The short drama industry welcomes new forces. How do the old big companies stir up the trillion-dollar market?

The short drama industry has recently ushered in a new wave, with many established Internet giants entering the market to explore content innovation and business models, stirring up this trillion-dollar market.

In the Xinwaner community, from time to time, group members would look for the contact information of a certain platform. Hongguo, Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili... they called one after another. As the growing value of short dramas is seen, various gameplays configured by various platforms emerge in an endless stream. Even though practitioners are dazzled, they still follow up happily.

Establishing a connection with one more platform will give you one more opportunity for cooperation, and the cost realization of your next drama will be more secure. After all, in the short drama market, which is treading on thin ice, no one can cover the bottom for you except yourself.

Recently, there is one more company that group members discuss on a daily basis: Baidu.

More and more people are beginning to notice that this old Internet company has already entered the short drama market. If you really think Baidu is a newbie in short dramas, then you are a bit of a newbie.

During this year's Spring Festival, a short drama channel was launched on the homepage of Baidu APP, which includes various types of short drama content such as parent-child, family, hometown, etc. Corresponding short dramas with Spring Festival themes were also launched, such as "The New Year Can't Stop", "Interesting Things in the New Year", etc., capturing the first wave of hot spots in the Year of the Dragon.

But what many people don’t know is that Baidu’s short drama business had already started for several months before this.

Looking at the entire Internet, a number of Internet platforms have entered the short drama market. In terms of the content of short dramas, this content product, which was once not favored by the public market, has a formal identity; for old Internet companies, after experiencing waves of baptisms of the times, Internet giants have once again found new growth.

Just search for a certain drama on the Internet platform and you can watch a free short drama. Is that surprising? Is that surprising?

1. Old Internet companies gather in the short drama industry

This year's short drama market is both lively and exciting.

The exciting thing is that favorable policies emerge one after another from various platforms; the annoying thing is that policies come one after another. Short drama practitioners used to be only good at shooting short dramas, but now, in addition to shooting short dramas, they also have to study the policies of each Internet platform.

Xinwaner often communicates with industry practitioners, and everyone is a bit troubled by this matter. The main reason is that everyone does not understand the policies of various institutions, so they can only follow up silently:

"We follow whatever policies the platform issues and study various terms one by one."

Let’s first look at the overall policy pace of each Internet platform this year. On January 18, Douyin launched the Star Plan; on January 25, Kuaishou launched the “Starry Short Drama”; on February 2, Tencent Video launched the “Brand Short Drama Recruitment Plan”; on March 29, Tencent Video launched the “Urban Mars Plan”, Mango TV launched the “Big Mango Plan”, and Taobao launched the “Short Drama Support Policy”.

As of June, various policies have been continuously introduced. Kuaishou Xingmang opened a cultural and tourism theme cooperation channel on May 10; Baidu launched the "Short Drama Partner" plan + short drama open platform in June; Douyin launched the "Male Frequency Short Drama Incentive Policy" on June 29.

Public information shows that Baidu has put a lot of effort into the layout of its short drama business, and has also laid out free dramas, paid dramas, customized dramas and exclusive dramas. It has also cooperated with external film and television companies, MCNs, short drama production companies, and even government cultural and tourism departments on related content. A series of organizational adjustments also convey the top-down emphasis on the short drama business.

Of course, other platforms have also made sufficient preparations. For example, Xiaohongshu launched the "Shudi Drama Light Plan", which combines the platform's own talent resources to encourage talents to create short drama content and also launched a corresponding reward mechanism. In addition, Bilibili launched 20 high-quality content such as suspense and campus.

Each platform has chosen the content direction that suits it and found the content positioning of short dramas. After Baidu operated in a low-key manner for half a year, the public information at this year's Baidu Wanxiang Conference showed that the number of short dramas has increased by more than 100% month-on-month for several consecutive quarters.

In June, Baidu announced the "Short Drama Partner" plan and short drama open platform. On the one hand, it proved that six months of low-key trial has shown improvement. On the other hand, Baidu has found a path that suits itself.

So, how did the "Short Drama Partner" plan and the short drama open platform become the driving force behind the short drama content map of Baidu APP?

2. Short drama market targets young people

The emergence of new themes and content that are different from the previous "earthy" short dramas has brought new population growth to the industry, and young people are gradually falling into the "short drama" trap.

Some time ago, there was a short play that was very successful and many people watched it, which was "Bring Her In". Compared with previous short plays, "Bring Her In" has made some innovations in terms of plot, actors, and shooting and production.

It is said that short plays are a kind of dialect. The emergence of "Bring Her In" means that short play dialect is heading towards a more public market. Many people who once resisted short plays have refreshed their understanding of short play content because of "Bring Her In".

"Bring Her In" is a suspense drama. This kind of suspense-themed short drama was rare before. After all, the core of short dramas is to serve the sinking market. Therefore, the bloody content, emotional impact and visual impact can bring short-term stimulation to the sinking market.

The content of suspense themes requires thinking and speculation, and tends to be strong logical, so this type of suspense themes focuses on young groups in first-tier cities.

In the Internet circle, there is more than one suspense short drama called "Bring Her In".

Xinwaner accidentally saw before that Baidu and Linekong Interactive Group (HK.08267), a Hong Kong-listed company, cooperated to produce the first micro-short drama - "The Bone-Eroding Princess", which was exclusively broadcast on Baidu APP and Haokan Video APP.

"The Bone-Eroding Thousand Gold" is a short drama that tends to be on a certain topic. The plot, character settings, costumes, props, and acting skills of this drama are all innovative.

The drama tells the story of a kind-hearted hostess of a wealthy family who, upon seeing her biological sister encountering family misfortune, lets her sister Li Wei and her daughter live in her home.

Who would have thought that the other party was viciously jealous of my sister's life, quietly killed her sister, married her brother-in-law, and drove my sister's twin children out of the house and sent them abroad, and did not give the children living expenses for more than ten years.

Many years later, brother and sister Lin Mo and Lin Feng returned to China and their former home. They joined forces with Lin Mo's CEO boyfriend Fu Chen to take back their own lives, and their stepmother was also punished by law.

"The Bone-Eroding Daughter" was launched along with the summer short drama event of Baidu APP. In addition, there are "The Most Familiar Stranger", "Mom Loves You", "The Crazy Doctor: The Young Master Returns", "Miss, Please Allow Me to Be Unruly"... Classic family themes such as "The Most Familiar Stranger" and "Mom Loves You" have set off a content trend in the short drama market after March this year.

By comparing the content of various Internet platforms, we can find that everyone's short drama content paths have achieved the overlap of content tone and quality while maintaining their own attitudes and styles. The subject matter and quality of these short drama contents are in line with the preferences of young people for short dramas.

For example, several short dramas in the Baidu APP summer activities follow the market in terms of subject matter, with classic family themes and suspense themes being carried out simultaneously. The content quality can also maintain the same level as the hit dramas, and a lot of details have been processed. While stabilizing middle-aged users, the platform can also attract young groups.

Diversified content layout is a distinctive feature of short drama content produced by Internet platforms at this stage.

3. Each has its own strengths and different playing styles

The meaning of short plays on different platforms is different, which is determined by the nature of each platform.

For Douyin, short dramas carry multiple meanings. They mark the beginning of the commercialization process of multiple businesses of ByteDance, and also represent the transition of short video content to short drama content under the original fragmented time of Douyin.

For Mango TV, it means the growth and vitality brought by the new content format; for Baidu, it also means something similar:

Everything is for growth. Growth is a problem that all Internet companies will face.

All Internet companies are trying to make the most of short dramas, but the effects they present to the outside world vary, which has formed the characteristics of each company.

For example, the Douyin platform has a large number of young users and its traffic is large enough, so the short drama ads can be converted into stronger brand value and high CPM. However, the cost of Douyin's cooperative short dramas is very high, and the content is mainly customized.

There is also the Kuaishou platform. It is undeniable that the "Xingmang" label is a powerful tool for Kuaishou. It represents the content quality of Kuaishou, the standardized production management process, and the considerable brand commercial monetization capabilities.

On the other side of the coin, those who are interested will find that Kuaishou rarely mentions its IAA business and its monetization model is relatively single.

Baidu has a natural advantage in the short drama business. You only need to search for a drama on the Baidu APP to watch it for free. In addition, as Baidu APP continues to optimize its content recommendation mechanism, users can more easily develop the habit of watching short dramas here.

In addition, the essence of the "Short Drama Open Platform" is to transfer Baijiahao's previous operating path centered around vertical and general knowledge creators to short dramas.

The "Short Drama Partner" plan will launch corresponding gameplay for free short dramas, paid short dramas, customized dramas, and exclusive dramas.

Taking free short dramas as an example, Baidu has developed a "traffic betting" game. If the betting target chosen by the partner is achieved within two weeks, he can receive a one-time promised bonus and a share of the profits.

Of course, you can also choose not to gamble, and simply use the profit-sharing model to calculate incentive bonuses based on accumulated traffic.

The platform has copyright protection regulations for both free and paid dramas, and the business chain is clear. However, the platform entered the market a little late, and has been quietly polishing the short drama business for half a year, and has been exploring the best commercialization path for short dramas.

There are also Hongguo and Pinduoduo that mainly use the IAA model. During this period, I often hear people in the industry talking about the issue of IAA profit sharing. Many companies have already had stable income in the IAA model.

The short drama business of each established Internet company is different. From the perspective of each company's behavior path, this is like a competition for users and resources. If we think about it from the essence of each business, this is a competition about models.

When comparing the paid model and the free model on the C-end, when comparing the customized drama and the implanted drama model on the B-end, or when comparing the Cultural and Tourism Bureau and the exclusive drama, every choice the company makes is related to the future.

In the current market, Douyin and Baidu have all-round layouts, while Kuaishou, Pinduoduo, and Hongguo each have their own strengths. We look forward to the veteran Internet players who will truly win the future in this short drama competition.