The popular short drama on Douyin was finally taken down by Pinduoduo

In the short play, Pinduoduo still follows the logic of selling goods. Interested readers can take a look at the author's analysis.

The short drama that was locked on Douyin can be watched for free on Pinduoduo?

Recently, Pinduoduo's short drama channel has undergone a small-scale revision and launched a popular short drama list, which is specially marked as free to watch. It includes a total of 100 popular short dramas, and all are shown to have been completed.

It is worth noting that most of the short dramas on Pinduoduo's popular short drama list are popular dramas on Douyin and other networks, and the entire series can be watched for free. However, in the Douyin mini-program theater, only some episodes of these dramas are free to watch, and the subsequent dozens of episodes need to be paid to watch.

For example, "Mr. Gu's Second Marriage Wife", which currently ranks first on Pinduoduo's popular short drama list, is shown as free in its entirety on Pinduoduo. In the Douyin mini program, it is shown as paid viewing from the 15th episode onwards, and you also need to purchase a 128 yuan short drama monthly package to watch it on Bilibili.

On Xiaohongshu, there are dozens of posts with the theme of "Watch short dramas for free on Pinduoduo". Yilan Business observed that some short dramas on the Pinduoduo platform do not have the same account name as the Douyin platform, making it difficult to determine whether the same producer uses different accounts to operate. It is also impossible to tell whether the short dramas launched on Pinduoduo are genuine short dramas.

So why can short dramas that require payment on Douyin be watched for free on Pinduoduo? Is free broadcasting a privilege of Pinduoduo?

In the view of Yilan Business, the probability that the short dramas listed on Pinduoduo are pirated ones is not high.

On the one hand, this type of short drama is located under the short drama column on the homepage - Duoduo Video, which is an independent channel under Pinduoduo's official Duoduo Video. Generally, pirated short dramas are not listed in batches. On the other hand, when searching for "short drama" on Pinduoduo, there are already a large number of merchants selling pirated short dramas, usually selling links with the gimmick of "188 packages of 10,000 short dramas".

Moreover, in March this year, Bilibili just launched a special campaign against pirated short dramas. Piracy has caused dissatisfaction among both the creators of the short dramas and other platforms. Bilibili was under pressure and launched a special campaign against the piracy of online short dramas, removing illegal short dramas, silencing accounts or permanently banning them.

In fact, Pinduoduo’s short dramas are free, and they still follow the logic of exchanging price for user retention time.

Although short dramas mostly appear in a free form on Pinduoduo, videos promoting products can still be seen in the short drama section. Some netizens estimated that after watching about 7-9 episodes of short dramas, a video promoting products with a product jump link will pop up, and clicking on the link will take you directly to the product details page.

At the same time, the products pushed are basically highly matched with the user's recent search and browsing records. Users can watch the short drama while browsing videos of products they want to buy recently.

Obviously, the short drama section launched by Pinduoduo has successfully made traffic conversion into sales more effective. After all, for merchants or influencers, it can not only increase the chances of product exposure and increase user repurchase rate, but also improve user loyalty; and for the platform, it is equivalent to adding a new entrance to the public domain traffic of the goods-carrying video, which can be regarded as alleviating the anxiety of increasing traffic to a certain extent.

In contrast, the self-made short dramas on the Douyin platform prefer to embed products or product links in the plot. This is related to the short drama ecology of Douyin. As a content e-commerce platform, the initial rise of short dramas on Douyin has been tied to the brand side. Since this year, Douyin has emphasized "high-quality short dramas".

At the beginning of 2024, Douyin launched the "Chenxing Plan" to support high-quality short dramas, officially announcing that it would provide up to 5 million in cash and 100 million traffic support for high-quality projects; provide professional guidance services for the entire process of topic selection-script-production-operation-monetization; and provide professional guidance on the growth and operation of the Douyin accounts of partners.

This means that compared to Pinduoduo, Douyin is more deeply involved in the co-creation of short dramas.

It is worth noting that Yilan Business found that some short dramas that "disappeared" on Douyin can be played on Pinduoduo for the time being.

For example, in April, Douyin found that some short dramas promoted unhealthy and non-mainstream views on family and love, and deliberately exaggerated and exaggerated conflicts between husband and wife, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and adjusted the short dramas. Among them, a short drama called "The Counterattack of the Rich Lady" can be played temporarily on many Pinduoduo accounts.

Overall, Pinduoduo's short drama model is more in line with the tone of the platform itself, and is more in line with the needs of its audience in the sinking market.

First, Pinduoduo cares more about whether the short drama can bring effective conversion than the quality of the short drama. Therefore, most of the short dramas currently online are those that have been popular on other platforms. For example, "The Yandere Villain Strategy Plan" on the current hot list often appears in netizens' recommended movie lists with popular short dramas such as "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s".

Secondly, Pinduoduo's short drama ecosystem is still in its early stages. Most of the short dramas currently stored on Pinduoduo have been completed on other platforms, and have even been released multiple times. Take Fingertip Theater, one of the short drama suppliers, for example. Its short drama "My Dangerous Husband", which is in the payment cycle, has not yet been unlocked by Pinduoduo.

Finally, Pinduoduo’s low-price gene makes it prefer low-cost, more down-to-earth short dramas. Some media have reported that the short dramas currently launched on Pinduoduo are mostly about the grudges between wealthy families. If strictly classified according to the “Latest Work Tips on the Recording of Micro-Short Dramas” issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, these short dramas should belong to “other micro-short dramas” with a total investment of less than 300,000 yuan and not recommended.

At a time when short dramas are still very popular and making a lot of money, using a large number of free short dramas to attract traffic may just be a defensive way for Pinduoduo to compete. But at least for now, the "Pinduoduo" in the short drama track is still Pinduoduo.

Author: Li Yan WeChat public account: Yilan Business