iQiyi adds to roster of global tech and media companies moving to Singapore

China’s streaming service provider iQiyi has set up an international headquarters in Singapore, with plans to hire over 200 new staff across a range of functions. 

The company began its global expansion in June 2019 with the launch of its first global streaming app. It also started establishing local teams and partnerships using a SaaS model in its business expansion. 

“Despite the current global climate in 2020, we see an opportunity for iQiyi to grow at an even faster rate in the coming year. We’ve been building and expanding our international team, not just in Singapore, but in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand as well,” said Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi International at the company’s opening ceremony in December.  

“We kickstarted our international expansion and enlarged our content catalogue with investments in more markets. We’ve chosen Singapore to anchor our international operations as Singapore’s connectivity and reputation as a prime talent hub makes it the ideal gateway to ramp up our global operations,” said Kuek Yu-Chuang, Vice President for International Business at iQiyi. 

Like iQiyi, Alibaba has already made Singapore its regional headquarters. The tech giant is the second-largest shareholder of logistics company Singapore Post and sister company Ant Financial. The Ant group and Grab were amongst four organisations or consortiums awarded a digital banking licence from Singapore’s central bank. 

Earlier this year, Tencent disclosed that it will pick Singapore as its beachhead for Asia, joining rivals Alibaba and ByteDance in building their presence in the Southeast Asia region 

ByteDance, the parent company of Tik Tok, plans to use Singapore as a launchpad to grow into the region.  

To date, Tik Tok already has over 400 workers employed in tech, sales and marketing. Tik Tok competitor Bigo Live also said it would move all its servers to Singapore. 

In February 2020, Twitter announced that an engineering centre in the Asia Pacific will be based in Singapore, creating 65 new positions to hire over the next few years.  

Zoom also announced it would house a data centre in Singapore, its first operations to be set up in Southeast Asia.