My domineering spouse falls in love with me, a short play hunts for the wallet of a retired aunt

In the tide of the Internet, the middle-aged and elderly groups have gradually become a force that cannot be ignored. While young people are looking for love fantasies in idol dramas, a short drama called "Flash Marriage with a Rich Partner" has woven sweet dreams for retired aunts with its unique perspective. The drama quickly became popular among middle-aged and elderly women with its "domineering partner" setting. It not only set off 2.5 billion topics on Douyin, but also triggered a new discussion about the middle-aged and elderly market.

The whole drama reached its climax when the air-conditioning repairman revealed his identity as the chairman of the group and supported the bullied female protagonist.

The handsome and wealthy male protagonist, the sweet and kind female protagonist, and the sour and refreshing "face-slapping" plot are no different from the Taiwanese idol dramas that once swept a generation of primary and secondary school students. The difference is that the protagonists this time are not young handsome men and beautiful women, but uncles and aunts who look to be in their 40s and 50s, so much so that netizens joked in the comment area, "The domineering president fell in love with me who is in menopause" and "Oh no, this is for my mother."

"Flash Marriage with a Rich Partner", which has recently swept the entire Internet, has quickly become popular with labels such as "flash marriage", "sweet pet", and "female frequency". The number of topics on Douyin has exceeded 2.5 billion, and the number of views has reached 1.4 billion times, allowing countless short drama practitioners to see the possibility of another "wealth myth": creating a love fairy tale for middle-aged and elderly people.

"Everyone in the industry is asking about the recharge data. The platforms and contractors should be making a fortune." Director Hao Ge, who has been shooting short dramas for a year, heard that many crews are shooting or preparing similar sweet pet dramas for middle-aged and elderly people. "Now, there are at least nine out of ten sweet pet dramas for middle-aged and elderly people that are being filmed."

The short drama industry, which is as fast-growing as short dramas, is running wildly under the catalysis of the popular short dramas about middle-aged and elderly people. However, the short drama business for middle-aged and elderly people, which seems to be a blue ocean, is not a business that is sure to make money. There are also hidden waves under the sea.

1. Old bosses are wilder than young people

"Oh no, this is for my mom's pension."

In the comment section of "Flash Marriage Partner is a Rich Family", many netizens joked like this.

The 53-year-old group chairman Lei Zhiyuan hid his identity, changed into the clothes of an air-conditioner repairman, pretended that he had a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan, and went on a blind date with Shi Xiaoxiu, a 49-year-old aunt who sold boxed lunches at a stall. He was immediately moved by Shi Xiaoxiu's kindness and simplicity, and proposed to her on the spot - the short play was only in the 4th episode, and it had been broadcast for less than 8 minutes, and the male and female protagonists had already obtained their marriage certificate.

In the short drama "Flash Marriage at Fifty" launched in June this year, 45-year-old hotel lobby manager Li Xiuqin and 50-year-old group chairman Jiang Jianguo who pretended to be a taxi driver got their marriage certificate in the first episode, and then slapped their unfilial son and cruel ex-mother-in-law in the face, and "reached the peak of life."

On TikTok, the topic "Flash marriage at 50" has been played 470 million times, and netizens in the comment section made a simple summary: "The overbearing president fell in love with me, who is in menopause."

"These short dramas are aimed at women over 40 years old." In the opinion of the short drama director Hao Ge, this is no different from other sweet pet dramas in the short drama circle, "flash marriage, domineering boss, hero saving the beauty, counterattack... these are all overused routines of sweet pet dramas. The core has not changed at all, except that the protagonists have become middle-aged and elderly people."

The short play writer Kaorou also holds the same view, "Short plays about love for middle-aged and elderly people are mainly aimed at middle-aged and elderly women who do not receive enough emotional attention in their daily lives. For them, short plays about love for middle-aged and elderly people will have a stronger sense of immersion."

Looking at this batch of sweet dramas for middle-aged and elderly people that have swept the social platforms, the protagonists are all women over 40 years old, which makes it easy for the audience to "identify". The male protagonists are "old handsome men" of similar age, wearing various suits and Tang suits, and their identities are mostly group chairmen, which can be called the old version of the domineering president.

The male protagonists of the two short plays are both group chairman

The plots of the middle-aged and elderly sweet pet dramas also choose topics that middle-aged and elderly women are concerned about. From time to time, you can see quite "down-to-earth" plots such as being bullied by daughters-in-law, snatching square dance territory, and repairing ancestral tombs, which have attracted many viewers to make empathetic comments, "Same as my daughter-in-law", "What's the point of having such a son", "Facts have proved that a son in one life is not as good as a couple who get married halfway"...

If "Back to the 1980s as a Stepmother" and "Mr. Fu's Vest Can No Longer Be Hide After a Flash Marriage" hit the young people's yearning for love, then "Flash Marriage at Fifty" and "Flash Marriage with a Rich Partner" are idol dramas tailored for middle-aged and elderly people, attracting them to pay for them by providing emotional value.

Take "Flash Marriage: My Wife is a Wealthy Family" as an example. The whole show has 69 episodes, with an average of about 2 minutes per episode. It has a fast pace and exciting plot, and there is a reversal every four or five episodes. The first 15 episodes are free to watch, leaving a hook to attract users to pay: the domineering daughter-in-law asked her family to teach Shi Xiaoxiu a lesson, and Lei Zhiyuan rushed over and shouted angrily, "Let's see who dares to touch her!" Everyone looked up, and the plot came to an abrupt end.

Its theater number "Tuanyuan Theater" shows that it costs 1.4 yuan to unlock the next episode, and if you unlock more than three episodes at a time, you can get more discounts. The cost of watching the entire drama is between 26 and 60 yuan.

Although the platform did not disclose relevant revenue data, we can get a rough idea from the discussion of this short play and various charts. On August 29, "Flash Marriage My Partner is a Rich Family" was officially launched, and the next day it rushed to the third place on the DateEye Short Drama Hot List, and topped the list on August 31. The video released by "Reunion Theater" shows that as of September 6, the Douyin topic volume of "Flash Marriage My Partner is a Rich Family" has exceeded 2.5 billion.

2. Leading companies create elderly bosses

There are natural reasons for creating short dramas targeting middle-aged and elderly people.

On the one hand, short dramas are becoming more and more popular, and many short drama practitioners have turned their attention to the elderly market which has not yet been saturated.

The "2024 China Mobile Internet Spring Report" released by QuestMobile shows that the growth of female users in the mobile Internet population has exceeded that of male users, and the silver-haired population over 50 years old has become an important contributor to the growth of mobile Internet: as of March this year, the increase in users aged 51 and above reached 6 million, accounting for 26.5% of the total increase in the Internet. The "China Silver Economic Development Research Report" released by the Institute of Aging of Fudan University shows that the scale of the silver economy is expected to reach 19 trillion yuan in 2035.

All players want to get a piece of the trillion-dollar silver economy market, and the short drama market is no exception. In some ways, short dramas still have considerable advantages: the "2024 China Micro-Short Drama Industry Research Report" released by iResearch Consulting in July this year shows that among short drama users, users aged 40-59 account for 37.3%, while users over 60 years old account for 12.1%. At the same time, 55.3% of them are women.

Compared with the fiercely competitive short dramas for young people, there are fewer short dramas targeting middle-aged and elderly people in the industry. Putting the "sweet pet" and "reversal" short drama templates that have been verified by the market into the shell of the elderly can quickly attract middle-aged and elderly women who are willing to pay for it.

On the other hand, many short drama practitioners said that the main paying group recognized by the industry is middle-aged and elderly people.

In the opinion of screenwriter Kaorou, firstly, middle-aged and elderly people have fewer entertainment options to choose from; secondly, middle-aged and elderly people are relatively more financially well-off; and most importantly, middle-aged and elderly people do not quite know how to find free resources online.

Various short drama resources on social platforms

Su Han, a short drama investor, said that there are different levels of short drama recharges. If someone recharges a higher fee or makes multiple purchases, they will be marked as a high-quality user. Among the high-quality users, 60 to 70 percent are middle-aged and elderly users. "Young people will spend more than ten minutes looking for resources or spend a few dollars to buy the entire set of resources. Only middle-aged and elderly people who are not short of money and do not know how to find resources will recharge on the platform."

A rather hidden reason is that the elderly are not familiar with electronic products.

Su Han revealed that some short dramas are carried by mini-programs, which sometimes automatically check the "automatically unlock the next episode" option, or induce people to recharge to become monthly members, quarterly members, etc. Young people may pay attention to it in time, but some middle-aged and elderly people will be misled inadvertently.

It is worth noting that as early as 2022 when short dramas became popular, many practitioners had noticed the middle-aged and elderly market, but it was not until this year that a batch of sweet pet short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people appeared.

"There have been many short plays targeting middle-aged and elderly people before, but most of them are about family relationships, such as 'Mother's Honor Depends on Her Son's Success' and 'A Thousand Lights in a Thousand Homes: Boundless Mother's Love'," said Shuyi, who works for the short play producer.

As a short play writer, Kaorou has a more obvious sense of market changes. He said that some people wanted to make sweet short plays for middle-aged and elderly people before, but most companies in the short play industry were not very innovative: "Too much innovation may lead to failure. Most companies make micro-innovations based on the best-selling products, which is the safest way. Tianqiao (the platform of "Flash Marriage at 50") is relatively bold and has made breakthrough innovative short plays more than once."

When a hit short drama appears, a large number of "copycat" short dramas will appear, influencing the direction of the short drama industry. This June's "Flash Marriage at Fifty" gave birth to many love short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people.

"It takes 7-10 days to shoot, and two to three weeks to release the film. Short dramas are chasing 'hit items'. There are probably seven or eight sweet pet short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people being filmed now. Many companies are collecting scripts for short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people, and some are even directly asking for imitations of 'Flash Marriage My Wife is a Rich Family.'" Hao Ge said frankly that he himself was also looking for a suitable script for a short drama for middle-aged and elderly people, preparing to start shooting at the end of September.

3. Sweet pets for middle-aged and elderly people, hidden waves

The rapid development of short dramas and the temptation of the trillion-dollar silver market have made short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people regarded as a blue ocean in the red ocean by many short drama practitioners, but some practitioners have different views.

The hit drama "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s" in February has inspired a number of short dramas with similar themes.

"No one is sure whether a short drama can be popular or not. The consensus in the industry is that 'it depends on luck whether it will be a big hit.'" Kaorou said frankly that no one dares to predict how long the middle-aged and elderly love short dramas will be popular. The popularity of each short drama is cyclical. "Maybe a certain theme or type is particularly popular recently, and a large number of homogeneous short dramas appear. Everyone gets tired of them, and then a high-quality drama comes out in the next round, and another theme becomes popular again."

Kaorou also said that having a market does not necessarily make it easy to produce a hit. If short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people are really easy to make, then everyone will do it. "For example, a contractor I work with did not accept scripts about sweet pet themes for middle-aged and elderly people before. It was only after "Flash Marriage with a Rich Family" became popular that it started accepting related scripts."

In Shuyi's opinion, the popularity of short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people is actually no different from the popularity of other short dramas. It may become popular overnight, or it may fail just after the investment. Small companies dare not gamble on the probability, and only large companies have the cost of trial and error.

By observing the sweet pet dramas for middle-aged and elderly people that have emerged recently, it is not difficult to find that most of them are backed by leading companies in the short drama industry.

The company behind "Flash Marriage at Fifty" and "Sunset Rose" is Tianqiao Short Plays, the company behind "Flash Marriage Mom" ​​is Jiuzhou Short Plays, and the company behind "Flash Marriage Partner is a Rich Family" is Zhangwan... There are also many familiar faces among the actors. The elderly domineering president pretending to be a plumber in this drama pretends to be a taxi driver in another drama. The heroine who is the lobby manager in this drama plays a clerk in another drama.

The heroine of "Flash Marriage My Partner is a Wealthy Family" is filming another short drama

Companies that dare to choose new themes and open up new tracks are mostly short drama leading companies that entered the market earlier, have strong capital, and have more mature and complete teams. Their tolerance rate will also be higher. With the support of leading companies, the production process of many short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people is almost the same as that of regular short dramas.

However, short drama companies are more cautious about innovation. The main reason is that as short dramas become more sophisticated, the production costs of the dramas are also rising.

"Everyone is in a rush now. Scripts, directors and actors are getting more and more expensive, and the budget for costumes and props is also increasing." Shuyi gave an example. Two years ago, an actor in a short drama with good acting skills earned two to three thousand yuan a day, but now, an actor with good acting skills earns more than 10,000 yuan a day, and a top actor who has produced hit movies earns more than 20,000 yuan a day.

The production cost of a short play has risen to 200,000 to 600,000 yuan, and the production cost of some high-quality short plays can reach 1 million yuan or even higher.

In addition to the production costs, there are higher streaming costs.

"For short dramas that can make money, the traffic cost is generally around 90% of the recharge amount. For example, if you recharge 10 million, 9 million are traffic costs, and the ROI of a short drama is generally 1.1-1.2. If the recharge is much greater than the traffic cost, it means that the traffic is not yet saturated." Screenwriter Kaorou said that in order for short dramas to reach as many people as possible who may pay and seize potential payment opportunities, the traffic link is crucial.

But if you invest in traffic, you will definitely get more traffic. Su Han once invested in a short drama about counterattack, but spent 30,000 to 40,000 yuan and it didn't get more traffic. "In the end, I lost a few thousand. The acting of the actors in that drama was actually okay, and the theme was also relatively popular, but it just failed. I can only say that I was unlucky."

In contrast to the high cost is the short life cycle of short dramas.

On September 4, the popularity of "Flash Marriage with a Rich Family" dropped to seventh place

The recharge cycle of a short drama is about one week. After one week, the recharge of the short drama is very small. In Kaorou's opinion, even a phenomenal hit drama can only survive for about two weeks, "after two weeks, it will basically no longer be on various rankings."

The short drama industry is changing rapidly. During its short survival period, short drama producers and platforms have to be faster, follow hot topics, speed up production, speed up online launches, and invest heavily to gain a chance of becoming popular.

"Zhangwan is preparing for the second season of 'Flash Marriage, My Spouse is a Rich Family', which is expected to be released in October. The male and female protagonists have also recently filmed other short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people." Hao Ge admitted that making sweet pet short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people is a "gamble", and even big companies may fail. "In July, Tianqiao released a drama called 'Sunset Rose'. The heroine is Wu Qian, who played Shi Xiaoxiu in 'Flash Marriage, My Spouse is a Rich Family'. It is also a flash marriage sweet pet theme, but the response to this drama was not high, with only more than one million views."

Shuyi's company is not planning to produce sweet pet dramas for middle-aged and elderly people. In their opinion, instead of making risky short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people, it is better to polish the short dramas with popular themes on hand. "The middle-aged and elderly groups will also pay for ordinary short dramas. For example, middle-aged and elderly men will pay for urban war god themes, and middle-aged and elderly women will pay for urban sweet pet dramas. Compared with making short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people, making ordinary short dramas for men and women has less risks."

No one can predict what the next hit short drama will be, and no company or platform can guarantee that the short drama they create will be a hit. The bonus period of short dramas is getting shorter and shorter, and many practitioners are constantly seeking new possibilities. Multi-channel distribution, making customized dramas, high-quality dramas, or going overseas, or targeting the middle-aged and elderly are all ways to find new opportunities.

Editor｜Wang Yaqi This article is written by the author of Operation Party [Wang Zhan], WeChat public account: [E-commerce Online], original/authorized to be published on Operation Party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

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