hit the jackpot this year with Story Of Yanxi Palace's meteoric success measured through online views. However, iQiYi is also the first to drop its view count feature on all of its videos.  This was done back in September to combat "click farming" which is a method to bloat the view count of selected videos by constantly replaying the said videos.  

For example, I see a video of Actor A.  Since I'm a fan and want him to be more popular, I will watch his video over and over again to increase view count, giving the impression that he is gaining more popularity. This isn't an accurate system of measurement at all since it can be doctored to favor a certain series, actor or video.  

iQiyi has since adopted a new, more comprehensive evaluation system to gauge a video's popularity.  Liu Wenfeng, iQiyi's chief tech officer, called this new system the "heat index."  This system is based not on how many views a certain video has gotten, but instead, focuses on how many shares the video had, how many comments and likes it had.  Basically, the heat index utilizes the user's interactions and shares on social media to come up with a more accurate method of gauging popularity. It has been months since this has been implemented and a look at iQiYi's top dramas shows the current top three to be 1) Like A Flowing River heat index 7485 2) The Story of Minglan heat index 7464 3) Original Sin head index 6620 

Personally, I think this is a good thing as it's a bit harder to manipulate than the usual click farming.  It may also be a more reliable way of gauging the public's tastes in stories they want to see on TV, which actors are more bankable,  how long a series should ideally be, etc. It is by no means foolproof though, as some would most probably point out.  But it is a step forward, albeit a small one..  Ultimately, what I'm hoping for is being able to see better content.  Hopefully, this heat index plays a part in making that happen. 

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Like A Flowing River a Big Hit with Viewers, Writer Working on Season 2

Like A Flowing River 大江大河 is a drama based on a novel by Ah Nai that stars Wang Kai, Yang Shuo and Dong Zijian. It tells the story of how 3 men struggle to achieve their dreams in 1978 China. 

For the month of December, Like a Flowing River has ranked first in Chinese television. The drama's screenwriter Tang Yao says that he never expected the response to be this good.  Being a professional screenwriter, his experience taught him how to determine whether a drama will be good or bad.  Just 3 days after it aired, he knew that it was going to be a hit.  

Tang elaborated by saying that one of his goals was to draw in the younger audience by making the atmosphere from the drama's time period believable and relatable to different ages. 

In Like A Flowing River, Song Yunhui (Wang Kai) worked at a chemical plant after finishing university.  Tang Yao took this chance to visit a chemical plant to observe the daily routine of people there.  He admits he has always been interested in contemporary history and by going to a chemical plant to observe and better understand the life there, he can accurately depict it in the drama.  It is important to see the living conditions of the people in that kind of environment, he said and the biggest reward from the experience is seeing ordinary characters and their relationships to each other. For him, that is the central idea of the story. 

He also reveals that he is currently working on the script for the second season and that it's even more difficult because of the character growth. 

Like A Flowing River can simply be summarized as a story of change and awakening.  As such, the drama centers around the personal struggles of Song Yunhui (Wang Kai), Lei Dongbao (Yang Shuo) and Yang Xun (Dong Zijian) within the backdrop of constant change and upheaval.  

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