Beijing (PingWest)- Baidu backed online streaming video platform iQIYI has hired Kuek Yu-Chuang as vice president for international business, iQIYI announced in a statement on Thursday.

Prior to the iQIYI appointment, Kuek was a vice president at Netflix, joining the company in 2016 as managing director for the Asia Pacific, according to a press release.

Reporting to Yang Xianghua, who is iQIYI’s president of overseas business, Kuek will oversee strategic planning, market development and public affair for iQIYI’s global expansion.

"Kuek's appointment is align with QIYI's global plans. iQIYI is a company with Asian roots, and global aspirations, we want to send a strong signal to potential partners that we are looking to collaborate and contribute to the global streaming ecosystem. We look forward to seeing Kuek’s leadership in global strategic planning, marketing, business development and public affairs functions for our overseas business,” said iQIYI in a press releases.

About his education background, Kuek studied at Peking University and later obtained post-graduate degrees from Harvard and INSEAD.

Kuek began his career with the Singapore government and held roles as a diplomat, trade negotiator and policy-maker, then he moved into the enterprise sector with job at ICANN Asia Pacific and Yahoo ! Inc.

iQIYI has been steadily making its way into overseas market especially South East Asia. In June last year, iQIYI launched its app across many regions of South East Asia. Later in November, iQIYI formed a partnership with regional TV group Astro to localize business operation in Malaysia.

Under the agreement, Astro has the exclusive rights to deliver iQIYI content including drama，TV shows and movies on TV in Malaysia.

User in Malaysia can use their Astro accounts to login to the iQIYI App or use their Facebook or Google accounts to register for new iQIYI accounts.

IQIYI booked a total revenue of CNY7.6 billion in the first quarter of 2020, up 9% year on year, with membership revenue growing 35%, but advertising revenue declined 27%.

In March 2020, IQYI subscribers increased 23% to 119 million, 99.2% of whom were paid members. The number of subscribing members rose 23% year over year, iQIYI said in a separate statement. Despite the revenue growth, iQIYI is still unprofitable, its net loss widened to CNY2.9 billion in the first quarter from CNY1.8 billion a year ago.