Catching up with TikTok and Kuaishou, Tencent is adding short dramas to its products

The popularity of short dramas has soared recently. Short dramas are usually played on short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. In order to get a share of the short drama market, Tencent has begun to invest resources in short dramas. Let's take a look at the author's analysis of this~

Tech Planet has learned exclusively that China Literature will launch the "Miracle Short Drama" platform, which will later become a broadcast channel for China Literature's short dramas. As an independent short drama broadcasting application, Miracle Short Drama is currently still in the internal testing stage, but it has passed the filing of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in December last year. The filing entity of "Miracle Short Drama" is Beijing Tianjin Digital Technology Development Co., Ltd., which is also the operating entity of Tianfang Audiobook Network under China Literature.

Tech Planet sought confirmation from China Literature regarding the above news. As of press time, the other party has not responded.

Tencent is increasing its investment in short dramas, not just Yuewen. Tech Planet also found that by searching for the keyword "short drama" through WeChat's search function, an aggregate interface of short dramas from multiple platforms will appear for users to choose from.

In addition, Tencent Weishi, a subsidiary of Tencent Video, also started to develop short dramas at the beginning of this year. In February, it joined forces with QQ Short Video and Tencent Content Open Platform to start investing in short dramas on a large scale.

Tencent has set its sights on the huge short drama market. According to the 2023 Short Drama Industry Research Report, the short drama market will reach 37.39 billion in 2023 and is expected to exceed 50 billion in 2024. In the first eight months of 2023, there were 3,574 short dramas filmed nationwide.

Not only Tencent, but also Internet giants such as Douyin and Kuaishou have been making frequent moves in the field of short dramas during the New Year, cooperating with top MCNs. Douyin also invited Stephen Chow to create the "9527" theater.

A skit in which various players compete with each other. Can Tencent win in this game?

1. Yuewen creates independent short drama products, and WeChat Weishi sets up a short drama zone

Tech Planet learned that at the beginning of last year, Yuewen created a short drama playback applet for Yuewen's distribution platform. By the middle of last year, some business departments of Yuewen began to explore short drama products, including "Miracle Short Drama". It is reported that the product had been developed in September and completed product filing with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in December. At present, the product is in the internal improvement stage and may be launched soon.

At present, the main portals of China Literature’s two main products, “QQ Reading” and “Qidian”, do not have the function of short dramas and are still mainly based on novels and audiobooks.

An operator of Yuewen told Tech Planet that "Miracle Short Drama" should be a test product of Yuewen, in order to explore the commercial value and development in the short drama market, and to achieve strong brand communication and sales conversion through this emerging content form of short drama. With the help of its own traffic and IP, it may become another source of revenue. Short dramas have large traffic and monetization potential. The above-mentioned person also said that perhaps other departments are also developing products similar to "Miracle Short Drama" so that they can be dispersed in various channels to obtain target users.

In addition to Yuewen, in the past six months, Tencent's WeChat and Weishi have also been increasing their short drama business in various forms.

Tech Planet discovered that if you search for keywords such as "short drama" in the search results interface of WeChat's "Search", a special area for displaying short dramas will appear. Clicking the "More" button in the special area will display all the short drama content, and there will also be multiple classification entries such as "sweet pet", "passionate blood", and "fantasy".

In addition, the special zone also displays the cover and genre classification of each short play. Clicking on the cover will jump to the corresponding short play playback applet. Most of these short plays are composed of third-party short play applet, and the special zone has become an important traffic entrance for these short plays.

Tencent Weishi, which was merged into Tencent Video in 2021, has begun to make an impact on short dramas as it has not made any major breakthroughs in the short video field, and has launched a short drama section in the APP.

Product analysts believe that since its integration into Tencent Video, Weishi has always been a supplement to Tencent Video in the short video field. However, the short video market has been dominated by the two strong players of "Tik Tok and Kuaishou". Taking advantage of the short drama trend and the resources behind Tencent Video, Weishi has seen opportunities again. Weishi has become a bridgehead for Tencent Video in the short drama battlefield.

According to the creators of Weishi, Weishi also has a short drama section in the APP. The content of short drama creators can not only enjoy the special display in the special section, gain more exposure and traffic, but also obtain the special operation docking service provided by the Weishi platform. In terms of business rights, special rights such as shared advertising and advertising profit sharing are also opened for high-quality short drama creators, integrating multiple monetization models.

2. Accelerate the layout of product "hardware" and follow up on content ecology

If functions and products are considered the "hardware" of Tencent in the field of short dramas, then investment and short drama content ecology are the "software" of Tencent's short dramas.

Since December last year, China Literature has been active in short drama investment and content ecology.

First, China Literature Group spent 600 million yuan to acquire the core assets of Tencent Animation, including the Tencent Animation App platform, the intellectual property rights and related rights of its works, animation and film and television projects, and other related businesses and IP assets.

This move will not only expand Yuewen's short drama content IP library, but also create related film and television works through animation IP. Before Tencent Animation was acquired, it launched the short drama "Starting with a Mountain" adapted from the comic of the same name, and the fan-generated vertical screen short drama based on the "Under One Person" IP.

Also in December, China Literature Group launched the "Short Drama Galaxy Incubation Plan", launching three major business initiatives including a plan to cultivate 100 IPs, a billion-yuan creative fund to support, and the exploration of interactive short dramas, to build a short drama content ecosystem.

Subsequently, China Literature accelerated the production of short dramas and turned its IPs into short dramas. In January this year, China Literature Group's high-quality short drama "Wan Dao Long Huang" made over 10 million yuan in revenue within 72 hours.

Soon after, Yuewen tried the new interactive short drama track again. On January 15, the trailer of the interactive short drama "The Bourne Legacy" jointly produced by Yuewen Group, Huying Technology, Shanghai Film Yuan and Shanghai Film Production was first released. It is reported that this work is also the first interactive short drama in the field of two-person interaction, and it is expected to be launched this year.

An employee from China Literature's content IP business line told Tech Planet that there are multiple short drama plans internally, including a plan to turn top IPs into short dramas, in order to increase the layout in the short drama market.

Tencent Video, which had earlier laid out short dramas than Yuewen, has already tasted the sweetness. The cumulative revenue share of Tencent Video's 2023 micro-short drama "Provoke" exceeded 20 million, making it the short drama with the highest revenue share. In addition, Tencent Video's "Blind Heart Daughter" had a revenue share of 17 million.

Recently, Tencent Video has also launched a new short drama plan. This month, its subsidiary Tencent Weishi launched a short drama recruitment plan in conjunction with QQ Short Video and Tencent Content Open Platform, aiming to recruit high-quality short drama creators. The recruitment plan is open to film and television companies, short drama MCNs, film and television production organizations and individual creators.

The plan provides a variety of cooperation methods, such as traffic incentives and revenue incentives. Depending on the quality and popularity of the short drama content, a single short drama can receive up to 10 million traffic support, and creators who upload copyrighted short drama content can enjoy a playback price of 30-50 yuan per 10,000 times. This is also Tencent Video's more powerful content support plan after launching the "Mars Project" in 2021.

WeChat, another major short drama broadcasting platform under Tencent, also released the "Micro-Short Drama Mini Program Advertising Incentive Policy" in October last year, offering additional advertising funds to developers who meet the relevant conditions for micro-short drama mini program advertising.

A developer who works on a short drama mini-program at Tencent told Tech Planet that under this policy, developers can obtain advertising money. After recharging it into the advertising account, the platform will limit the advertising money to mini-programs in the micro-short drama category, which is equivalent to helping promote their own short drama mini-programs on WeChat. Currently, with the incentive of the WeChat platform, the monthly turnover of his own short drama mini-program has reached 400,000 yuan.

3. Can Tencent’s efforts in short dramas break through the siege of Douyin and Kuaishou?

In fact, it’s not just Tencent. Other players that have invested heavily in short dramas include Douyin and Kuaishou.

Last year, Douyin and Kuaishou launched short drama apps "Hongguo Short Drama" and "Xifan" respectively, creating independent broadcast channels for short dramas. From the data, the popularity of the two short drama products is still increasing.

According to Qimai data, the average daily estimated downloads of "Xifan" in the past 30 days exceeded 160,000 times, while the average daily estimated downloads of "Hongguo Short Drama" on iOS in the past 30 days exceeded 60,000 times. The average daily downloads of both exceeded those of the top domestic APPs, and the average daily downloads data showed an upward trend.

Figure caption: Estimated download volume of Hongguo short drama in the past three months. Source: Qimai Data.

In addition, Douyin launched the "Star Plan" in January this year, announcing that it would provide financial and traffic support for high-quality short dramas for film and television companies, media organizations, MCN organizations and individual creators. Douyin also released data on short dramas, showing that the number of users actively searching for short dramas on Douyin has doubled, and there are 500 short dramas with over 100 million views, of which 12 works have over 1 billion views, and the daily views of short dramas have doubled.

Also in January of this year, Kuaishou held a short drama ecology conference. Official data showed that the average daily DAU of Kuaishou short dramas reached 270 million in 2023, and the number of heavy micro-short drama users who watched more than 10 episodes per day reached 94 million, a year-on-year increase of 52.6%; in terms of creator ecology, as of the end of 2023, the scale of short drama creators on the Kuaishou platform has exceeded 100,000.

Kuaishou will also upgrade the previous Starry Short Drama Plan. Yu Ke, head of the drama business center of Kuaishou's entertainment business department, said, "In 2024, we will upgrade Kuaishou's Starry Short Drama to help creators achieve lower thresholds, more stable income, and higher profit sharing. Starting from the first quarter of this year, Kuaishou's short drama plan will open up the introduction of content from the entire network and embrace diversified content; continue to provide efficient product capabilities and marketing distribution systems, and at the same time will invest hundreds of millions of traffic and hundreds of millions of yuan in cash to support traffic short dramas."

A producer of short dramas on Douyin said that Douyin and Kuaishou have gradually become the first echelon of short dramas in China. Douyin and Kuaishou recommend short dramas to users by integrating them into their platforms and matching them with users' follow lists and interests. In addition, Douyin and Kuaishou can also use their social attributes to encourage users to share and discuss short dramas, helping them spread.

Compared with Douyin and Kuaishou, Tencent's advantage in making short dramas lies in the traffic and IP behind it. Tencent, which holds many high-quality IPs, has the opportunity to surpass Douyin and Kuaishou despite being a latecomer.

Tencent and its affiliates can combine short dramas with their social entertainment platforms, such as WeChat and QQ, and push short dramas to users while they are using these platforms to attract them to watch. In addition, Tencent can also integrate short dramas into its own video platforms, Tencent Video and Video Account, and promote short dramas through the traffic advantages of its own platforms.

However, a short drama industry insider also pointed out that these advantages do not mean a guaranteed win. For example, ByteDance's Tomato Novel has grown under the nose of online literature giant Yuewen through a free model. This war is all-round, and investment is needed in traffic, channels, IP, incentives, etc. Otherwise, it is easy to be left behind or surpassed.

At present, Tencent is still in the catching-up stage and has not yet formed a mature short drama ecosystem. The competition among various players is full of gunpowder. Whether Tencent can break through in the short drama market remains to be verified by time.

Author: Chen Qiaohui WeChat public account: Tech Planet