腾讯视频 (Tencent Video)
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
腾讯视频 (Tencent Video) is a Chinese video service run by Tencent. By design it is not a "YouTube for everyone" but a hybrid of a streaming cinema and a platform for creators: the storefront is built on series, films, shows, anime, documentaries and sport, while user videos live alongside them in separate sections. The platform words the title of its home page as "China's leading online video platform" — that is its claim about itself, not the result of any measurement.
There are two ways in. The first is the 腾讯视频创作平台 (Tencent Video Creator Platform), its own creator dashboard. The second is 腾讯内容开放平台 (Tencent Content Open Platform, also known as 企鹅号, "Penguin Account"), the shared Tencent dashboard that distributes a single piece of content across several of the company's services at once. What separates this from Western platforms is not the feature set but admission: both systems require PRC documents.
Who's here
Tencent does not disclose audience figures for the video service specifically. In its annual report for 2025 the company writes that Tencent Video "maintained its leading position in China's long-form video market with year-on-year growth in subscriber numbers" — an assessment without a single figure. The report for the first quarter of 2026 gives a "paid subscriptions to value-added services" metric of 266 million, but it covers all of Tencent's services and cannot be attributed to this platform.
An indirect sense of scale comes from the storefront of the adjacent platform: 企鹅号 promises creators "100 billion impressions, a reach of 1 billion people" and distribution across the QQ browser, Tencent News, Tencent Video, 微视 (Weishi), the sports service, QQ Space and the "Channels" section in WeChat. That is the platform's marketing claim, not an independent measurement. The interface language is Chinese (zh-CN); there are no versions in other languages on the pages we checked.
Getting started
Getting into the creator platform is described in the onboarding guide: you register through a QQ or WeChat account (the two are not linked to each other), then choose a category and file an application, with review taking up to 3 working days. The categories are not equal: for 自媒体 (zimeiti, independent author blogs) it is enough to link a phone number, whereas web films, series, documentaries, shows, children's content, animation, vertical mini-series, games and paid knowledge are open to organizations only. Assessing a project takes up to 10 working days, and the contract is signed offline: you download the PDF, stamp it with your company seal and post it to Tencent.
The second door, 企鹅号, is stricter about documents. Registration is possible only through QQ or WeChat, one account for each. The entity type is chosen once and for all: an individual (both sides of a PRC identity card are required), a media outlet, a company, a government body or another organization. The same place states the key restriction for a foreign author outright: "registration of overseas accounts is not supported for now; only citizens and organizations of mainland China can join". Minors may register, but with a guardian's undertaking and copies of the guardian's documents.
What you can publish
The technical requirements are described in most detail on the 企鹅号 side. File size: up to 3 GB through the browser; videos of 3 to 16 GB are best uploaded in parts, and resuming an upload is supported. A great many formats are accepted — mp4, flv, f4v, webm, m4v, mov, 3gp, rm, rmvb, wmv, avi, mpg, ts, mkv, vob and others. The cover image: horizontal from 640×360, vertical from 720×1280, up to 5 MB, in JPG, JPEG or PNG. The title: no more than three meaningful parts, ideally 5–64 characters, with no typos, no traditional characters and no advertising inserts. Moderation of a video, by the platform's own statement, fits within 2 hours.
The list of what is forbidden is long and dictated by Chinese law. The rules for publishing video prohibit material that violates constitutional principles, threatens national security, incites ethnic hatred, or promotes "historical nihilism", pornography, gambling and violence; separate clauses cover "clickbait" and any marketing payload — QR codes, phone numbers, personal WeChat and QQ accounts, links to shops and cloud drives.
How to grow
The platform publishes no description of its recommendation algorithm. It does, however, set out in detail what affects the money, and therefore the priority given to a video. The settlement rules say the rate depends on view count, the quality and originality of the video, watch duration, playback channel, interactions and update frequency; there is no fixed price per view. Traffic from subscribers earns an additional "private" subsidy, and material in directions the platform recommends gets three days of support. Update discipline is not a wish but a condition: for albums in the subscription revenue programme, abandoning a release schedule or breaking its order is prohibited.
Path to monetization
Settlement rights are unlocked as the account grows, and all accruals are counted from the date the right is granted, not retroactively; government bodies, schools, public organizations and marketing accounts with Tencent Video rights are not admitted to the traffic programme.
The traffic programme (流量分成). Videos available without a subscription take part. The admission threshold is an account credit rating of at least 60 points; views shorter than 5 seconds for short videos and shorter than 30 seconds for a video in an album do not count. During a temporary block accruals freeze; with a permanent one everything accumulated is lost. The adjacent right, attaching short videos to the full version (关联正片), requires at least 100 subscribers.
The subscription revenue programme (会员分账). The most interesting part for anyone making series. Income = (contribution from views + contribution from subscriptions taken out) × (base share + premium), where the base share is 40%, the premium for an exclusive or first-online premiere is 60% and for a non-exclusive one 10%; to withdraw money an album must contain at least 5 paid episodes, and the default term of the programme is one year from the release date.
Donations on livestreams. The platform withholds 37% of the value of gifts as a service fee, covering tax, payment and channel costs.
Withdrawing money works differently for individuals and organizations. The threshold is 100 yuan for an individual and 1,000 yuan for a company; individuals file a request every Tuesday, organizations between the 2nd and 4th of the month; individuals are paid within 10 working days, organizations within 45 working days after a correct invoice and a sealed statement of work have been received. Tencent withholds the taxes for an individual itself.
On 企鹅号 the logic is similar but the timings are its own: income is updated on a T+1 basis by 19:00 and credited by 16:00 on T+2, withdrawal is open from the 2nd to the 4th of the month and no more than once a month; individuals are paid within 10 working days, companies within 15, and the thresholds are the same 100 and 1,000 yuan. Daily withdrawal is granted when five conditions are met at once: completed identity verification, entity type "individual", status "active", at least one publication in 30 days and a credit rating of at least 85 points.
Tools and automation
The platform's own creator dashboard provides statistics and uploading with resumption of an interrupted transfer, but programmatic access is effectively closed. The developer centre of 腾讯内容开放平台 describes two integration schemes — one for content sites syncing material into 企鹅号, and one for third-party service platforms acting on behalf of authors — and immediately states: "the function is suspended for maintenance, registration is temporarily not supported".
Analytics on 企鹅号 include summary and per-article data across all distribution channels, an audience profile by age, gender and education, and subscriber statistics, and only "valid traffic" is counted: inflated views and instant closures of a video are filtered out, and query depth is limited to data from 1 January 2020 onwards.
Limits and rules
The main penalty mechanism on 企鹅号 is the credit rating. A new account has 100 points; points are deducted for violations, and at zero the account is blocked, and a lowered rating closes off advanced rights such as the original authorship label. Recovery is slow: after a seven-day probation period without violations, 1 point comes back per day; a new violation resets the count, and points written off down to zero are not restored. For politically sensitive material, pornography, impersonating a government body or a media outlet, and mass account registration, 100 points are deducted at once and the account is blocked.
The legal framing is set out in the site footer: the platform operates under online audiovisual broadcasting licence No. 1904073 and value-added telecommunications services licence 粤B2-20090059. The creator agreement requires legal capacity under PRC law, and for people under 18 the involvement of a legal representative.
Who it's for
The platform suits those who work inside China: companies with a Chinese legal entity, producers of series and mini-series, Chinese-language authors holding a PRC identity card. The subscription revenue programme is a rare case where the settlement rules are published as a formula.
The platform does not suit a foreign author who wants to reach a Chinese audience under their own steam: 企鹅号 explicitly does not accept foreign documents, on the creator platform every category apart from author blogs is open to organizations only, and settlements require a stamped Chinese invoice and paperwork sent by post. There is one practical route — through a local partner or your own legal entity in the PRC.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as follows: «腾讯视频官方网站，腾讯视频提供最新热门电视剧、电影、综艺、动漫、纪录片等高清正版视频在线观看。海量独家内容持续更新，涵盖国产剧、美剧、韩剧、院线大片、热门综艺，支持超清流畅播放，尽在腾讯视频，当前热播《半熟恋人5》，支持高清在线观看。»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform describes itself as follows: «腾讯视频官方网站，腾讯视频提供最新热门电视剧、电影、综艺、动漫、纪录片等高清正版视频在线观看…»
source, checked 2026-07-28
the title of the home page: «腾讯视频-中国领先的在线视频媒体平台» («China's leading online video platform»)
The platform's claim about itself, not the result of an independent measurement
source, checked 2026-07-28
Sources diverge: the tail of the home page description changes: facts.tsv records «当前热播《半熟恋人5》», while at our check it was «当前热播《这一秒过火》»
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
there are no separate figures for Tencent Video in the report for the first quarter of 2026: it gives a «paid subscriptions to value-added services» metric of 266 million across all of the company's services
The metric cannot be attributed to the video service; the report PDF was read in full
source, checked 2026-07-28
in its annual report for 2025 the company writes that Tencent Video «maintained its leading position in China's long-form video market with year-on-year growth in subscriber numbers»
The company's own assessment, without a figure and without reference to a measurer
source, checked 2026-07-28
Getting started
entry to 腾讯视频创作平台 is through a QQ or WeChat account (the two are not linked to each other); an application is usually reviewed within 3 working days
The mp.v.qq.com dashboard is served by a script and requires a login; the data is taken from the public guide
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
for 自媒体 it is enough to link a phone number; web films, series, documentaries, shows, children's content, animation, vertical mini-series, games and paid knowledge are open to organizations only
Assessing a project takes up to 10 working days; the contract is signed offline, stamped with a seal and sent by post
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform states: «暂不支持海外账号入驻，仅支持大陆地区公民、组织机构团体注册入驻» — registration of overseas accounts is not supported
Applies to 腾讯内容开放平台 (企鹅号); the key restriction for non-residents of the PRC
source, checked 2026-07-28
five entity types on 企鹅号: individual (both sides of a PRC identity card), media outlet, company, government body, other organization; all except individuals need a power of attorney for the operator
The entity type is chosen once; changing it takes a separate application
source, checked 2026-07-28
registration on 企鹅号 is only through QQ or WeChat, one account for each
Registration by phone and email is closed; older accounts of that kind are being brought through verification
source, checked 2026-07-28
What you can publish
accepted formats are mp4, flv, f4v, webm, m4v, mov, 3gp, 3g2, rm, rmvb, wmv, avi, asf, mpg, mpeg, mpe, ts, mkv, vob, swf and others; audio mp3, aac, ac3, wav, m4a, ogg
The list is published in the 企鹅号 help pages
source, checked 2026-07-28
cover image: horizontal from 640×360, vertical from 720×1280, up to 5 MB, formats JPG, JPEG, PNG
The platform promises more impressions for covers without QR codes and black bars
source, checked 2026-07-28
title: no more than three meaningful parts, optimal length 5–64 characters; typos, traditional characters, advertising inserts and «clickbait» are prohibited
企鹅号 rules for video titles
source, checked 2026-07-28
Content
moderation of a published video, by the platform's statement, completes within 2 hours
A stated, not a measured, time
source, checked 2026-07-28
prohibited: material against constitutional principles, threatening national security, inciting ethnic hatred, «historical nihilism», pornography, gambling, violence, «clickbait», QR codes, phone numbers, personal WeChat and QQ accounts, links to shops and cloud drives
The rules for publishing video on 企鹅号
source, checked 2026-07-28
Analytics
only «valid traffic» is counted: inflated views, network failures and instant closures of a video are filtered out; data can only be queried from 1 January 2020 onwards
Because of the filtering, the internal figures differ from the external view counter
source, checked 2026-07-28
企鹅号 provides summary and per-article data across all distribution channels, an audience profile by age, gender and education, and subscriber statistics
The platform's storefront; the composition of the reports inside the dashboard was not checked
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the traffic programme: an account credit rating of at least 60 points; views shorter than 5 seconds for short videos and shorter than 30 seconds for a video in an album do not count; there is no fixed price per view
Government bodies, schools, public organizations and marketing accounts are not admitted to the traffic programme
source, checked 2026-07-28
the «流量分成-关联正片» right requires at least 100 subscribers and click-throughs by viewers to long-form content
The credit rating required to take part is also at least 60 points
source, checked 2026-07-28
the subscription revenue programme: income = (contribution from views + contribution from subscriptions taken out) × (base share 40% + a premium of 60% for an exclusive or first-online premiere or 10% for a non-exclusive one)
The formula is published openly by the platform; there is no independent verification of the calculation
source, checked 2026-07-28
to withdraw money an album must contain at least 5 paid episodes; the default term of the programme is one year from the release date of the material
Showing the same album free of charge on other platforms is prohibited
source, checked 2026-07-28
on donations during livestreams the platform withholds 37% of the value of gifts as a service fee, covering tax, payment and channel costs
The author keeps 63% — that is our arithmetic; the platform names only the share it withholds
source, checked 2026-07-28
Payout minimum. the withdrawal threshold is 100 yuan for an individual and 1000 yuan for a company
The same thresholds apply on 企鹅号
source, checked 2026-07-28
When they pay. individuals file a request every Tuesday, organizations between the 2nd and 4th of the month; individuals are paid within 10 working days, organizations within 45 working days after an invoice and a certified statement of work have been received
Tencent withholds the taxes for an individual itself
source, checked 2026-07-28
on 企鹅号 income is updated on a T+1 basis by 19:00 and credited to the account by 16:00 on T+2
Delays are possible during system updates
source, checked 2026-07-28
on 企鹅号 withdrawal is open from the 2nd to the 4th of the month, no more than once a month; individuals are paid within 10 working days, companies within 15 working days
For users with the daily withdrawal right — once a day
source, checked 2026-07-28
the daily withdrawal right is granted when five conditions are met at once: completed identity verification, entity type «individual», status «active», at least one publication in 30 days, a credit rating of at least 85 points
If any condition is lost, the right is withdrawn
source, checked 2026-07-28
Limits and restrictions
up to 3 GB through the browser; videos of 3 to 16 GB are best uploaded in parts, resuming an upload is supported
The requirement applies to uploading into 企鹅号
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
a new 企鹅号 account has 100 credit rating points; at zero the account is blocked; a lowered rating closes off access to original authorship labels
The rating is visible in the «Account management» section
source, checked 2026-07-28
after a seven-day probation period without violations, 1 point comes back per day; a new violation resets the count; points written off down to zero are not restored
Deleting or editing the offending material does not cancel the deduction
source, checked 2026-07-28
for politically sensitive material, pornography, impersonating a government body or a media outlet, and mass account registration, 100 points are deducted at once and the account is blocked
Appeal: 2 working days, one attempt per item of material
source, checked 2026-07-28
Moderation
An author credit-score system: «每个腾讯内容开放平台账号初始信用分均为100分» (verbatim; our translation: every Tencent Content Open Platform account starts with a credit score of 100 points); after points are deducted a 7-day probation begins, and with no violations 1 point is restored per day; a new violation restarts the count; «如果信用分扣至 0 分，则不可恢复» (verbatim; our translation: if the credit score is reduced to 0 points, it cannot be restored). A block is final: «账号一旦违规发布内容被封禁后，不支持账号解封» (verbatim; our translation: once an account is blocked for publishing content in breach of the rules, unblocking is not supported). A mute: «按计时满24小时为一天计算» (our translation: a day is counted as a full 24 hours from the moment of the penalty).
kf.qq.com is closed, but kf.om.qq.com (the Tencent Content Open Platform help centre) does not restrict our crawling in robots.txt. The quotations about unblocking and muting: /detail/01d8b1de-20df-46ed-a94e-ae2a8872a421 and /detail/e8940475-55f3-4629-ae8a-ebec90f5cfee.
source, checked 2026-08-07
Appealing a deduction of points: in the console (电脑端) on the content management page, the penalised material carries a «信用分申诉» button where reasons are given; «每篇文章只有一次提交申诉的机会，申诉结果将作为最终结果» (verbatim; our translation: each item has only one chance to submit an appeal, and the result of the appeal is final). If the account is blocked because of the deduction and signing in is impossible, the appeal goes through an online chat with a live operator (the account name, a link to the material, the reasons, the evidence). A successful appeal cancels the deduction and the penalty; deleting the material oneself does not cancel the deduction.
An addition about cancelling penalties: /detail/e8940475-55f3-4629-ae8a-ebec90f5cfee.
source, checked 2026-08-07
«平台会在2个工作日内处理申诉» (verbatim; our translation: the platform processes an appeal within 2 working days).
source, checked 2026-08-07
Legal
the site footer names online audiovisual broadcasting licence No. 1904073 and value-added telecommunications services licence 粤B2-20090059
The same place gives 粤网文(2017)6138-1456号
source, checked 2026-07-28
the creator agreement requires legal capacity under PRC law; for people under 18, the involvement of a legal representative; Tencent may unilaterally restrict or terminate service if the terms are breached
The agreement on opening a 腾讯视频创作号
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
the developer centre of 腾讯内容开放平台 states: «该功能暂停维护中，暂不支持注册» — registration is suspended for maintenance
Two integration schemes are described: for content sites and for third-party service platforms
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: zh-CN
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
the interface language of the home page: zh-CN; there are no hreflang links to other language versions
source, checked 2026-07-28
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