How a Chinese website for pirated TV shows became an artistic standard for millennials

When Bill Liang realized that popular video download and streaming service Renren Yingshi could be gone permanently he was disappointed. 

The website, also known as YYeTs.com, was how the 24-year-old film school student was able to watch hundreds of episodes of pirated American TV shows when he was growing up in northern China.

On February 3, YYeTs.com which is one of China’s largest, longest-running, and last-remaining destinations for pirated, subtitled foreign content was shuttered as part of a sweeping police clampdown on piracy. While the website is still live, none of its services work anymore.

“I was heartbroken when I found out,” Liang told CNN Business. “I feel like there is one place fewer in China through which we can expand our horizons.”

After a three-month investigation into suspected intellectual property infringement, police in Shanghai arrested 14 people as they allegedly ran the website and app. Over eight million registered users and more than 20,000 pirated TV shows and movies were collected by Renren Yingshi at the time of its closure. According to police, in the past couple of years, the site’s operators made some 16 million yuan ($2.5 million)  from ads, subscription fees, and selling hard drives with pirated content.

Renren Yingshi refused to comment when asked from CNN Business.

The state media and intellectual property experts appreciated the crackdown as a sign of China’s resolve to enforce copyright protection.

But fans who relied on the site for uncensored foreign content expressed their disappointment. China’s Twitter-like Weibo platforms were filled with support for Renren Yingshi, thanking the site for opening a door to the world for them.

China is one of only four countries or regions, alongside North Korea, Syria, and Crimea, that doesn’t permit access to online platforms, for example, Netflix, the world’s most popular streaming platform.

China also limits how many foreign films can be screened in cinemas each year strictly. The content allowed to air in the country also faces heavy censorship. 

Chinese millennials say that the roadblocks set by the government leave them with little choice but to turn to pirated websites. Watching foreign shows and movies is not only a favorite pastime, but it’s also an opportunity to learn about the world, they are willing to pay for legitimate access to uncensored, foreign content.

While the end of Renren Yingshi and the country’s censorship crackdown status implies that there won’t be much change, the reaction to its shutting down shows that there remains a huge appetite for uncensored and foreign content within China.