Pinduoduo's short drama campaign during the Spring Festival

Pinduoduo's short drama layout is not a sudden impulse, but after years of gradual advancement, it has built a complete short drama supply infrastructure. This article will deeply analyze Pinduoduo's layout logic in the field of short dramas, the specific strategy of the Spring Festival offensive, and the market changes under the trend of free and popular short dramas, revealing how Pinduoduo achieved a huge traffic explosion through short dramas.

As the Spring Festival approaches, Pinduoduo has begun to accelerate its development of short dramas.

In the past month, Pinduoduo has updated and released two new policies for short dramas. One is still called the "Duoduo has good dramas" plan (hereinafter referred to as the "new version of Duoduo has good dramas plan"), which can be seen as an update to the old version of Duoduo has good dramas plan; the other is called Duoduo has good dramas New Year version (hereinafter referred to as the New Year version), which is an incentive policy for short dramas upgraded during the Spring Festival.

The focus and highlight of the two policies is that Pinduoduo emphasizes the incentives for new and popular short dramas and the exclusive rewards for first release.

Pinduoduo is not a hasty entrant in the recent short drama craze. On the contrary, it has been advancing its own short drama layout. As early as 2019, the short drama MCN agency Kuaiyu Culture had already settled in Pinduoduo. Up to now, Pinduoduo has built a complete set of infrastructure for the supply of short dramas, including the introduction of short dramas and incentive policies, and has also set up a special channel on the Duoduo video page to provide free viewing of short dramas.

At this stage, the short drama market, which has been booming in the past two years, has also reached a period of transition from paid to free, and from a certain group of people to a more popular one. On the one hand, short drama companies gradually felt the ceiling of the short drama paid market around June 2024, and the difficulty and cost of short drama creation, shooting, and distribution are increasing; on the other hand, with the Hongguo APP's DAU exceeding 50 million and monthly active users exceeding 120 million, the scale of the free short drama market is expanding and its potential is being released.

The free and popular nature of short dramas is the premise and basis for Pinduoduo, a platform that has always been good at obtaining cost-effective traffic from across the country, to increase its invitations to short dramas at this time.

Pinduoduo's acceleration is due to the fact that short dramas have a certain audience, sufficient content supply, and a rich paid + free distribution chain, and there are brands to pay for it. Short dramas have grown into a sufficiently complete profile of the content industry ecosystem.

However, the core of Pinduoduo's short drama production is definitely not to cultivate a content ecosystem, but to introduce more cost-effective and larger-scale traffic.

Especially during the Spring Festival, a golden period for application explosion when crowds gather, offline social relationships are strong, and all Internet products are unwilling to miss it easily, Pinduoduo has increased its investment in short dramas in order to achieve a huge explosion in its traffic during the Spring Festival.

Pinduoduo's short drama Spring Festival offensive is also the prelude to the "Narrowcast" 2025 "Spring Festival Offensive" series of observations.

1. Launch the Tet Offensive

The old version of the "A Lot of Good Dramas" plan was launched in December 2023. The policy at that time emphasized traffic indicators, supported short drama content around the broadcast share, and the revenue was determined based on the average effective broadcast volume per episode. Specifically, the 50,000 broadcast volume was the dividing point: if it did not exceed, the revenue would be calculated based on a CPM of 5 yuan, and if it exceeded, the calculation standard would be adjusted to a CPM of 7 yuan.

In comparison, the two new policies have been updated and adjusted in three aspects: broadcast sharing, incentives for new and popular short dramas, and exclusive contracts.

First, the new policy adjustment has refined the incentive method for broadcast revenue sharing: first, the average broadcast volume of each episode is changed to the broadcast volume of a single short drama; second, a more detailed gradient cumulative profit sharing system is implemented: single drama works are divided into 1 million, 8 million and 20 million broadcast volumes as the dividing points, and are settled according to different CPM (cost per thousand impressions) standards, specifically 1 yuan, 3 yuan, 6 yuan and 9 yuan.

Secondly, the new policy has added incentive content for new and popular short dramas.

The new version of the "Do Duo You Hao Ju Plan" provides a basic bonus of 30,000 yuan for popular new dramas that have passed the review; in addition, the plan has also set up a new incentive mechanism for "high-quality institutions": first, if the effective broadcast volume of a single short drama exceeds 20 million within 14 days, the CPM of the short drama will be increased from the original 9 yuan to 18 yuan; second, the platform can also give high-quality bonuses of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan to short dramas with excellent content quality.

The incentives for new and popular short dramas in the New Spring Edition are an upgrade based on the new version of the Duoduo Youhaoju Plan: First, the scope restrictions on "high-quality institutions" are cancelled, and the incentive mechanism for "high-quality institutions" in the new Duoduo Youhaoju Plan is extended to all institutions. Second, the New Spring Edition adds additional rewards for "high-quality institutions". According to the settlement policy of the New Spring Edition, if a "high-quality institution" launches a copyright short drama on Duoduo Video within 3 days of its first release, each institution can receive a first-run incentive of 50,000 yuan for each short drama. In addition, the platform will calculate revenue at 1.2 times the CPM.

Finally, "exclusive contract" is a particularly prominent feature of the Spring Festival edition.

Specifically, if the effective playback volume exceeds 12 million within the first three days of the first release, each short drama can receive a first release incentive of 50,000 yuan, an exclusive incentive of 500,000 yuan, and a CPM of 1.3 times. According to Duoduo Video, "signing an exclusive contract can earn 1 million yuan."

2. Step by step to make short plays

"Pinduoduo's layout logic in the short drama business is very clear," Li Hongliang, a partner of the short drama MCN Kuaiyu Culture, told us.

At the end of 2023, Guangzhou's MCN agency Kuaiyu Culture began to prepare for the short drama business. At present, Kuaiyu Culture has formed a short drama business ecosystem that focuses on customized short dramas and covers short drama production and distribution. Its artist Liu Ganye has more than 5.6 million fans on Douyin.

As early as 2019, Kuaiyu Culture entered Pinduoduo and was one of the first MCN agencies to enter Duoduo Video. At that time, the short drama market was still in its infancy. According to Li Hongliang, at that time, the configuration of a Kuaiyu expert account was only three or four people, plus a mobile phone. Now, the configuration of an account has risen to eight to ten people.

Li Hongliang felt that Pinduoduo began to focus on short dramas after 2021 or 2022. He remembered that at that time, "the communication with the platform became very, very frequent, and they hoped that we would register all our accounts."

Home page of @刘感感 Pinduoduo account under Kuaiyu

2022 to the first half of 2024 is the explosive period for short dramas. According to estimates by the China Internet Audiovisual Association, the market size of short dramas in my country will reach 50.44 billion yuan in 2024, exceeding the total box office of 47 billion yuan for mainland Chinese films. During this period, the industry topic, recharge records and distribution of short dramas have also set new highs. There is the short drama "The Unparalleled Son-in-Law" which is known as "filmed in 7 days, 100 million yuan in 8 days, and financial freedom in 10 days", and there is also the short drama "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" which recharged 20 million yuan on the first day of its launch and finally recharged 80 million yuan.

It was also during this period that Pinduoduo further increased the priority of short dramas. In particular, in April 2024, Pinduoduo set short dramas as an independent channel alongside the "live", "follow" and "recommendation" channels in Duoduo Video.

Pinduoduo's short drama channel is quite unique in terms of page presentation, purchasing, traffic diversion and monetization methods:

First, compared to some short drama platforms, Pinduoduo's short dramas are presented in a single-column information flow in the form of "swiping videos", accompanied by playback volume, episode number prompts and "chasing drama" interactive design.

In the latest update, Pinduoduo's search page has added "Popular Short Drama List" and "Quality Author List". Among them, the "Popular Short Drama List" not only provides "Popular List", but also divides into "Boys List", "Girls List", "Revenge", "God of War" and other categories and content according to the viewing objects and themes.

Second, Pinduoduo's short drama purchase targets are mainly second-round dramas. The so-called second-round drama refers to drama works that enter the second round of broadcast after the first round of broadcast. Pinduoduo has two second-round drama purchase modes for different targets. For large short drama MCN organizations with thousands of dramas, such as Dianzhong Technology, Pinduoduo purchases a large number of them by reaching batch cooperation authorizations; for some small and fine short drama companies, Pinduoduo will purchase based on the number of off-site broadcasts and even the number of off-site fans of the corresponding influencers.

Third, in terms of traffic generation methods, Pinduoduo focuses on free watching of dramas and incentivizes user retention through online earning.

Finally, in terms of monetization, Pinduoduo does not add product links or implant products in the short dramas, but mixes the short videos with products in the information flow of the short dramas and recommends them to users through algorithms. Generally speaking, when users swipe 5 to 8 episodes, a video with products will appear, and the recommended products are highly related to the user’s recent search and purchase records.

Pinduoduo has set up a special "short drama" channel

From our observation and experience, Pinduoduo's move to launch a short drama channel is effective. At least, the supply and playback volume of short dramas in the channel have shown a significant increase.

Compared with the first half of last year, now for every three to six short dramas we swipe, we can find a short drama with over 100 million views on the short drama channel, such as "The Queen's Cultivation Manual" with 530 million views, "After the Broken Relationship, the Unfilial Son Cried and Begged for Forgiveness" with 340 million views, and "My House's Door Leads to All Worlds" with 290 million views.

3. It’s still more of a distribution platform, but some people are making money

"We can currently earn nearly one million yuan from short dramas on Pinduoduo each month, and around two million yuan at the highest," Lan Guiwei, the operating partner of Dongmanshe, told us.

As one of the earliest short drama content companies in China, Dongmanshe has opened up and focused on the short drama track of the rise of mature women over 30, and created a series of works with hundreds of millions of views, such as "Rebirth of a Woman", "Deadly Housewives", "The Wife Cannot Be Cheated", "Remarriage", "Mother and Three", etc. "Rebirth of a Woman" has been played more than 1.5 billion times on the entire network; the works have been on the Duoduo Video Hot List many times, such as "My Name is Ruan Tiantian" and "Happiness Once Again".

Lan Guiwei told us that the constantly iterating incentive policies of the Pinduoduo platform continue to attract short drama organizations and talents to cooperate, and are expanding new categories of content based on the existing short drama categories.

He said that the new version of Pinduoduo's short drama incentive policy will increase settlement with a better CPM value for works that meet certain standards within 14 days of effective broadcast; and extend the calculation period to 90 days. Compared with the income on non-short drama content platforms, their income on Pinduoduo is the highest. He revealed that Dongmanshe's short dramas can basically get the top incentive from Pinduoduo. It is understood that the new version of Duoduo's good drama plan can provide a maximum settlement incentive of 1 million for a single high-quality short drama.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the fact that Dongmanshe has original content resources and mainly relies on content to produce and operate short dramas that are differentiated. Such content can have a good traffic effect no matter which platform it is distributed on.

The short play "My name is Ruan Tiantian" by Dongman Club

For Kuaiyu Culture, which mainly produces customized short dramas, Pinduoduo plays more of a distribution platform. "The short dramas are there anyway, so we distribute them on the entire platform and earn some extra traffic fees," said Li Hongliang.

However, Li Hongliang has observed that Pinduoduo may have attracted some original rural individual creators' short plays.

This is probably because, compared with other platforms, the threshold for creating short dramas and participating in the profit sharing on Pinduoduo is not high. Douyin and Kuaishou's profit sharing dramas have account fans requirements, but Duoduo Video does not. As long as you have an account, you can post it, and there will be profit sharing if there is traffic. This difference makes Pinduoduo extremely attractive to these creators.

Therefore, for them, creating short dramas on Pinduoduo is a low-cost and potentially profitable thing. Li Hongliang said, "They may only have a few people, and they don't need a professional team. They can shoot some short dramas like rural love in their hometowns at a very low cost, but uploading them to Pinduoduo's Duoduo Video may bring in 10,000 to 20,000 yuan in revenue."

4. The background is that the short play is free and popular

Short dramas are booming, but are also undergoing a shift and innovation. In terms of consumption model, they are gradually rising from IAP (pay to watch short dramas) two years ago to IAA (free to watch short dramas, but you need to watch ads in the information flow).

June 2024 is a turning point from paid to free that many short drama producers have felt. More than one producer told us that the investment cost of short dramas continues to rise, "most of the money goes to the platform to buy traffic", but "it is difficult to increase the volume when running".

Moreover, the investment scale of the entire short drama market is also lower than expected. It is understood that the investment scale of the entire short drama in 2024 is about 33 billion, and it is estimated to be 40 billion in 2025. In the expectations of some industry insiders, the investment scale of short dramas can achieve "a leap from 30 billion to 50 billion."

At the same time, the user scale of free short dramas is expanding. Lan Guiwei mentioned that the current ratio of free users to paid users in the short drama market is about 5:5, and the ratio of free users will increase in the future. Wang Jiacheng, the founder of Jiuzhou Culture, once said in a media interview that the market share of free and paid short dramas will be 7:3 in the future. The rapid development of Hongguo Short Drama is also a strong proof.

There are many reasons for these changes. On the one hand, domestic users still prefer free viewing habits. On the other hand, the audience always has the need to watch newer and better content. When short dramas first appeared, they were newer and more attractive content compared to short videos. However, with the homogenization of short drama themes, the similarity and routine of content, many users can already know the content of the following episodes by watching the first few episodes of free content.

This means that users' tastes and thresholds are improving, but their satisfaction is decreasing, so it is not surprising that their willingness to pay is decreasing. It is only a matter of time before short dramas improve their production level.

However, the market for short dramas is still expanding. According to data from Top Data and iMedia Research, the market size of short dramas is expected to exceed 100 billion by 2027. Dongmanshe has also expanded its short drama team from 4 people in 2022 to 20 people. "Next year, the short drama department will expand further," said Lan Guiwei, "We will recruit people for the screenwriters, production and operation, and post-production teams."

In this context, especially as the Spring Festival approaches, Pinduoduo has further increased its investment in short dramas. It is hard not to think that it has tasted the sweetness that short dramas have brought in terms of increased traffic and user time.

As a simple and efficient e-commerce platform, Pinduoduo particularly emphasizes the efficient matching of people and goods, which determines its two understandings of traffic: one is to continue to expand the traffic pool in a cost-effective way, increase DAU and duration; the other is to direct traffic to single product hits and facilitate transactions.

The reason behind Pinduoduo's increased investment in short dramas is that short dramas are the ultimate traffic tool that is more suitable for Pinduoduo, and have reached a point where they can be obtained cost-effectively.

First, short dramas are cheaper and more scalable. Compared with introducing vertical talents to create content, Pinduoduo can quickly and massively supplement the content on the site by packaging short dramas, while also being less costly.

Moreover, according to the "White Paper on the Development of China's Micro Drama Industry (2024)" (hereinafter referred to as the White Paper) released by the China Internet Audiovisual Association, by June 2024, the number of domestic micro drama users will reach 576 million, more than half of the total number of netizens. To put it more intuitively, more people watch micro dramas than order takeout or take online taxis.

Secondly, short dramas are compatible with the people on Pinduoduo. Li Hongliang once mentioned that the three largest audience groups for short dramas are Generation Z, young people in small towns, and elderly people in small towns. Continuing to quote the data from the white paper, mobile short drama users are concentrated in third-tier and lower cities, accounting for 65.1%, mainly with junior high school education (37.9%) and income of 3,000 yuan or less (48%). It can be said that short dramas are the precise traffic that Pinduoduo needs.

Data source of micro drama user distribution: CNNIC

But for content producers, Pinduoduo is always a distribution channel first, not a platform for deep content cultivation. Perhaps with the adjustment of policies, some content will be attracted to be released on Pinduoduo first, but generally speaking, when a new drama is launched, everyone still takes the paid route first and then the free route, that is, first launches on the paid section of Douyin and mini programs, and then considers free platforms such as Hongguo and Pinduoduo.

At present, apart from some creators on the site, there are almost no short drama production companies dedicated to Pinduoduo. But it is said that after the Spring Festival version of the policy appeared, Pinduoduo has been looking for some short drama production teams to communicate and customize short dramas.

Author | Li Shangyang Producer | Pang Mengyuan