Who is helping the skits “hunt” the elderly?

The main audience of skits has gradually become the elderly, which has brought both positive and negative effects. Let’s read this article to find out.

At some point, short plays became "electronic health products" for the elderly, gradually emptying their already tight wallets.

Recently, the China Consumers Association released an analysis of complaints received by national consumer associations in the first quarter of 2024. The most noteworthy point in the article is that short video platforms use algorithms to target the elderly and push bizarre and exaggerated "micro-short dramas", and then induce them to continue watching at extremely low prices and enable password-free payment by default, and then deduct fees by episode and automatically play the next episode. So why are short dramas accurately fed to the elderly as if they were positioned, and how do they reach into the pockets of the elderly?

One netizen said that his mother was watching a short drama on WeChat Mini Program. After watching one episode, a 9.9 yuan payment link popped up. His mother thought that if she recharged, she could watch the whole series, but she only unlocked the next episode. Two or three minutes later, another link popped up asking her to pay. "My mother is 59 years old this year and doesn't know how to use a smartphone very well," the netizen said, believing that some short dramas have a tendency to induce the elderly to pay.

It is reported that the elderly are not proficient in using mobile phones. After being misled by advertisements such as "9.9 yuan to watch videos" and "Only 0.9 yuan to unlock one episode", it is difficult for them to notice options such as "only one episode" and "automatically unlock the next episode by default", resulting in them being charged without their knowledge.

After the children found out, they still had to face the cumbersome procedures for appeal. Many netizens said that it takes a lot of time and energy to file a complaint, and some businesses even "changed their names" or directly removed the videos, making it difficult to protect their rights.

In addition, the reason why these short dramas can successfully "entice" the elderly is related to the purchase of traffic on major platforms. All you need to do is upload some online short drama slices on the short video platform, hang relevant mini programs under the sliced ​​videos, and accurately place and purchase traffic for these sliced ​​videos to quickly reach the target audience. When the audience is attracted by the sliced ​​videos and wants to continue watching, they will click the relevant advertising button and enter the mini program to be "harvested".

There is a reason why users are directed to mini programs. “WeChat mini programs have more ways to play, and when used with WeChat Pay, they have more routines and can make transactions faster. They can also attract other users through fission,” said an industry insider.

It is also because of the low cost of WeChat Mini Programs that these short drama platforms that grew up on WeChat Mini Programs may "run away" at any time like gyms and barber shops. Many short drama companies have backed up hundreds or thousands of mini programs. If one is blocked, they will change the name and hang a new jump link to make a comeback. The cost of a mini program is about 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. It only relies on precise flow to attract users, and there is no need to build word of mouth. As for those paying users, they can only swallow the bitter pill. Asking for a refund is almost like looking for a needle in a haystack.

In fact, in the entire industrial chain, in addition to the producers of short dramas, we must also seize the disseminators who obtain the largest share of profits, namely WeChat Video Account, Douyin, Kuaishou and other related network platforms.

For the platforms, the development of short dramas has been booming, which has made them taste the sweetness, but the business model must not be built on the basis of consumer traps. Major platforms should assume corresponding regulatory responsibilities, increase supervision, start governance from the source, increase the intensity of third-party user qualification review and content review, persuade consumers to pay carefully, and at the same time, open up complaint channels to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, especially elderly consumers.

As the chaos in the short drama industry spreads to the C-end, one fact that cannot be ignored is that the profitability of short dramas is extremely dependent on investment, that is, by placing advertisements on the platform to help the short dramas accurately find the target audience. Therefore, paid short dramas can be said to have taken the logic of "content finding people" under the recommendation mechanism to the extreme, creating profits for the platform, but also making the platform with poor supervision become an "accomplice" in creating chaos in the industry.

Author: Wang Siyuan

WeChat public account: New Entropy