In 2025, will the short drama live streaming anchor have a happy ending?

As the short drama market continues to be hot in 2024, live streaming anchors have entered the market one after another, trying to open up new business paths through live streaming. However, competition in this emerging field is extremely fierce, and not all attempts by top anchors are as successful as expected. This article will review the development of the short drama live streaming industry in 2024, analyze the successes and failures of top anchors, and look forward to new trends and new ways of playing in live streaming in 2025.

In 2024, the highly anticipated short drama track continues to be hot.

At the beginning of the year, Douyin and Kuaishou released a list of short dramas during the Spring Festival, creating the concept of "short dramas during the Spring Festival". Long video platforms such as "iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video and Mango TV" also personally participated in the event and jointly launched original dramas with film and television production companies. At that time, it was widely rumored in the industry that there were more than 800 short dramas in the "short dramas during the Spring Festival".

Based on users' demand and recognition for short drama content, and the special time node of the Spring Festival, Tencent's short drama "Give Her a Handle" was on the Weibo entertainment hot search many times after its launch during the Spring Festival, and the mini-program short drama "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s" was rumored to have received up to 20 million yuan in recharges in a single day, making a profit of 100 million yuan.

Seeing the content traffic and commercial potential brought by short dramas, many live-streaming anchors have also entered the scene in the past period of time.

For example, Crazy Little Yang Ge officially launched the official account of "Three Sheep Theater" in April and released the behind-the-scenes footage of his first short play "Master Fu, Your Substitute Bride is a Boss"; Simba's company Xinxuan launched the first short play "She is as Bright as Pearls" customized for the OSM brand at the end of May; and on the eve of 618 of this year, the name of Wei Ya's husband Dong Haifeng also appeared as the producer of the official posters of three short plays released by Qianmeng Culture, a subsidiary of Qianxun.

2024 is over. Let's review the top anchors who entered the short drama track to see if they are still as popular as they were in the past. In 2025, what new ways will the short drama live streaming industry have?

1. From rushing into the game to quietly stopping

Being on the front line of the battle for traffic, the live-streaming hosts have a far keener insight into the traffic of short dramas than the users.

Before Crazy Xiao Yangge officially announced the use of his short drama account, he had actually been quietly testing the waters for short drama content for about half a year. From December 16, 2023 to April 3, 2024, his account "Three Sheep Network" successively updated a series of short dramas starring his talents, including "Anti-Corruption Storm", "Anti-Corruption Storm Season 2", and "Let Me Love You Again". As of now, the 11 episodes have received 71.931 million views.

It is worth noting that one day before the "Three Sheep Network" account launched the short drama "Anti-Corruption Storm", Crazy Brother Yang had just discovered during a live broadcast with other anchors that the LED live broadcast screen he had bought for millions was suspected to have been scammed. The main plot of "Anti-Corruption Storm" also revolves around "suspected corruption in the company."

According to the observation of Jingzhe Research Institute, in many scenes of "Anti-Corruption Storm" and "Let Me Love You Again", there are obvious placements of products such as "Daily Nuts". Therefore, it is hard not to suspect that the previous "Little Yangge LED screen was cheated" incident was a foreshadowing for the short drama content that was launched the next day.

Compared with the simple test of the "Three Sheep Network" account, the dramas released by the "Three Sheep Theater" official account are more focused on the content itself. For example, the first short drama "Master Fu, Your Substitute Bride is a Boss" released by the Three Sheep Short Dramas is based on the most common "substitute bride" theme of short dramas nowadays, and incorporates dramatic elements such as overbearing CEOs, heroines, and changing fate against the will of heaven, and the "dog blood" level is full.

However, the show was removed from major platforms less than a month after it was launched in early June 2024. At that time, a report on the online public opinion about the show was circulated in the industry, which pointed out that "Master Fu, Your Substitute Bride is a Boss" had "poor reputation" and "wrong guidance" after it was broadcast on the platform. Therefore, many people in the industry suspected that the show was banned.

After "Mr. Fu, Your Substitute Bride is a Boss" was removed from the shelves, the "Three Sheep Theater" account also launched five short dramas, including "Under the Dome of the End of the World", "Why Hasn't He Confessed to Me Yet", "I Don't Want to Be a Dog Anymore, I Want to Chase the School Prince", "The Other Side of the Forgotten River", and "The Marvelous Wife". Except for "Under the Dome of the End of the World", which is a short drama of 30 episodes, the number of episodes of the other short dramas all reach more than 50 episodes.

In terms of playback data, "I Don't Want to Be a Dog, I Want to Chase the Campus Prince" has exceeded 19.113 million, "The Great Wife" has reached 9.49 million, and "Under the Dome of the End of the World", "Why Hasn't He Confessed to Me Yet" and "The Other Side of the Forgotten River" have 4.121 million, 2.672 million and 7.678 million views respectively. In addition, the "Three Sheep Theater" account has only 92,000 fans so far, which is less than a fraction of the "Three Sheep" anchors "Zui Ge" and "Red Light Yellow".

In addition, the account of the anchor "Red Light Yellow" under "Three Sheep" launched the short play "Swap Life" in which he personally participated on August 7, 2024. At the same time, this play is also a brand-customized short play in cooperation between "Red Light Yellow" and Brand Color Cosmetics. However, the Jingzhe Research Institute found that perhaps due to the impact of the "Three Sheep" incident, this short play, which originally had 16 episodes, has not been updated for nearly 4 months after the 11th episode was updated on August 22. And after the account of "Red Light Yellow" updated the short video with the theme of National Day on October 1 of the same year, it has not updated the content for more than 2 months.

2. Some people have stopped, while others have emerged

Among the top anchors, Simba followed "Crazy Little Brother Yang" into the short drama track, and his current situation after trying out short dramas is surprisingly similar to that of "Three Sheep".

On May 5, 2024, media reported that the brand-customized short drama "She is as Bright as a Pearl" jointly launched by Xinxuan and OSM was being filmed, and then the drama was officially launched at the end of May. The actress Xu Jie, who plays the heroine in the drama, is a contracted anchor of Xinxuan, and a large number of OSM-related products are implanted in the drama.

According to relevant online reports, the cumulative number of views of "She is Like a Pearl" after it was released on the Kuaishou platform has reached tens of millions. However, the Jingzhe Research Institute found that the drama has not caused widespread discussion and dissemination on the Internet. In addition to the six episodes released by the anchor Xu Jie's personal account, many accounts have forwarded the sliced ​​content. Judging from the sixth episode released by Xu Jie's personal account on June 26, this short drama has not yet ended.

According to a report by Tech Planet on July 15, citing an insider, Xinxuan had not yet established a dedicated short drama business department at that time, so the brand-customized drama in cooperation with OSM was probably just a simple exploration of the short drama track. After September 12, Xu Jie's account began to update the content of another short drama "Four Brothers Love Me Alone".

At this point, one can't help but speculate that the reason why "She's Like a Pearl" was stopped after only 6 episodes was because the broadcast effect was not good and the two parties terminated their cooperation. The fact that Xinxuan's contracted anchor Xu Jie subsequently participated in other works also shows that Simba's attempt at the short drama business has shifted from brand-customized short dramas to regular short dramas performed by contracted anchors.

On the other hand, Qianxun founded the short drama company Qianmeng Culture in May. Although it officially announced the start of filming of three short dramas, "Substitute Boyfriend", "A Male Babysitter Came to My House" and "Don't Fall in Love with Your Brother" in June, its Douyin account "Qianmeng Theater" did not launch the first and only short drama "Substitute Boyfriend" until October 30. So far, all 6 episodes of the drama have been updated, but the number of views is only 1.444 million. On the Taobao platform, the "Qianmeng Theater" account has only updated 4 episodes and received only 1 like.

Although most of the top anchors have failed in the short drama track, there are still many anchors who have made their mark in the short drama track.

For example, the anchor "Yu'er", who is certified as a "musician" on Douyin and Kuaishou, had short dramas online in 2020. So far, he has participated in 11 works, with a cumulative playback volume of nearly 2 billion, and the number of fans on his Kuaishou account has reached 18.464 million. Another anchor "Yizhilu" with 11.222 million fans on the Kuaishou platform began to update the short drama content in 2021. At present, the total volume of the five short dramas posted on his homepage has reached 2.01 billion.

In addition, Jiang Shiqi, a contracted talent of Silver Earth MCN, began to release short drama videos as early as 2019. So far, there are 38 short dramas on his Douyin homepage, and his Douyin fans have reached 37.029 million. The Douyin platform exclusive short drama "Hidden Family" starring him ranked fifth on the Douyin short drama list with 6.45 million views as of 12:00 on December 20.

It may be hard to believe, but it is true: the top anchors who are so powerful in the sales track have not been able to achieve the same success in the short drama track. This is because the short drama market, which continues to be hot, has developed a completely different operating logic in the rapid iteration.

3. Short dramas promote sales, and brands are rushing to join the game

The reason why the top anchors choose to cross-border layout of short dramas is that short drama content can generate more traffic on the platform. In addition, in the eyes of some people, short dramas are just short videos with continuous plots, and the production threshold is also relatively low. Therefore, including the anchors, production teams that have transformed from advertising companies, MCNs and even the online literature industry constitute the main practitioners in the current short drama industry.

It is not surprising that the industry was a mixed bag in its early days due to the low entry threshold, but starting from the second half of 2024, it is obvious that the production level of short dramas is constantly developing towards high-quality products.

On June 1, 2024, the "Latest Work Tips on the Filing of Micro-Short Dramas" issued by the State Administration of Radio and Television officially came into effect. The "new regulations" in the document require that micro-short dramas with a total investment of less than 300,000 yuan, a total investment of between 300,000 yuan and 1 million yuan, and a total investment of 1 million yuan or more be subject to "classified and layered review."

Driven by regulatory policies, the overall content quality of the short drama industry has been significantly improved. More and more creators and producers have begun to focus on polishing the script, selecting the cast, and improving the production level. This also explains why some top anchors chose to stop or reduce investment in short dramas in the second half of the year after trying them out in the first half of the year.

In addition, the issue of the commercialization of short dramas also determines the fate of the "short drama sales" anchors and the development direction of short dramas.

At first, the short dramas became popular because some of the short dramas invested in by mini programs contributed to the "wealth-making myth". For example, the short drama "After the Flash Marriage, Mr. Fu's Vest Can No Longer Be Hidden" was reported to have a 24-hour recharge turnover of more than 20 million; "The Unparalleled Son-in-Law" was said to have recharged more than 100 million in 8 days; "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s" was also reported to have made 100 million.

But there is actually a huge gap between rumors and reality. The relevant person in charge of Tinghuadao, the producer of "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s", clarified to Jingzhe Research Institute that "the online rumor that "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s" made 100 million yuan is false news. In fact, the revenue we received from the share of this short drama was only more than 5 million yuan."

The person in charge also revealed to the Jingzhe Research Institute that the production cost of mini-program short dramas is generally less than 1 million yuan, and there are almost no more than 3 million yuan. At the same time, because the producer's share ratio in the recharge model is very low, usually 5-7 points, and the current recharge for a short drama is only 30 million yuan at most, the mini-program short dramas with high production costs no longer have much room for profit.

According to the person in charge, the short play "Ji Tianzhao" which was just launched not long ago and which Yu Zheng claimed to have invested 8 million yuan in producing, would need at least 100 million yuan in top-up to recover the cost without considering the profit sharing. This also shows the profit pressure of short plays invested in mini programs.

In addition to short dramas that are broadcast on mini programs, brand-customized short dramas that have certain operating space in terms of content investment risks and commercialization expectations are also becoming the main content production model.

According to the observation of Jingzhe Research Institute, as early as 2023, the beauty brand Hansu took the lead in trying customized short dramas, and cooperated with Jiang Shiqi, a contracted talent of Silver Land, on many short dramas such as "Dress to Grow", "Heartbeat for More Than a Moment", "A Beam of Sunshine and a Beam of Love", "All Love and You", and "You Will Eventually Be Famous".

According to the financial report data of Hansu's parent company Shangmei Co., Ltd., thanks to effective investment in the short drama track in 2023, the GMV of the Hansu brand on the Douyin platform in 2023 increased by 374.4% year-on-year to 3.34 billion yuan, contributing nearly 80% of the revenue for Shangmei Co., Ltd., surpassing a number of international first-line brands and becoming the first beauty brand in the history of the Douyin platform to reach a scale of 3 billion yuan.

With Hansu as a model, other brands are also trying or increasing their investment in short dramas. In 2024 alone, well-known brands such as Proya, Perfect, Pechoin, Guyu, Omo, Mixue Ice City, McDonald's, Taier Pickled Fish, Bawang Chaji, and Starbucks have launched brand-customized short dramas.

Guo Qingshuai, vice president of Silver Land, told Jingzhe Research Institute that in 2024, brands' investment in customized short dramas will gradually become rational. "Some brands that have tried short dramas will begin to want to establish a content system that better meets their own marketing needs. In addition, when choosing producers of short dramas, brands have higher requirements for content quality. On the other hand, they will tend to choose some fixed institutions to achieve longer-term cooperation and make more precise placements in account selection."

The brand's demand for customized short dramas has created a living space for short drama teams to a certain extent, but it has also brought new challenges to the short drama production industry.

According to Guo Qingshuai, the current brand-customized short dramas generally focus on modern domineering themes, so the production of short dramas is highly homogenized in terms of character setting and plot. "This requires us to be innovative in some details of the story. For example, in 2023, we took the lead in trying workplace themes, and in 2024 we tried themes with a sense of the times, adding dancers as characters, which no one has done before."

Whether it is market data or policy guidance, the short drama track is still hot despite being increasingly crowded.

According to the "Short Drama Marketing Is Right: 2024 H1 Micro-Short Drama Industry Observation and Marketing Guide" released by Gouzheng Technology in July 2024, the number of brand-cooperated commercial micro-short dramas in the first half of 2024 increased by 68% year-on-year, and new brands accounted for 47%. On October 12 of the same year, under the guidance of the Network Audiovisual Program Management Department of the State Administration of Radio and Television, 18 units including Douyin, Kuaishou, Dianzhong, and Meituan jointly launched the "See Brands in Micro-Short Dramas" creation plan to explore the integration model of "short dramas + brands".

Obviously, the anchors who tried to sell goods through short dramas but returned with disappointment cannot reflect the real situation of the short drama market. Because the fast-iterating short drama track has just been tapped into its own value, and will also change into more new ways of playing in the content e-commerce field where content and commercialization are highly integrated.

Author | Xia Xia