iQiYI, WeTV (Tencent) or YOUKU?

Speaking from US perspective: i think iQIYI is the most expensive and does not have a lot of sales (but content is good and generally matches with Chinese releases). Tencent/weTV is cheaper and has more sales but you kind of get what you pay for.. more restricted “super VIP” content (like when episodes drop ahead of schedule) and sometimes dramas either don’t even air on this platform (even though it is released or produced by Tencent) or it is lagged by many months to Chinese counterpart. After my weTV expires in May, I don’t think I will renew. 

all of the above is caveated depending also on what you want to watch. Ex. I got weTV for Who Rules the World and iQIYI during Nov 11 Singles day promotion last year (was in time for Story of Kunning Palace). I don’t purchase Youku so I don’t have any comments on that.

hope the above was helpful!

Sorry I don’t use a VPN… are you trying to ask to access Chinese version of those products? If so, I don’t think a VPN will work because generally for these apps, there are two separate versions: local Chinese and overseas version (which are two different types of membership). I can confirm this for a fact that I recently went to China and my overseas version of iQIYI could not play A Journey to Love, whether I was in Singapore, China or Taiwan (despite the heavy advertising/commercials around it at the time). I ended up watching some episodes with my cousin who did have the Chinese VIP membership. But as soon as I returned to US, then it was able to play again.

 F4luv89:

Sorry I don’t use a VPN… are you trying to ask to access Chinese version of those products? If so, I don’t think a VPN will work because generally for these apps, there are two separate versions: local Chinese and overseas version (which are two different types of membership). I can confirm this for a fact that I recently went to China and my overseas version of iQIYI could not play A Journey to Love, whether I was in Singapore, China or Taiwan (despite the heavy advertising/commercials around it at the time). I ended up watching some episodes with my cousin who did have the Chinese VIP membership. But as soon as I returned to US, then it was able to play again.

You were right on target. I am going to China next month and wanted to get local version, but now I will just forgo this entire thing. Thank you so much! Oh, and if I can ask you one more thing: Will having VPN on my phone impair WeChat app? Someone told me it may not work with VPN..

 Kasia Krakowianka:

You were right on target. I am going to China next month and wanted to get local version, but now I will just forgo this entire thing. Thank you so much! Oh, and if I can ask you one more thing: Will having VPN on my phone impair WeChat app? Someone told me it may not work with VPN..

Ok have a good trip! I have used VPN in the past but I think you will be ok if you are just using WeChat to chat. As an example, in the US, I use WeChat frequently to communicate with my family (mainly in China) and find I do not have any trouble using it. When I was in China, it worked the same. The only issue is that I cannot use the wallet function because I do not have a Chinese identity card nor a local bank account (tested with my cousin).

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