Lei Jun is going to play a skit with Xiaomi? This is not very domineering

The popularity of short dramas remains strong in 2024.

"Mimeng earned over 100 million yuan from 2 short dramas during the winter vacation", "Filming was completed in one week and the money was collected in three months", "800 million yuan was collected in 8 days"... The spread of these myths of wealth creation is more penetrating than the small advertisements on telephone poles back then. Especially with the help of short video platforms, the bubble of short dramas is getting bigger and bigger. For example, Douyin launched a support plan of up to 5 million cash and 100 million traffic, and Kuaishou also said that it would invest hundreds of millions of traffic and 100 million cash to support micro short dramas.

Influenced by this, long video platforms such as iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video also hope to get a piece of the pie and speed up the incubation and output of high-quality short dramas. E-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo are also trying to integrate shopping and short dramas to create new shopping scenes to increase user stay time.

What surprised many people is that Xiaomi is also among the newest players. Could it be that Lei Jun wants to "go with the flow" again, try something new, and start planning for the short drama track?

Urgently hiring short play writers

This trend stems from a recruitment information on a recruitment platform. The content shows that Xiaomi is recruiting for a series of positions including short play screenwriters, post-production, short video planning and editing. Among them, for the short play screenwriter position, Xiaomi offers a 13-month salary of 20-30K, and only requires 1-3 years of work experience, and the educational requirement is a college degree. It can be said that it is a "low threshold and high salary" position, which also shows Xiaomi's urgency in recruiting candidates for this position.

At the same time, Xiaomi made it clear that this position needs to be responsible for writing scripts for paid short dramas, including but not limited to story synopses, outlines, character biographies, etc.; be familiar with the script development process, have good coordination and communication skills, script control ability, and be responsible for the script planning direction and content quality; have a wealth of film viewing experience, good aesthetic ability, be familiar with the short drama needs of the sinking market, and understand the content of popular dramas.

Xiaomi is recruiting short play writers. Source: Boss Zhipin

When it comes to short plays, the overbearing CEO is one of the most popular themes. After the official release of Xiaomi SU7, Lei Jun quickly became a traffic black hole, and even created a "Lei Studies". In the business world, he was worshipped as the "God of Marketing" by Zhou Hongyi; and on the Internet, Lei Jun became the "God of Thunder", and his growth experience that the male protagonists of the cool novels dare not write about was popular online novels: "Reborn I am Xiao Nai", "It Takes Eight Years to Get the Company Listed", "Financial Freedom is Just Cold Numbers" and other popular online novels, a smooth "Lei Jun's Cool Novels Life", all of which were brought to life by him.

Image source: Internet

After the release of Xiaomi Motors, Lei Jun presented Xiaomi spokesperson Zhang Songwen with a Xiaomi SU7. This interaction was jokingly called the real-life version of "The overbearing president fell in love with me". At the first batch of Xiaomi Motors delivery ceremony, Lei Jun personally opened the door for the car owner, which was very impressive. In response, the car owner who enjoyed Lei Jun's service could not help but sigh: "The billionaire president opened the door for me. Even a good story would not dare to write this."

But Lei Jun still refuted the rumor. He said in the live broadcast, "I am not the hero of a romantic novel, nor have I ever scored 700 points on the test or had 4 billion yuan in my bank card during my low period." He also said that success in life is never based on the plots in novels, but requires down-to-earth and hard work, while seizing the opportunities given by the times. "Young people should establish a correct outlook on life and not be misled by unrealistic fantasies."

Even so, Lei Jun's domineering personality is still deeply rooted in people's hearts, which is very consistent with the theme and tone of the short play. As one of the more popular content forms at present, short plays have unique advantages in increasing user activity and attracting user attention. In addition, Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi have set a good example this year, making the industry and peers realize the importance of online traffic and marketing.

Seizing the traffic of short dramas means gaining more exposure and attracting traffic for enterprises and brands. Because short dramas are so popular, the "2023-2024 China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report" shows that the domestic micro-short drama market size in 2023 is as high as 37.39 billion yuan, and it is expected that the market size will reach 100 billion yuan in 2027.

In addition to Zhou Hongyi's pursuit, JD.com founder Liu Qiangdong once said in the early years, "Don't compete with Lei Jun in marketing, we can't beat him." If we follow this idea, it seems natural for Xiaomi to enter the short drama track, increase investment in short drama production, and serve Lei Jun's personal IP, Xiaomi's business marketing and brand building.

Xiaomi has already made plans

Xiaomi is urgently recruiting short drama screenwriters. Is this really to serve Lei Jun's IP and Xiaomi's brand building? According to the information Tang Chen has learned, it is not that complicated. This may just be a normal business exploration of Xiaomi's Internet business, not a whim or a move to take advantage of the popularity. It also does not have much demonstration significance for the trend of the short drama market.

A less well-known piece of information is that Xiaomi registered the "Shengcang Pictures" trademark as early as 2021, entering the film and television content industry. According to Qichacha information, the legal entity of the trademark is Beijing Wali Culture Communication Co., Ltd., and its registered address is the Science and Technology Park in Changping District, Beijing. Goods and services include advertising for movies, TV commercial production, and commercial management of actors.

Image source: Qichacha

After penetrating the corporate information, it was found that the legal representative of the company is Liang Qiushi. There are two shareholders, the major shareholder is Lei Jun, and the other is Shang Jin. Public information shows that Liang Qiushi is the deputy general manager of Xiaomi's Internet business department and the general manager of Xiaomi's Nanjing regional headquarters; Shang Jin is a well-known game producer and an old subordinate of Lei Jun during his time at Kingsoft. He led the game development team at Kingsoft and Sohu successively, and his representative works include "Investiture of the Gods" and Sohu Changyou's "Tianlong Babu".

Image source: Qichacha

The recruitment content shows that the job location is Changping, Beijing, where the Xiaomi Smart Industrial Park is located. As early as April 2022, the park was officially opened, and employees from some business lines of Xiaomi began to move in, including the Xiaomi Internet Business Department. It should be added that in December 2020, Xiaomi integrated the original Internet business into the Xiaomi Internet Business Department, with Ma Ji as general manager, and Wang Dong and Liang Qiushi as deputy general managers.

After the establishment of Shengcang Pictures, it has invested in or released many TV dramas (online movies), variety shows and short dramas, and Ma Ji's name can also be seen among the producers. For example, "Hi! Hot Mom", "Strike Black", "Deep in the Murder Case", etc., mainly focus on the family OTT large-screen scene. "Hot Pot King", produced by Shengcang Pictures and co-released by Xiaomi OTT, has a relatively large volume. The drama mentioned in the promotion:

On December 24 (2022), "The King of Hot Pot" produced by Xiaomi's OTT (Internet TV) content brand Shengcang Pictures was officially launched. As a sequel to the popular IP "The King of Barbecue", "The King of Hot Pot" has received high attention as soon as it was launched, and its reputation and popularity have blossomed, reaching more than 10 million households.

Shengcang Pictures also mentioned that Xiaomi OTT poured a lot of prime resources into the program, and combined with the capabilities of the device system layer, it launched entry-level resources such as the first-screen featured page recommendation position, movie channel recommendations, and TV pictorials, successfully occupying the living room scene and boosting its popularity.

This disclosed two pieces of information to the outside world: one is that Shengcang Pictures is positioned as the "Xiaomi OTT content brand"; the second is the official announcement that Xiaomi OTT has officially entered the upstream content ecosystem construction through Shengcang Pictures, and relying on the advantages of the combination of software and hardware, it has provided a new case for large-screen marketing.

On April 3, Shengcang Pictures’ official Weibo account released a message: “Shengcang Pictures’ new high-quality short drama has been completed. New track, new breakthrough.” In other words, Xiaomi has long had a layout in film and television content, and its starting point is to connect the software and hardware advantages of Xiaomi OTT and explore the commercialization path of Xiaomi’s Internet business in the home living room scenario.

Image source: Shengcang Pictures official Weibo

It should be pointed out that Xiaomi's Internet business has always been the main source of Xiaomi's profits. Take Xiaomi Group's 2023 financial report data as an example: total revenue of 271 billion yuan, adjusted net profit of 19.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 126.3%. Among them, Xiaomi's Internet business revenue and gross profit margin in 2023 both hit record highs, with revenue of 30.1 billion yuan and a gross profit margin of 74.2%.

From another perspective, short dramas are more suitable for commercialization rather than marketing. To put it bluntly, short dramas are suitable for making quick money. Short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, and even e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo have entered the market one after another. Their fundamental starting point is to tap the commercial value of traffic.

For example, Taobao announced that it will invest tens of millions of dollars and over 1 billion traffic support in brand-customized dramas in 2024, and will work with popular IPs, celebrities, top labels, top talents and institutional partners to create high-quality short drama content.

The fundamental logic behind this is the implementation of Taobao's content strategy and the monetization of service platform traffic. As a representative of live e-commerce, Crazy Xiao Yangge's subsidiary company Three Sheep Network officially started filming short dramas and opened a new Douyin account.

For Xiao Yangge, on the one hand, this can activate the traffic of its anchors and tap into more traffic space besides live streaming. On the other hand, Three Sheep Network can also reach more commercial scenarios besides live streaming.

The same is true for the electronic music festival that was recently criticized for "ripping off customers" because of the high price of water. Crazy Xiao Yangge and his brothers are trying various ways to tear off the label of Internet celebrities and transform themselves into young entrepreneurs.

But for Lei Jun, Xiaomi Auto is his last entrepreneurial venture. Short dramas are not enough to become a trend in the mobile phone and automobile industries. Moreover, short dramas are just a fad. Only a few people make money, and most people just watch and play. It is a small probability event to make a hit. For him, there is really no need to make a big splash with short dramas.

However, as a commercialization or marketing attempt of Xiaomi's OTT business, it is also acceptable. At present, the content richness and operation model of OTT are becoming more and more mature. In the home living room scenario, Xiaomi OTT needs more diversified content and services to highlight the value advantage of the large screen, thereby attracting more advertisers and improving the traffic monetization ability of Xiaomi's Internet business. It is not difficult to see that this recruitment is largely just a new move by Xiaomi OTT. Its main business is Shengcang Pictures under Xiaomi's Internet business. This has little to do with Lei Jun's personal IP creation or Xiaomi's brand building.

References:

E-Commerce News, "Lei Jun is ready to try something new, Xiaomi short drama is coming"