More Chinese video websites are making TV shows of their own, modelled on the US company Netflix, which created the popular political drama House of Cards.

Industry insiders say that strategy has created a substantial amount of paid viewers for the websites.

One such website, iQiyi, announced in June that the number of its paid viewers had reached 20 million. Tencent Video also announced that its paid viewership passed that number this month.

The increase was a jump of 300 percent year on year. Experts say paid viewership is replacing advertisements as the main revenue creator for video websites.

But even so, none of those companies have realized profits, due to their large investments in making TV shows.