Fuck AI

That being said, this is the name the company does business under. It's how it's registered. It's how it's referred to in the press. So what does that have to do with "IQiyi"? Well, the Pinyin for 爱奇艺 is "àiqíyì".

The very smart will already start seeing where the English branding comes from. Since the guy I originally responded to isn't such, I'll spell it out. The final four letters of the latinized name "Àiqíyì" are "Qiyi". See it? Get it?

And here's the fun part. The original company name was just 奇艺 or "qíyì". They rebranded as 爱奇艺 in 2011. Why? Because "qíyì" is a near-homophone for things like "uprising" and that was not the image they wanted to project of their company.

So what does 爱奇艺 mean? Well, let's start with 奇艺:

• 奇: "wonderful" or "rare"
• 艺: "arts" or "skill"

So the original company name was basically "Wonderful Arts". Seems like a sensible name for a company that, you know, publishes visual arts. With the rebranding we add:

• 爱: "love"

So the rebranding of the company now has it meaning, effectively "(The) Love (of) Wonderful Arts". This is just as on-point for a company that publishes visual arts, no?

So why is it IQiyi instead if Aiqiyi in the English branding? Well that's because 爱 is pronounced very similarly to the English "I" (or "eye"). So saying it out loud is still the company name (I Qiyi vs. Aiqiyi), but allows them to play around with the branding to let the I represent individualism and interaction and innovation (three terms among many that IQiyi has used in their marketing).

All while staying true to their actual company name: (The) Love (of) Wonderful Arts.

But hey, that's just weird, right? It's not even remotely sensible because it isn't in English.