Internet giants are starting to grab new turf

During the Spring Festival holiday, the short play "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" broke through the siege, which also reflects the popularity of the short play track. Internet giants have joined this track and started competing. Why are short plays so popular? Let me take a look at the analysis in this article.

#咪蒙reaped over 100 million yuan from 2 short dramas in one winter vacation# has recently become a hot search topic. The traditionally "earthy" online short dramas seem to be competing with the Lunar New Year films during the Spring Festival. Previously, Mi Meng had already made over 20 million yuan in 24 hours with the short drama "The Black Lotus Manual", and was once again banned by regulators.

During the Spring Festival, Mimi Meng's other short drama "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s" broke through the siege and ranked second on DataEye's short drama popularity list on the day of its release. It received over 20 million recharges in a single day, and the highest number of views on related topics on Douyin reached 710 million.

Mimi Meng, the "toxic chicken soup" queen of the graphic and text era, successfully switched to the short drama track and proved that micro-short dramas have become the biggest outlet in the current content consumption market.

Perhaps not every audience is keen on watching short dramas, but when it comes to "The Crooked-Mouth Dragon King" which was once popular on the short video platform, I believe everyone has heard of it more or less. It was a work from three years ago.

If we go back further, "Diaosi Nanren" in 2012 and "Wanwan Expected" in 2013 can also be considered as short dramas. However, these short dramas did not catch up with the spring breeze of mobile Internet at that time. They were just a series of funny short films with simple scenes, dense jokes and Internet attributes.

Today, short dramas have become a popular investment target in the film and television industry and even the capital market. For example, the short drama "After a Flash Marriage, Mr. Fu Can No Longer Hide His Vest" had a 24-hour recharge amount of over 20 million yuan; the short drama "Wushuang" had a spending of over 55 million yuan in 48 hours and over 100 million yuan in 8 days after its release.

The short drama industry originated from the promotion of online literature. In the early days, short dramas such as "The Crooked-Mouthed Dragon King" tried to attract traffic to some online literature reading platforms and online games through real-life performances. However, the producers gradually found that such short films with melodramatic, earthy and awkward plots could actually attract many users to watch, so they simply filmed the online literature directly into short film series, and the vertical screen micro short drama was born.

Since then, the film and television industry has had a brand new track. The reason why this track can make so much money is also very simple. In the last second, "slap the shameful son-in-law", and in the next second, "the Lord of the Southern Province welcomes the Dragon King back to his throne", the short drama uses dense excitement, reversed character relationships, and suspenseful video endings to reduce the dimensionality of other film and television content, attracting users to jump from the short video platform to the short drama mini program. If you want to watch the rest of the plot, you can either unlock it by watching ads or pay.

According to iMedia Research, the domestic short drama market is worth 37.39 billion yuan, and according to data released by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television on January 1, 2024, the total box office of Chinese movies in 2023 will be 54.915 billion yuan. In other words, the newly emerging short drama market in China has reached nearly 70% of the box office of the overall Chinese film market, which is a bit exaggerated.

Regardless, it is an indisputable fact that short dramas have become extremely popular, and there are many benchmark cases in the industry that have made a lot of money. The next period may also be the "golden age" of short dramas.

1. The short drama track is "big water, big fish"‍‍‍‍

Ten million a day, over 100 million in eight days. In addition to live streaming, the Internet content track has also seen the emergence of micro-short dramas. After our analysis, the reason why micro-short dramas have become popular is mainly due to the following reasons:

1. Short conversion link and low payment threshold

The original intention of the short drama was to attract traffic to the online literature platform, but due to the large audience, the producers decided to make the short film into a series. However, the marketing conversion of the short drama basically relies on the effect advertising method of attracting traffic, and the brand advertising marketing is almost zero.

In terms of content, producers usually take advantage of the audience's curiosity about the plot and create suspense at the emotional reversal points to attract them to continue watching. In order to realize on-demand charging, users will be guided to the WeChat mini-program/APP end through the external link jump function of the short video platform.

The price of unlocking a short drama episode ranges from a few cents to a few yuan, and watching the whole series costs about tens to a hundred yuan. For example, the aforementioned "Wushuang" costs 9.9 yuan to unlock three episodes and 39.9 yuan to unlock the whole series. There are also some dramas that can only be unlocked individually, or you can choose to become a paid member of the platform, which costs 100 to 200 yuan a month and you can watch all the content as many times as you want.

The short drama seems to have a low per-episode payment price and a low user payment threshold, but when added up, it is much more expensive than the membership prices of traditional film and television platforms such as "iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku".

2. Short drama shooting requires little investment and has quick returns

Affected by macroeconomic factors, projects with small investments and quick returns are often favored. According to our understanding, it only takes about 2 to 3 months from the start of production to the receipt of revenue sharing for a short drama, which is much shorter than the production cycle of traditional film and television dramas.

Moreover, the amount of this quick return is usually not low. The filming of "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s", a work by Mimi Meng's label "Tinghuadao", took only 10 days, with an investment of about 80,000 yuan in post-production. The recharge on the day of its launch exceeded 20 million yuan.

As short dramas have shown their ability to attract money, more and more people are making short dramas. Although some practitioners say that 9 out of 10 short dramas will lose money, due to low investment costs, short production cycles, and high profit leverage, as long as one short drama becomes popular, it can make up for all losses and even realize dozens of times the profit. The wide-ranging production and supply of short dramas has heated up the entire short drama market.

3. Meet users’ fragmented scenarios and emotional release needs

The popularity of short dramas is similar to the previously popular "3-minute movie talk", both of which capture the pain point of users' high demand for watching movies but limited time. Short dramas have 5 stories in 10 minutes and 8 reversals in 1 minute, which stimulate the audience's dopamine secretion. The dense plots of "revenge", "counterattack", "sweet pet", "dominant boss" and so on are overwhelming. Whether it is using fragmented time to watch dramas or watching the whole series in one go, it can satisfy the audience's desires and fantasies and vent the audience's emotions and pressure.

We interviewed Weihao, a post-00s heavy short drama user. His payment conversion process can be said to be typical of short drama users.

Weihao said that at first he just saw the short drama advertisement on Douyin and thought the plot was exciting and attractive, so he switched to the mini program to continue watching. After watching a few episodes, a payment window popped up. Although he could guess the plot development, he would rather pay to see the protagonist achieve a "reversal" and "face-slapping". As a result, after spending money to unlock three episodes, the plot had a new "exciting point" that required another payment.

Gradually, Weihao became a regular on the short drama mini program/APP, because short dramas are not only "earthy", but also more sophisticated than dramas. But the core is still short, which fits one's fragmented time. You can watch several episodes while taking a break in the toilet. Instead of spending your vacation time on boring and long traditional TV dramas, it is better to watch more short and refreshing micro dramas.

Of course, as mentioned earlier, micro-short dramas that rely solely on bad values ​​such as "revenge", "skirting the edge", and "fighting violence with violence" to attract money have caused considerable controversy. On November 15, 2023, the China Internet Audiovisual Program Service Association published an article stating that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television will once again carry out a one-month special rectification work on online micro-short dramas. It mentioned that it will speed up the formulation of the "Internet Micro-short Drama Creation, Production and Content Review Rules", and the review of short dramas will be accelerated.

Afterwards, platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and WeChat also immediately issued their own announcements to crack down on illegal micro-short dramas. According to Internet news, a total of 31,700 short dramas were removed from various platforms in the period after the announcement was released.

Among them, "The Black Lotus Manual for Advancing to the Top" from Mimi Meng's label "Tinghua Island" attracted nearly 20 million yuan in recharges within 24 hours of its launch, relying on themes of revenge, refreshing drama, and strong women. However, it was removed from the entire network in just two days, sparking a lot of discussion.

Our biggest question about micro-short plays in the post-censorship era is, can a short play still be called a short play without the "exciting points"?

2. If you can’t beat them, join them

This year, my country's Spring Festival movie season was extremely popular, setting multiple box office and audience records. At the same time, the micro-short drama industry, which has undergone strict review and supervision, is also making a fortune in silence.

Among them, the work "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" from Mimi Meng's label "Tinghuadao" performed the best, with over 20 million recharges in a single day. On February 23, the number of searches for the short drama on Douyin reached 3.04 million times, while the number of searches for "Hot and Spicy" on the same day was 4.6 million times.

That’s right, Mi Meng, whose work “Black Lotus” was removed from the shelves for not complying with regulations, has returned to the short drama production market. And this “I was a Stepmother in the 1980s” highlights several characteristics of short dramas in the post-censorship era:

• In the play, people curse without using profanity;
• The male and female protagonists have good acting skills and look like celebrities;
• A strong female protagonist with high IQ and EQ, who never wastes energy;
• It still maintains the traditional skills of short plays, with strong conflicts, fast pace and multiple reversals.

In other words, today's micro-short dramas are still fun, but they are fun in a way that conforms to the correct values.

Under this premise, short plays have become a more stringent test of the actors' acting skills and screenwriters' writing skills. In "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s", the lead actress Su Yunhe has a celebrity face. Because she looks like Xiao Zhan and Huo Jianhua, she was also on the hot search on Weibo.

On the one hand, the success of "Stepmother" has poured cold water on those grassroots teams who wanted to achieve quick success with only a camera, two extras and a piece of exciting novel. On the other hand, it has also figured out the content direction of short dramas after they have undergone supervision, which has restored confidence in the micro-short drama industry.

There have been many discussions on the Internet before about whether the wild growth of the short drama industry will affect the traditional film and television industry. Many netizens have said categorically - "Impossible, absolutely impossible."

However, after the short drama industry determined the direction of development towards high-quality and formalization, the producers, actors, and practitioners in the traditional film and television industry began to re-examine this industry. According to the well-known Internet celebrity Cheng Qian, "If you can't beat them, join them."

Lan Xi, who played Shen Meizhuang in "The Legend of Zhen Huan", and Zhang Xiaolong, who played Doctor Wen, co-starred in the short drama "I Open a Bar in the Song Dynasty"; Yin Zheng, the leading actor of "Speeding Life 2", also joined the short drama "Super Office Worker"; in November 2023, Hong Kong director Wang Jing appeared at the opening ceremony of the short drama "The Billionaire Silly Prince".

In January this year, Stephen Chow announced an exclusive cooperation with Douyin on micro-drama, and the two sides jointly developed and operated the "9527 Theater". The first micro-drama "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" was produced by Stephen Chow and supervised by Yi Xiaoxing, and will be launched in May 2024.

3. Giants grab territory

In the short term, short dramas will certainly not be able to take over the high ground of traditional film and television, but traditional long films are also urgently "shortening". Not only the film and television industry, but also major Internet companies are increasing their layout of micro-short dramas.

"iQIYI, Tencent Video, and Youku" as well as traditional long video platforms such as Bilbili and Mango TV have already launched their own short drama columns and support plans, such as Tencent Video's "Shifen Theater", Youku's "Fuyao Project", and Mango TV's "Da Mango Project".

These traditional video platforms have adopted a compromise strategy in terms of short dramas. Most of them are still viewed in horizontal mode. The length is indeed slightly shorter than traditional dramas, with each episode lasting about 10-20 minutes. The number of episodes is usually between 15 and 30, but the level of production is no less than that of traditional film and television dramas.

According to Tech Planet, Tencent's Yuewen will also launch a "Miracle Short Drama" platform, which will later become a broadcasting channel for Yuewen's short dramas.

In addition to Tencent Video and Yuewen, we noticed that searching for the keyword "short drama" at the top of WeChat will result in a new column, which is an aggregation interface of short drama content on multiple platforms. Clicking on a work will enter the short drama mini program. This shows that short drama has been regarded as a content category by WeChat for specialized operation, and ecological portals such as WeChat search may also become important promotion and distribution platforms for short dramas.

The actions of the short video platform "Short Drama Base Camp" are even more radical.

As early as January 19, 2024, Douyin launched the "Chenxing Plan" for high-quality micro-short dramas, announcing that it would provide financial and traffic support to creators of high-quality micro-short dramas. Film and television companies, media organizations, MCN organizations and individuals can participate. High-quality content creators from all industries can cooperate with the plan through two major models: joint investment and joint operation, and can receive up to 5 million in cash and 100 million in traffic support.

Five days later, on January 24, Kuaishou also announced that its "Star Short Drama" cooperation plan was officially upgraded. In the upgraded cooperation plan, the investment amount provided by Kuaishou Short Drama for key projects will be increased from the original maximum of 40% to 50%, and the maximum share per thousand effective playbacks can reach 25 yuan.

The vertical screen ecosystem is the strength of short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, and they have been in the field of short dramas for a long time and have a deeper foundation. In addition, short video platforms have a large amount of user data, and it is easy to match the short drama types that users like through big data.

More and more young people are gradually turning to Douyin as their social circles, and their sharing with each other can easily lead to discussions about short dramas. Looking back at the early days of the short drama industry, short drama mini-programs played a key role in placing advertisements on platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. Therefore, in the future battle for short dramas, short video traffic will still be the most important link.

But Tencent is not without advantages in short dramas. After supervision, short dramas will inevitably develop in the direction of high-quality and formalization. With the participation of traditional film and television companies, actors, directors, etc., the threshold for producing short dramas will continue to rise. A large number of MCN companies, short drama production companies, including online literature platforms, will feel the cost pressure.

Tencent not only has a budget, but also controls a large number of high-quality IPs. Therefore, whether it is the adaptation of high-quality literature, games, and comics, or the adaptation of traditional film and television IPs into short dramas, Tencent has unique advantages.

Looking back at the development of short dramas, it is closely related to the changes in people’s lifestyles and entertainment. Short dramas once grew wildly and became a phenomenal and popular project to make money, but with the implementation of supervision by relevant departments, short dramas are developing in the direction of high-quality production and have been recognized by the market and the traditional film and television industry.

The popularity of short dramas certainly reflects the market and user demand, but it also reflects the various pain points of long dramas, such as the decline in quality and the inflated content, which is probably the dilemma of the entire Chinese film and television industry. Are those dramas with 50 or 60 episodes and erratic acting really what users expect?

At least for Weihao, a post-00s interviewee, "It's better to be short and refreshing than to be long and boring."

Author: Zhang Congbai, Editor: Zhou Zaian;

WeChat public account: Spread Gymnastics (ID: chuanboticao)