It’s hard to make money from short dramas anymore, but Mi Meng is still making a lot of money?

This article introduces the successful cases and business models of the Mimi Meng team in the field of short dramas, and analyzes how they continuously create hits in the short drama market through content control and marketing strategies.

Recently, two short dramas produced by Mimi Meng’s team have become popular one after another.

During the National Day holiday, the short play "I Open a Supermarket on the Long March Road" was broadcast for free on Douyin. It was played over 10 million times in 7 hours and the number of topics exceeded 100 million. A screenshot of Mi Meng's Moments circulated online showed that this was Mi Meng's "most important work this year. It's a big hit. I want to cry!"

Image source: I opened a supermarket on the Long March Road official Weibo

Then last month, a short drama titled "Flash Marriage with a Rich Partner" became a hit on major platforms.

After its launch on August 27, "Flash Marriage with a Rich Family" topped the popularity chart for five consecutive days. In just half a month after its launch, the total number of Douyin topics exceeded 2.5 billion, and the number of native views on the platform exceeded 500 million.

When you click on the series, you will find the familiar domineering CEO formula and the "cool" plot setting. The male and female protagonists are played by middle-aged and elderly actors, the plot fits the living conditions of middle-aged and elderly people, the subject matter is novel, the rhythm is tight, and the production is also very excellent, which makes people more and more "addicted" to it.

Let’s take a look at the producer of the drama - Tinghua Island, which is the short drama brand under Mimi Meng’s "October 5th Film and Television Company".

There is always a group of people who are attracted to Mi Meng in different eras. This was the case in the era of public accounts in the past, and it is also the case in the era of short videos today.

After leaving the official account, Mi Meng switched to the short video track, and then entered the short drama market, becoming one of the first players to eat the short drama "cake". In November last year, Tinghua Island launched the hit short drama "The Black Lotus Promotion Manual", which attracted nearly 20 million yuan in recharges within 24 hours of its launch.

Afterwards, Tinghua Island made a comeback during the Spring Festival this year, launching "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s" and "Boss Pei Wants to Become a Stepmother Every Day", both of which achieved considerable profits. On the day of its launch, "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s" had a single-day recharge of more than 20 million. Regarding the share of income from these two dramas, Tinghua Island mentioned that each drama was about 5 million.

Currently, the short drama track is crowded with a large number of players. Severe internal competition has raised the threshold for screenwriters, producers, and investors. Voices such as "the short drama industry is cooling down" and "it's becoming more difficult to make money" are heard one after another.

However, Tinghuadao has produced many hits. Mi Meng's team continues to make money in the short drama industry by controlling the content of the series, grasping the emotions of consumers, and large-scale investment and marketing.

In addition, Mimi Meng's team adopted an end-native business model in the promotion of "Flash Marriage with a Rich Family". This model can minimize the platform's share ratio and bring higher profits to the producers.

In the "red ocean" of the short drama industry, Mimi Meng has explored a "blue ocean". However, this road is still accompanied by controversy and doubts, which tests the response capabilities of Mimi Meng's team.

01 Short dramas are cooling down, but Mi Meng’s short dramas are still popular

In 2024, short dramas began to show signs of cooling down, and both the production and distribution ends felt the pressure brought by the industry's internal circulation.

In March this year, the topic "A couple earns more than 400 million yuan a month by making short dramas" became a hot search, sparking a discussion on the income of popular short dramas, and also revealing another corner of the short drama industry that is not so profitable.

At that time, Phoenix.com reported that some people working in the short drama industry said that the industry is not as profitable as everyone imagines, and the basic salary of most short drama screenwriters is around 4,000-6,000 yuan. If the screenwriter wants to get a commission, it depends on the recharge amount of the "Mini Program Short Drama", which can only be obtained when it reaches 5 million or 10 million or more. "The market is currently saturated, and the probability of 1 out of 10 short dramas making money is very low."

In addition, as the industry develops and matures, more and more powerful players are entering the short drama track.

Production and streaming platforms such as Dianzhong and Jiuzhou have gradually grown and developed. A number of video platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili have launched short drama support plans. Well-known directors and teams in the film and television industry such as Stephen Chow and Happy Twist have also begun to announce their entry into short dramas.

9527, a short play theater brand initiated by Stephen Chow, source: 9527 Theater official TikTok

The more players there are, the more competitive the market will be. As a result, the threshold for producing short dramas has been raised continuously. The industry has long left the era of "copying to become popular", and the scriptwriters' writing methods using routines are no longer effective.

A short play screenwriter revealed to Photon Planet that he recently submitted a six-episode draft to a short play company. Although the text had less than 10,000 words in total, it was left hanging for five full days, and he finally received a "sorry".

Another person in charge of a short play script studio told the Daily Economic News, "At the beginning of this year, we submitted a total of 10 scripts to multiple platforms, but all of them were 'rejected.' In 2023, we will only make homogeneous scripts. For example, if the protagonist has an accident, we need 'panda blood'. I thought this kind of 'success' could be replicated for a long time, but I didn't expect the same 'formula' to fail this year."

Short dramas, born in the fragmented information age, still cannot escape the essence of their business where traffic is king. In addition to production, the cost of short dramas also depends on "investing traffic". Behind the high recharge, there is often a huge investment cost.

Most short drama practitioners live in the shadow of "fearing that the drama will not be a hit in the early stage, and it will be difficult to afford the investment and streaming fees in the later stage". The industry as a whole attaches great importance to the return on investment ratio - ROI indicator. As long as the ROI is positive, no matter how much money is invested, it will be profitable.

But achieving high ROI is a difficult proposition. According to 21st Century Business Herald, although some short drama projects can achieve high returns, overall, the industry presents a typical "80/20 rule", that is, 20% of projects make money or break even, and 80% of projects lose money.

In addition, the "streamers" who are responsible for editing the highlights of the skits and posting them on various social platforms have begun to be laid off. According to a report by 21st Century Business Herald, many companies are laying off 20% to 30% of the streamer positions.

However, amid the complaints of industry insiders, the Tinghuadao team controlled by Mimi Meng is still the hit-making machine in the short drama industry. In recent years, many of the hit dramas commonly seen on social platforms are produced by Tinghuadao.

One of the representative works is "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s". This drama was launched around the Spring Festival this year, and immediately stood out among a number of short dramas with similar plots at the time, such as "God of War" and "The President Falls in Love with Me", and once set off a trend of "I was XX in XX" in the circle.

Screenshot of the short play "I was a stepmother in the 1980s", source: Hongguo Short Play APP

On February 12, DataEye’s short drama popularity ranking showed that the drama ranked second on the list on the day it was released, with a single-day recharge of over 20 million. On the fourth day of the Chinese New Year this year, the short drama topped the Douyin short drama popularity ranking, with a popularity value of nearly 10 million.

In addition to "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s", there are also "Boss Pei Wants to Become a Stepmother Through His Son Every Day", "Bring Her into the House", "Such a Mysterious Man", "The Night is About to Dawn", "The President's Number One Wife", "The Evil Concubine is Above", "The Legend of the Palace Maids", etc., all produced by Tinghuadao.

Especially the latest short play for middle-aged and elderly people - "Flash Marriage with a Rich Partner" has become a short play that has attracted a lot of money on Tinghua Island after the Spring Festival.

Within half a month of the series' launch, the total number of Douyin topics exceeded 2.5 billion, and the number of native views on the terminal exceeded 500 million. It topped the major short drama charts for several days, becoming the "national hit" online short drama in 2024.

According to data provided by the producer of the drama, cited by the Economic Observer, by the end of September, the total recharge amount for this short drama was approximately 30 million yuan, of which 80% was investment costs and channel fees, the producer's share generally accounted for 5% to 7%, and the original revenue on the terminal was around 2 million yuan.

After becoming very successful in the middle-aged and elderly market, Tinghuadao launched another short drama with a main theme - "I Open a Supermarket on the Long March Road". The drama consists of 5 episodes and will be launched on Douyin on October 1, with one episode per day.

The drama has attracted widespread attention since it was broadcast. Douyin playback data shows that the number of likes in each episode can reach more than 500,000, and there are at least 26,000 comments in the comment section of each episode.

However, there are also some controversies in the discussion. For example, some viewers think that such a serious content as the Long March of the Red Army should not be added with too many modern and entertaining elements.

These doubts did not stop the show from becoming a hit. The show was broadcast for 7 hours, with over 10 million views for a single episode and over 100 million topics discussed.

In the world of short dramas, Mimi Meng and her team grasped the traffic code.

02 In the world of short dramas, why are those produced by Mi Meng so popular?

In the short drama industry with many players, if you want your work to become a hit, you cannot make any mistakes from content to marketing.

Taking the hit short drama produced by Tinghuadao as an example, it knows how to "grasp" the audience's emotions from the title of the drama.

The titles of dramas with more words are full of catchy words, such as "I was a stepmother in the 1980s", "Flash marriage to a wealthy partner", and "Boss Pei wants to be honored by his son every day". The sense of curiosity created by the arrangement and combination of these words may attract the audience to stay for a few more seconds.

The titles of dramas with fewer words are easy to read and remember. In particular, the titles of the series of works produced by Huadao recently with revenge as the main theme are somewhat mysterious, such as "Bring Her into the Room", "The Night Will Dawn", "The Demon Concubine", "The Legend of the Palace Maid", etc.

Screenshot of the short play "The Demon Concubine Is Above", source: Hongguo Short Play APP

In terms of plot setting, the short drama should have a rhythm of one exciting point every two or three episodes.

Bai Qian in the TV series "Eternal Love" needs 16 episodes to ascend from a mortal to a fairy.

The heroines in the short dramas often enter the revenge phase from the first episode. Rebirth dramas start when the protagonist is reborn and opens her eyes, and counterattack dramas start when the protagonist is ready to counterattack. The "frustrated" past only appears in flashbacks, and the protagonist's hard work is also glossed over.

Although the logic of the hit drama scripts is simple, there are no major loopholes. The abnormal behavior of the protagonists all have reasons, and the suspense will be solved soon. Many scripts will portray the beautiful character of women in details, and these settings can attract the audience's favor.

For example, the heroines in revenge dramas are not blinded by hatred and still retain their kind nature at critical moments; the heroines in domineering boss dramas can still maintain an optimistic and positive attitude under the multiple oppressions of their original families and work pressures.

In many hit dramas, you can also see some shadows of benchmarking and reference to TV dramas, but when you watch it to the end you will find that it does not copy the routine of the original drama.

For example, in "The Evil Concubine", the heroine added alum to the water used in the blood test, intending to frame the imperial concubine for having an affair with the guard, but the incident was finally resolved by the imperial concubine admitting her crime out of fear.

In addition, some popular dramas also add some golden sentences at the right time, and consumers can resonate with the "golden sentences", which also tests the writing skills of the screenwriters.

For example, "Before you get ashore, you should kill the person you love first. The right person will stand in your future" and "It is her love that gilds you and makes you forget who you are" and so on.

The script must be "cool", and the production team must keep up. Although the actors chosen for the hit dramas are not well-known, their looks are quite recognizable, and the supporting roles are also more in line with the character settings.

Looking at the costumes, props, framing, shooting rhythm, lighting, etc., many popular short dramas are as exquisite as TV dramas. Some also use some camera language to make metaphors. For example, in "The Legend of the Royal Maid", after the heroine designs to let the nanny snatch her crystal hairpin, the camera passes through the square hole under the edge of the wooden table and closes up the heroine's face, implying her situation of "surviving in the cracks" at that time.

Screenshot of the short play "The Legend of the Royal Maid", source: Hongguo Short Play APP

The content producer cannot make any mistakes, and the platform responsible for promoting the short drama must also have strong content identification and streaming capabilities.

It is understood that the platform has gathered a group of traffic investors, each of whom will store about 100 pieces of materials in hand before the official launch, and according to the plan, match the test account and allocate a test budget of several thousand to tens of thousands.

After the streaming begins, the streamer will put the edited highlights of the short play into the platform for a trial, and then decide whether to continue streaming or consider re-editing the clips based on the subsequent results.

The pitcher is also responsible for thinking up eye-catching copy for the clips he pitches, such as "After the divorce, he took his first love to buy a plane, and unexpectedly saw his ex-wife on the big screen, and he collapsed", "A high-quality short drama is coming, and the heroine is too addictive, especially the 13th episode", etc. In addition, the pitcher also needs to participate in the decision-making of which episode the user pays and how much to pay.

As a content producer, Tinghuadao has two long-term cooperative platforms, namely Zhangwan Network and Dianzhong Technology. The platforms are also relatively generous in their investment in popular dramas.

According to the 21st Century Business Herald, taking "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" as an example, based on the industry's general ROI calculation of 1:1.2, behind the myth of over 100 million yuan in recharges, its investment costs are often between 60 and 80 million yuan.

And the more popular a drama is, the longer the streaming cycle is. According to DataEye's short drama report, in the first half of 2024, the average streaming time for new dramas is about 6 days, but the streaming time for popular short dramas is over 100 days, which is more than 16 times that of new dramas.

It can be seen from this that if a short drama wants to become popular, every link from production to investment must consider whether the audience can see it and whether they can pay after seeing it.

03 Mimi Meng, how much does she earn from short dramas?

After entering the short drama industry, Mimi Meng has mastered all business models of short dramas.

According to the latest research report released by iResearch Consulting, short video platforms are gradually forming three main micro-short drama models: boutique label dramas/brand championship dramas, situational dramas/drama short videos, and native paid dramas.

From the perspective of content type, most of the hit short dramas mentioned above belong to the model of boutique brand dramas/brand championship dramas. Their main business model is platform co-production + traffic sharing, brand championship, and brand unit cooperation.

Among them, the form of platform joint production + traffic sharing can be understood as the platform is responsible for funding, and the contractor is responsible for content. The co-produced short dramas will be returned to the platform for traffic investment, and then the revenue will be divided according to the traffic investment results.

This model directly leads to high investment and traffic costs. Mi Meng's team is the producer of hit dramas, but it seems that they are not as profitable as Internet platforms such as Douyin.

According to DT Business Observation data, in terms of the revenue sharing of the upstream and downstream industries of short dramas, more than 80% of the money was earned by platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou.

According to Red Star News, after the hit of "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s", Dianzhong Technology, the co-producer of Tinghuadao, was exposed to have a monthly income of 400 million yuan. However, one of its actual controllers, Chen Ruiqing, responded that "the real situation is not as good as everyone says. This industry is not as profitable as everyone thinks. Revenue and profit are two different things. Our gross profit margin is only 10%."

In an environment where traffic prices are high, brand-customized short dramas have become a model favored by more people in the industry.

One of the most typical examples of brand-customized short dramas is Hanshu. Hanshu has collaborated with the talent "Jiang Shiqi" on a total of five brand-customized short dramas. "Jiang Shiqi" brought Hanshu 5 billion views and a greatly increased GMV; Hanshu brought "Jiang Shiqi" a higher value. According to Gelonghui's report at the time, data showed that the quotation for one episode of "Jiang Shiqi's" customized short drama was 558,000.

While Hansu and "Jiang Shiqi" were achieving mutual success, Mimi Meng was revealed to have a close relationship with the MCN Silver Land where Jiang Shiqi was located - Silver Land turned out to be Mimi Meng's team.

According to Qichacha, the legal representative of Silver Land is Zhang Jingsi, who was once one of the shareholders of Mi Meng's company. At the same time, the email prefix used in the recruitment information released by Silver Land is also the email prefix of Mi Meng, "mm_hr". All signs show that there is a close connection between Silver Land and Mi Meng.

Image source: Qichacha

"Yuan Mi Meng's team" can be said to be the background color of Silver Land. According to the calculation of the article of Biniu in August 2023, the three talents "Jiang Shiqi", "Qiao Qiyue" and "Hao Jie Lai Le" belonging to Silver Land have an estimated total income of more than 46 million in 90 days, and more than 180 million in one year.

Recently, Mimi Meng has earned net income through a new model - native end, and has once again attracted attention from the industry.

Native short dramas are created on platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, where users can pay to watch short dramas directly. In addition to paying a small service fee to platforms represented by Douyin, the film producers can keep the rest of the income in their own pockets.

The recently popular "Flash Marriage with a Rich Partner" among the middle-aged and elderly adopts an end-native business model.

Open the TikTok platform and search for the name of the drama, you can see the name: Short Drama: Flash Marriage, Spouse is a Rich Family’s Account. After clicking in, you can see the purchase button. Click to buy TikTok coins to watch the full episode.

Home page of the short play "Flash Marriage with a Rich Family", source: TikTok APP

According to the Economic Observer, the current total recharge amount for this short drama is about 30 million yuan, of which 80% is the cost of investment and channel fees, the producer's share generally accounts for 5% to 7%, and the original income of the terminal is about 2 million yuan.

An investor told the Economic Observer that in the past, the producer's share of the traditional IAP business model was only 5%. "Flash Marriage: A Rich Family" attracted concentrated attention in the industry because its terminal native model generated pure income and became a model for the segmented track.

In addition to the innovation of business models, after the hit of "Flash Marriage Boss is Rich", a batch of short dramas targeting middle-aged and elderly groups will emerge in the short drama industry.

It can be said that Mimi Meng and her team reaped the first wave of benefits from short dramas through trial and error.

Text: Dou Wenxue, Editor: Ziye This article is written by the author of Operation School [Connect Insight], WeChat public account: [Connect Insight], original/authorized to be published in Operation School, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.