The evolution of rustic short plays: appealing to all ages and the refined and popular

In the past, the middle-aged and elderly people in the sinking market may have been the main audience of short dramas, but now, the audience of short dramas has gradually broadened, and the market for young people has gradually been opened up. Short dramas are becoming more and more popular among people of all ages, and the viewing experience of short dramas has also tended to be refined.

"Do you know who you have offended? Apologize to my wife! I have already bought all the office buildings nearby! Anyone who said he would go with my wife will have his salary doubled!"

“This woman is quite interesting.”

"We in the Lu family can't let such a woman in."

When Xiaolu, a post-90s kid, returned to Guangdong for the Spring Festival, he wished he could "spit blood all over the ceiling" when he saw his mother, aunt and other rural old ladies in their sixties and seventies paying to watch these melodramatic short dramas on Douyin.

Like Xiaolu, many young people complain on social platforms about their elders’ obsession with cheesy short dramas - "Four Years Later, She Brings Her Cute Baby to Amaze the World", "The God-Slaying Underworld Emperor Is Unparalleled", "The God-Level Dragon Son-in-Law"... These plots, which are exactly the same as those in the old online novels, have been transformed into short dramas and "conquered" the middle-aged and elderly market.

According to many short drama practitioners, middle-aged and elderly people in the sinking market are the main audience of short dramas.

However, the appeal of short dramas has been spreading - some young people have been "captured" and although they find them awkward, they can't help watching them.

During this year's Spring Festival, many short dramas became popular among young people. For example, the ancient costume love short drama "Give Her a Handle" launched on Tencent Video on February 5, which topped the Maoyan short drama popularity list for many consecutive days;

There is also the mini-program short drama "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s", which ranked second on the DataEye short drama hot list on the day it was launched on February 12. Netizens commented, "I stayed up late to finish watching it, it fascinated me", "The heroine's acting is very smart, some of the lines are very funny, the hero and heroine are so sweet and good", "The plot is very cliché, but I am very addicted"...

Cha Cha, a short play writer born after 1995, told Caijing Story Collection that from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023, the main audience of short plays was still middle-aged and elderly people. At that time, the theme of female abuse was popular, which was outdated for many young people who loved to read online literature, but most middle-aged and elderly people who had not been "influenced" by online literature would find it fresh. With the development of the industry, the themes of short plays began to diversify and improve, which was able to open up the young people's market.

The data confirms this. Meiland data shows that in the user portraits of popular micro-short dramas in the first half of 2023, 64.8% of users are Generation Z (15-29 years old); Kuaishou data also shows that among the heavy users of Kuaishou short dramas in 2023, those born under 1990 accounted for more than 40%.

The earthy short play is appealing to both young and old.

1. “All ages are welcome”, just for fun

The reason why earthy short dramas can appeal to people of all ages is that their fast pace of "two or three minutes per episode" caters to the current fragmented viewing demand, and the refreshing feeling of "concentrated conflicts and constant reversals" hits the common point of human nature's pursuit of mindless pleasure.

Short plays are a product of the fast-food era, and both middle-aged and elderly people and young people enjoy them for fun.

For young people, short plays are a great way to relieve stress after work. "I really like the feeling of having my IQ reduced by 100 and my happiness increased by 100,000 after watching them." "I know the plot is ridiculous, but I just enjoy watching it." "There is a twist every now and then, and a good moment every now and then, it's so fun."

For middle-aged and elderly people, short plays are a rare way to kill boredom.

A director of a short drama on a mini program said that many people do not understand why some people like to watch "vulgar" short dramas, because they have never paid attention to these groups. Before the emergence of short dramas, the spiritual needs of these groups were unmet. The film and drama markets were mostly chasing the preferences of young people, and middle-aged and elderly people were "ignored", and short dramas filled this gap.

The data confirms this. Data from QuestMobile in November last year showed that short dramas have better penetration among the elderly than online videos and short videos. In short drama applications, people over 46 years old accounted for 37.3%, which was 12.3% and 4.8% higher than long video apps and short video apps respectively; on the contrary, the proportion of people under 30 years old was 12.2% and 6.4% lower respectively.

At present, seeing this blank platform, short dramas specifically for the silver-haired group have been launched. For example, "Please Grandma", which was launched on Kuaishou in 2023, explored social issues such as left-behind elderly people in rural areas and educational equity; "Flying Life" launched on Tencent Video in the same year focused on the health, elderly care, social issues of the elderly group.

It is worth mentioning that although young people and middle-aged and elderly people all "love" earthy short dramas, there are certain differences in the themes they prefer.

In Chacha's opinion, the audience for family-themed dramas tends to be middle-aged and elderly parents, while middle-aged and elderly people may not be able to appreciate novel themes such as cycle dramas, suspense dramas, and rebirth and time travel. "My grandmother likes to watch short dramas, but she never understands why people in rebirth dramas can still have memories of their past lives."

In addition, the two are also very different in their willingness to pay for short dramas.

On Douyin and Kuaishou, the price of a full set of paid short dramas ranges from a few yuan to dozens of yuan or even a hundred yuan. Many short drama practitioners unanimously believe that middle-aged and elderly people are the main payers for these short dramas.

The low willingness of young people to pay has been confirmed by data. A research report by Soochow Securities shows that as of July last year, among the paying population for mini-program short dramas, people under the age of 30 accounted for only about 10%.

Middle-aged and elderly people are more willing to pay, on the one hand, because some of them have money and free time.

A short drama distributor said that some middle-aged and elderly people do not have the pressure of mortgage loans and their retirement wages are relatively high, so they are more willing to pay for their spiritual needs.

Many young people feel helpless about their elders' behavior of "spending money" on short dramas. "The short drama my mother watches is 39.9 yuan for 8 episodes, and one episode is less than 5 minutes. It's so easy to make money from middle-aged and elderly women." "My father recharged more than 600 yuan to watch a short drama." "My mother-in-law recharged more than 2,000 yuan for various short dramas in the past two months." "My mother has spent nearly 50,000 yuan in total in a year, and her monthly pension is not enough to pay for it."

On the other hand, young people are more familiar with the Internet and can "piece together" to find a lot of free resources, but middle-aged and elderly people are not good at this.

On Xiaohongshu, many people share free or low-priced online disk resources; on e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo and Taobao, you can also find cheap resources such as "0.3 yuan per drama" and "1.88 yuan for 800 dramas"; ByteDance launched the "Hongguo Short Drama" App (now renamed "Tomato Short Drama") in August last year, and the short drama resources it provides are also free.

2. Practitioners’ Struggles and Dreams

The "capture" of human nature has promoted the growing prosperity of the short drama market.

According to iMedia Research, the scale of the domestic short drama market will be 3.68 billion yuan, 10.17 billion yuan, and 37.39 billion yuan respectively from 2021 to 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 916.03%. It is expected that the scale of the short drama market will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2027.

And according to data from the National Film Special Fund Office, the total domestic film box office in 2023 will exceed 50 billion yuan - after only a few years of development, the box office of short dramas has reached 74% of the century-old film market.

New entrants flocked to the market . Qichacha data showed that as of January 5, there were 78,100 short drama-related companies in the country, and in 2023, 22,500 new short drama-related companies were added, a year-on-year increase of 20.17%.

Cha Cha, who originally wrote online novels, entered the industry at the beginning of last year and began to write short play scripts. Many online writers, long play screenwriters and even ordinary users in the same industry also came to try their hand. The main attraction was the hope that their stories would be adapted into film and television and get good returns. According to Cha Cha, in the early days when short plays became popular, the income of a novice screenwriter for writing a short play was around 10,000 to 15,000 yuan.

Gong Yifan, a junior student majoring in screenwriting and directing, also entered the industry in the second half of last year and took on supporting roles in short dramas. "I am very interested in acting. I usually shoot short video promotional films and some special guest roles in serious dramas. I think short dramas are popular and I can earn some pocket money at the same time, so I want to try it. Generally, the cost of shooting a day is 700 to 800 yuan."

However, it is not easy to enter the industry.

The first and foremost challenge is the worldview - some practitioners do not recognize the value of short plays, but in order to "make a living", they can only do it while disliking it.

"I watched dramas to learn short play scripts, which made me feel so uncomfortable and embarrassed. I felt like I could dig a three-bedroom apartment out of my toes." "I scolded myself while writing," many screenwriters complained on Xiaohongshu.

Some skit actors also said that they suffered "work-related injuries" during the performance. "I have filmed more than a dozen skits, and only two did not involve slapping." "I have filmed more than a dozen skits this year, and I also want to know if anyone really watches them. Although I film them, I really don't like to watch them."

They are unable to change the same bloody routines in short plays because of market orientation. An editor of Jiuzhou Culture said that the payers are the elderly, who love to watch this kind of thing. Even if some screenwriters write good scripts, the company will not accept them because no one may pay for them after they are filmed.

But routine does not mean simplicity. With the increase in the number of entrants, practitioners also face competitive pressure.

As far as screenwriters are concerned, there are many reports on Xiaohongshu that their manuscripts have been rejected several times.

Cha Cha told Caijing Story Collection, "There are more and more screenwriters writing short plays, but high-quality scripts and excellent screenwriters are still relatively scarce in the market. The reason is that although the plot framework is very routine, it is difficult to innovate under popular themes."

Actors in short plays face price cuts or elimination. A Shanghai actor who plays minor roles said, "I only get 200 yuan a day working the 995 schedule, and it's all hard-earned money. In the second half of last year, the crews I met kept cutting my salary one after another. If I'm not the lead actor, I can't get more than four figures."

Gong Yifan observed that some recent notices began to require the protagonists of short dramas to have tens of thousands of fans or hit works, which means that it is more difficult for new actors to get roles.

The cost of shooting short dramas has also risen, making it more difficult to make money. According to a report by China Business News in December last year, the average cost of shooting short dramas has increased from around 100,000 to 300,000 yuan in 2022 to 300,000 to 600,000 yuan or even more. After deducting the costs of scripts and platform commissions, the proportion of short dramas that actually make money is very small.

However, the emergence of short plays also carries the dreams of some people.

Less than a year after entering the industry, Cha Cha has already had three works released, two of which became hits, namely "Love" and "Favoring the Ace Daughter".

Among them, the original script "Favoring the Ace Daughter" was released on February 2, and ranked second on the DataEye short drama hot daily list on February 5, ranked top 7 on the weekly list from January 29 to February 4, and topped the iQiyi short drama list for two consecutive days on February 4 and 5. This is an affirmation of her creative ability. She hopes that she can not only write good stories in the future, but also output some positive values ​​through her works to elevate the purpose of her works.

Gong Yifan said that no matter what the script is, actors have the opportunity to get into the role, show and practice their acting skills. Many actors in short plays love acting and hope to make short plays popular and be seen by more people, so that they can have the opportunity to shoot dramas.

And the facts have proved that even in a melodramatic skit, people with talent can be seen.

Some short drama actors have become famous for their acting skills, such as Shu Tong, Zhong Xi, Xu Yizhen, Sun Yue, etc.

The audience praised them generously, "The short play is not up to standard, but some of the actors' acting is really good. Although the plot is bloody, I watched it to the end because of the actors." "I am a fan of Shu Tong. The scripts he gets are all the same, but he can still perform well. He is the first one who can play the feeling of the domineering president in the novel." "Xu Yizhen's acting is better than most of the domestic entertainment. His lines are super natural and not pretentious."...

3. Can short plays get rid of vulgarity?

Just as online dramas have evolved from the early "shoddy" ones to the current "high-quality ones", the viewing experience of short dramas has also tended to be more refined.

On the one hand, the themes of short plays have begun to diversify. In addition to classic themes such as "Boss" and "Son-in-law", more themes that reflect real-life issues and carry cultural connotations have begun to emerge.

For example, during the Spring Festival this year, among the 10 short dramas launched on Douyin, there were themes such as searching for intangible cultural heritage food, young people chasing their dreams in small towns, the overseas expansion of Chinese culture, emotional conflicts of Generation Z, and revealing high-tech scams; on February 5, the new work "Little Nian Beast and the Monster Catcher" created by the original team of the short drama "Escape from the British Museum" which became popular on the entire network last year was broadcast on Kuaishou and other platforms; on January 28, the workplace short drama "Super Office Worker" starring Guo Xiaoting and Yin Zheng was launched.

On the other hand, some short dramas have better plot design and shooting production, and have received a lot of praise.

According to Xinwaner's estimation, the box office of short dramas during this year's Spring Festival was about 800 million yuan, and many short dramas were strongly recommended by netizens, such as "Mr. Li, You've Got the Wrong Wife", "The Young Master and Me", "Beauty in the 1980s", etc.

Take "Mr. Li, You've Got the Wrong Wife" as an example. According to DataEye's short drama popularity weekly ranking, within a week of its launch on February 5, the drama ranked first in popularity among the 247 short dramas on the list.

Netizens commented, "The plot and lines of this drama tend to be daily, without the earthy and pretentious feeling of suspension. The heroine is also down-to-earth, greedy and lustful but principled, and easy to resonate with." "This drama was shot with professional cameras, with live sound recording and lighting team, unlike some crews who use SLR cameras."

The trend of short plays becoming more refined is the result of the combined effect of multiple factors.

First, market competition is fierce, and users are aesthetically fatigued by homogeneous content, which naturally forces content innovation.

Take the evolution of online novels for example. At the beginning, the plot was simple and bloody, but later it became novel and sophisticated.

Second, supervision has become stricter and industry standardization has been improved.

On November 15 last year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television launched a one-month special campaign to crack down on online short dramas, and removed short dramas containing pornographic, vulgar, bloody, violent, low-grade, and aesthetically pleasing content.

According to a joint report by Xinwaner and Bianniushi, from November 16 to February 5, a total of 3,026 illegal short dramas were banned or removed from the shelves. Among them, the short drama "The Black Lotus Manual for Advancing to the Top" produced by Mimi Meng's team was removed from the entire network for "exaggerating extreme revenge, fighting violence with violence, and confusing right and wrong."

Thirdly, the entry of “regular forces” such as traditional film and television companies, celebrities, and famous directors has also raised the professional level of short dramas to a certain extent.

For example, among the 10 short dramas launched on Douyin during the Spring Festival, there are many shadows of leading traditional film and television companies, including Dengfeng International, which produced "Wolf Warrior 2" and "The Wandering Earth 2", Bad Monkey Pictures, which produced "All or Nothing", and Beijing Jingcai, which produced "Young Lion".

Another example is the entry of Wong Jing and Stephen Chow. On January 29, Douyin and Stephen Chow announced that they would jointly develop and operate the "9527 Theater". The first short drama "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" will be launched in May this year; at the end of November last year, the short drama "Billionaire Silly Boy" directed by Wong Jing held a start-up ceremony in Hengdian.

As Zhang Yi, CEO of iMedia Consulting, said in an interview, the employment structure of short drama producers is changing. Traditional film and television practitioners have joined with richer technical means and experience, accelerating the arrival of high-quality short dramas.

Fourthly, various video platforms are also actively supporting high-quality short dramas.

On February 2, Tencent Weishi launched a recruitment and support plan for high-quality short drama creators, providing up to 10 million traffic support; on January 18, Douyin launched the "Chenxing Plan" for high-quality micro-short dramas, which will provide up to 5 million in cash and 100 million traffic support for high-quality content creators; on January 25, Kuaishou announced a newly upgraded "Xingmang Short Drama" cooperation plan to provide greater support for high-quality short dramas.

Faced with this evolution, practitioners feel that it is beneficial. Cha Cha said that "the refinement is good for screenwriters, which means that the scripts can be better presented", which makes her and other colleagues more confident about the prospects of short dramas, and also means that higher quality scripts need to be written.

At the same time, the high-quality production has also attracted more audiences for short dramas. According to Kuaishou data, the DAU of Kuaishou short dramas will reach 270 million in 2023, and the number of heavy micro-short drama users who watch more than 10 episodes per day will reach 94 million, a year-on-year increase of 52.6%; the data released by Douyin at the beginning of this year showed that the number of daily deduplication users of its micro-short dramas was more than 100 million.

In general, the road of short drama is getting wider and wider, but no one knows what it will eventually evolve into. The core question worth thinking about is, on the road from vulgarity to fineness, will the core of short drama's pursuit of excitement change?

(Cha Cha and Xiao Lu are pseudonyms in this article)

Written by: Wang Shuran, edited by: Wan Tiannan

Source public account: Financial Story Collection (ID: cjgshui), experienced observer, cautious commentator, original and in-depth interpretation across finance and technology.