China's popular video site turns off view counts over content concerns

A logo of online video sharing site iQiYi [IC]

One of China's largest video platforms, iQiyi, has just announced that it's removing all view counts on its website, and instead would be adopting artificial intelligence technology to help recommend videos.

According to the company, the move is to shift towards being more content-oriented, though others speculate it's a way to counter fake clicks, which can skew what's considered popular on the site.

The company said in its announcement that "making view counts the sole criterion" to assess content has adverse influences on a series of professions. It "has distorted the original purposes" of creation and publicity, and the race for views has led to illegal acts.

The announcement says such unhealthy competition makes production companies and advertisers unable to make sound judgment.

"We think view counts is not the best standard to assess a video's quality or popularity," iQiyi's Chief Content Officer, Wang Xiaohui, said to local media, adding there have been cases where good content was flooded out public sight because of "the lack of an objective and fair assessment system."