After announcing the boutique strategy, iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video encountered a difficult summer of finding hits

iQiyi and Youku Tencent Video are having a hard time finding hits, the number of TV series played has not met expectations, and their reputation has continued to decline. How can they solve this problem? This article discusses the relevant content and I hope it will be helpful to you.

After “The Rush” and “The Long Season,” what other dramas have you followed on video platforms this year?

This summer, the market for domestic films and TV series showed a sharp contrast. For the former, the summer vacation that just passed was hot and exciting. According to statistics from the State Administration of Film and Television, from June 1 to August 31, the total box office of the 2023 summer movie season was 20.619 billion yuan, setting a record for the same period in Chinese film history. The total number of moviegoers was 505 million, and the box office of domestic films was 18.057 billion yuan, accounting for 87.58% of the market. Between "applause" and "popularity", every movie ticket rushed to its respective destination, affirming the quality of the work and witnessing the enthusiasm of the audience.

However, compared with the exciting big screen, the drama series in the same period are much inferior. Whether it is the once invincible ancient puppet drama (i.e. ancient costume idol drama) or the popular urban love drama in recent years, they have encountered different degrees of complaints in terms of storyline, character creation, actor acting skills, makeup aesthetics, etc., or started high and ended low, or no one cared. So much so that some industry insiders lamented: "The only one that really reaped the benefits of the summer season is "Longing (Season 1)" plus Wei Daxun."

At present, the strategic focus of long video platforms has become "high-quality growth" and "sustainable development". Sun Zhonghuai, vice president of Tencent and CEO of Tencent Online Video, emphasized in a recent speech that "good content is still the core" and "good content will eventually make money, which is a must for the development of the platform." National blockbusters are the benchmarks - for example, "Kuangbi" at the beginning of the year was called "the drama with the best traffic performance, highest revenue and greatest influence since the company was founded 13 years ago" by Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQiyi.

However, success cannot be simply replicated, and the formula of "IP + traffic" is no longer a panacea. A summer season that was not as good as expected urgently needs to be compensated by follow-up efforts. Moreover, due to the nature of the industry, long video platforms have to face a high degree of uncertainty. In addition to risk management, the only thing they can do is "cherish while broadcasting."

1. There are many "small hits", but it is difficult to find a "big hit"

In terms of quantity, the supply of dramas this summer has increased. According to Yunhe data, a total of 125 domestic dramas were released on long-form video platforms during the 2023 summer season, an increase of 29% year-on-year. However, this is mainly due to the large number of new releases of film library dramas (i.e., the first broadcast year and the platform launch year are two years or more apart). If this factor is removed, there are 73 new domestic dramas, compared with 84 in the same period last year, and the number is on a downward trend.

As before, ancient puppet dramas are still the main focus of various video platforms. According to Yunhe data statistics, a total of 15 new ancient puppet dramas will be released in the summer of 2023, and the effective broadcast of new dramas accounts for 39%. Combining the rankings provided by Yunhe data and Lighthouse Professional Edition, the top five summer dramas with the largest market share are "Longing (Season 1)", "Changfengdu", "Lotus Tower", "Yuguyao", and "Secretly Hidden", of which the first four can be regarded as ancient puppet dramas. In addition, there are dramas such as "Hua Rong", "Anle Biography", and "Lord of the Snow Eagle", covering multiple branches such as martial arts, fairy tales, and ancient costume romances.

Ideally, ancient idol dramas should "each have its own highlights", just like last year's "The Stars Are Beautiful", "The Legend of the Blue Orchid", "Dream of Splendor" and "Incense Like Crusades", with sustained popularity of the content, actors achieving "ascension", theme songs going viral, and even sparking cross-field discussions beyond the plot itself. However, the reality is that the content "each has its own problems" and the platforms "each have their own troubles".

First of all, iQiyi, "Chang Feng Du" set a record for the fastest popularity on the site, but the logic is weak, and the CP feeling is scarce even though it is a real couple. "Lotus Tower" scored 8.2 points on Douban, and the performances of the two leading actors Cheng Yi and Zeng Shunxi did not add points, but dragged the team down. Youku brought "An Le Zhuan" to vividly interpret how much expectation there was before the broadcast, and how much disappointment there was after the broadcast. As soon as Tencent Video's "Yu Gu Yao" was released, the heroine Ren Min's Huirou filter accumulated in "Qing Ping Le" was shattered to the ground, and she was criticized from makeup to acting. Even "Longing (Season 1)", which had relatively outstanding data performance, could not escape the bad ending. The highlight moment "Merlin's Massacre" attracted a lot of criticism due to the simple special effects and lines that did not match the character image.

Of course, being scolded at least proves that there is attention. What is more terrible is that no one cares, such as "Dust and Love" and "Seven Times Auspicious". Due to the success of "Cang Lan Jue", "Seven Times Auspicious" is also regarded as another blockbuster for the producer Stellar Gravity. However, things did not go as planned. Since its launch, the reputation and popularity of the latter have continued to decline. On social platforms, discussions about the plot have been completely drowned out by information about actors crying and reflecting, and producers revealing depression.

Another track that was highly anticipated, urban romance dramas, received mixed reviews. Although "Secretly Cannot Be Hidden" was quite popular, the ambiguity between an underage girl and a male college student, as well as the frequent use of lines such as "child" and "brother", successfully dissuaded a group of viewers. "My Human Fireworks" completely deviated with the free play of the male and female protagonists and the pseudo-orthopedic line, and was promoted to an off-site interactive drama based on secondary creation, and directly made the second male Wei Daxun glow with a second spring in his career. "All the Way to the Sun" won in acting but lost in character setting. After all, not everyone can accept love with a 21-year age difference. As for "Imperfect Victim" and "Pretend Revelation", they have both acting skills and style, but the audience circle is limited, so they can only be called "small and beautiful" under the niche.

In addition, this summer season also saw the release of "Legend of the Magpie Blade Gate", "Stalker", "Happy Face" and other works, with relatively rich themes, and the audience has a lot of choices. However, "small fire" is easy to get, but "big hit" is hard to find. An audience member told the power plant that she had originally had great expectations for the summer season, but "every one of them made me feel unhappy". "Either the rhythm is too slow, or the plot is too weak, or there are too many routines. Those that can be watched, I can't watch more than half of them. Good dramas are really hard to come by."‍‍

In addition to the works, another factor worth noting is that as the impact of the epidemic gradually subsides, users' content consumption methods have returned to diversification, and the online dividends of video platforms are no longer available. When people turn off their mobile phones, computers, projectors, and TVs, walk out of their homes, and go to movie theaters, scenic spots, KTVs, and restaurants, online traffic naturally declines.

2. “IP+traffic” failure, uncertain risks

According to Yunhe data, the number of new dramas exclusively broadcast by the four major long video platforms "iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video and Mango TV" in the summer of 2023 accounted for more than 60%. Among them, Mango TV's exclusive broadcast accounted for 80%, an increase of 17 percentage points year-on-year; Tencent Video's exclusive broadcast accounted for 74%, an increase of 13 percentage points year-on-year; Youku and iQiyi's exclusive broadcast accounted for the same as last year, both around 65%.

Driven by the concept of "content is king", exclusive broadcasting has increasingly become an effective means for platforms to attract and retain users. According to a video platform user data obtained by the power plant, in the first week of the broadcast of "Longing (Part 1)", Tencent Video's DAU (daily active users) increased by 10% compared with the previous week; from the second week, iQiyi's DAU fell month-on-month, and this situation continued until a week after the show ended. In other words, users' online video content consumption time is limited, and the battle for attention has never stopped.

High-quality content is the prerequisite for maintaining user stickiness. In the past, "IP+traffic" was the universal formula for drama production. Even though the glory is gone, the inertia still continues today, but the IP can be big or small.

Taking this year's summer dramas as an example, on the one hand, "Longing (Season 1)", "Changfengdu", "Lotus Tower", "Yuguyao", "Can't Hide Secretly", "My World's Fireworks", "Pretending to Be Apocalypse" and so on are all IP adaptations, corresponding to Tong Hua's "Longing", Mo Shubai's "Changfengdu", Teng Ping's "Auspicious Pattern Lotus Tower", Cang Yue's "Red Face", Zhu Yi's "Can't Hide Secretly", Jiu Yuexi's "A City Waiting for You" and Liu Cuihu's "Pretending to Be Apocalypse", among which "Longing", "Auspicious Pattern Lotus Tower" and "Red Face" are works from ten years ago. On the other hand, Yang Zi, Xiao Zhan, Zhao Lusi, Yang Yang and others are all actors with their own fans and have a certain fan base, which is usually referred to as "traffic".

A film and television industry practitioner once told Power Plant that the reason why "IP+traffic" has become a hit formula is stability. Limited by the long production cycle, the long video industry must anchor as many successful works as possible. The IP itself has passed the first level of screening by readers, and traffic is the "hard currency" created by fans and the market. The superposition of the two is equivalent to permutations and combinations within a known range, which is a shortcut.

However, IP has its limitations. The author's thoughts, experiences, time and background of creation all determine the expression of the work to varying degrees. Many IPs from more than a decade ago have outdated characters and plot settings, and should be reworked rather than directly appropriated. A reader of Jinjiang Literature City believes that the concepts revealed by some old IPs are very backward, and a large number of works represented by "Secretly Can't Hide" are "popular articles" on the site, but that does not mean they are "good articles." "A considerable number of new articles on the Jinjiang Gold List are simply unreadable. The authors themselves are immature, and they have to force output, and their writing is a mess. What is there worth adapting?"

What is even more fatal is that IPs follow the trend and content homogeneity is bound to cause aesthetic fatigue among the audience. No matter what the subject matter is, similar core and matching are difficult to keep the audience buying in. Wang Xiaohui, Chief Content Officer and President of Professional Content Business Group (PCG) of iQiyi, also mentioned in an interview that the core of replicating a hit is innovation, "the next hit will definitely be in new types and new expressions." But at least in the works currently being broadcast, most of the platform's attempts are still in the comfort zone and lack breakthrough presentations.

In addition, the risks faced by celebrities have doubled in recent years. For example, the film "The Legend of the Golden Hairpin", which cost hundreds of millions of yuan, has been in backlog and has been repeatedly reported to be reshooting. Later, post-95s actress Song Zuer and others have been exposed to tax problems one after another, and it is still unknown whether the upcoming dramas can be successfully launched. Song Zuer is responsible for at least three big productions: "Broken Waist", "Worry-free Crossing" and "Hard Manufacturing", which are backed by Tencent Video, iQiyi and Noon Sunshine, which means a lot of manpower, material and financial resources have been invested.

Actors are related to works, works affect platforms, and platforms are pursuing sustained profitability. After the "silent" summer season, long video platforms need real hits to boost confidence while maintaining the user base. For "iQIYI, Youku, Tencent Video, and Mango TV", there are certainly few high-quality contents that can be produced, but there are still many efforts that can be made.

Author: He Chang

Source: WeChat public account "YIFAN"