Short dramas on the Internet: from long to short, from short to micro

As people's time becomes fragmented and they watch TV shows at double the speed, short dramas have become a popular format for many video platforms. With the support of video platforms or film and television companies, short dramas have also begun to "soar". However, can the short dramas currently produced really catch the attention of users and become the antidote to the growth difficulties of long video platforms?

"Short" has become a new hot commodity in the current era of accelerated operation, especially dramas. At a time when everyone is watching dramas at double the speed, the choice that is more in line with user habits is short.

But the concept of "short drama" is actually not new. Long before video portals were strong enough to be self-reliant, "short drama" played the role of the Internet pioneer.

In 2013, Wanhe Tianyi’s self-produced 5-minute short play “Never Expected That” not only created a miracle of 2 billion views, but also opened the door to the Internet cultural trend.

In 2015, Sohu Video quickly occupied a place in the content market with the 15-minute sitcom "Diaosi Nanren". The Internet entered a new era of platformization and paid content.

In 2023, major video platforms have successively started to play short drama theaters, and professional film and television companies represented by Lemon Studios have also begun to test the waters of short video "micro-short dramas".

Obviously, short plays are still running fast. But even within the same short play, there are many differences.

1. Running Skit

Micro short dramas are jokingly called "cyber mustard tubers" by people, and the "micro short dramas" on short video platforms are characterized by ups and downs. In order to firmly grasp people's attention during commuting, dining, and waiting for a short period of free time, the "micro short dramas" create explosive points and strong reversals almost every 15 seconds to prevent people from swiping away and quickly abandoning the video.

At the end of 2018, Douyin’s storytelling account “Duoyu and Maomaojie” released “The Differences Between City People and Us When We Dance”, which gained 15 million followers in two months and became a phenomenal short video. Subsequently, similar short videos with storytelling arrangements and character settings continued to gain popularity in the traffic pool.

In this way, short micro dramas rose on Douyin.

In 2021, Douyin launched its first self-produced short drama "Dream on! Jingjing", and successively launched related support plans such as "New Drama Plan", "New Drama Plan 2.0", and "Million-dollar Hit Drama Club". With the accumulation of short drama hits, a number of powerful MCN companies such as Silver Land and Gumai Jiahe have gradually emerged.

Kuaishou also quickly sensed the information that micro-short dramas were in line with its own business. In 2019, Kuaishou launched the "Small Theater", which put micro-short dramas on the same page, and then launched the "Photosynthesis Plan", which used tens of billions of traffic to support MCNs and grassroots individual users and encourage creation.

In the same year, the Kuaishou short drama "This Male Lead is a Little Cold" was played 1 billion times ; the heroine Li Lulu's subsequent short drama "This Young Man is a Little Cold" also exceeded 100 million views that year, and she successfully accumulated 7 million fans from a mediocre expert in the MCN agency, and took the opportunity to create her own clothing brand.

Take Li Lulu as an example. Kuaishou has run through the short video micro drama business chain - MCN organizations train short drama talents, accumulate fans through content, and finally monetize through live broadcasts.

However, the layout of short dramas on Douyin and Kuaishou is slightly different. Kuaishou has opened up a theater interface for short dramas. In addition to fast-paced short dramas with about 30 episodes, it also includes a large number of "100 episodes +" short dramas. Compared with the former, the plot connection is weaker and more of them are "serial short videos" centered around the same talent.

Douyin places the entrance to the short drama on the creator's personal homepage, but in addition to the "serial short dramas", it also includes "serial short videos" made by independent experts in each episode, and pays great attention to "hatching experts".

In terms of the subject matter of the short plays, the short plays that are popular on Douyin recently are mainly concentrated in the categories of urban, emotional, and suspense, while the ancient style, time travel, and emotional are more popular on Kuaishou. Among the large number of short plays with strange themes, the hot list of Douyin and Kuaishou seems very "traditional".

But the common point is that the popularity of short dramas is firmly controlled by the top MCN agencies. For example, Kuaishou's Zhizhu Studio and Douyin's Maiya Media are both professional short drama agencies that focus on a certain vertical category and quickly produce hits.

Data shows that in the first half of 2022, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has planned and filed 2,859 short dramas, with a total of about 69,234 episodes. In May and June, the number of short dramas filed in a single month exceeded 400. In 2021, the number of short dramas filed throughout the year was only 398. A large number of MCN organizations came in 2022, trying to get a share of this new trend.

2. New opportunities for long videos?

The genes at birth are different, and the short dramas developed on long and short video platforms are also different.

In terms of volume, in order to meet the user habits of long videos, short dramas are still horizontal, with each episode lasting 5-10 minutes, ranging from 18 to 36 episodes, and a total volume of about 3 hours. Compared with normal dramas on the platform, the stories of short dramas are more condensed, and the themes are mainly sweet pets, counterattacks, and suspense .

Short dramas on long video platforms actually started earlier.

In 2018, iQiyi took the lead in developing short dramas on the long video side, opened up a "vertical screen control theater", and launched the short drama "Life Has Attacked Me", bringing together a number of Internet celebrities such as Lamu Yangzi and Liu Beishi. At that time, it was also highly anticipated.

In 2021, Tencent Video launched the industry's first micro-short drama brand "Shifen Theater". "The World of Aunts" became a highly acclaimed micro-short drama at the beginning of 2022 with a Douban score of 8.1. What is less known is that the production company of the drama, LiLiCheng Media, is backed by the Internet travel giant "Didi".

In 2021, Mango TV launched the micro-short drama APP "Da Mang", which deeply aggregated the audience of micro-short dramas. The following year, the playback volume of "Nian Nian Wu Ming" and "Xu Yan" exceeded 600 million.

Youku, which has the advantage of short dramas, upgraded its S-level short drama sharing unit price in 2021, and the two short dramas "Deadly Housewives" and "The Maid" earned more than 10 million yuan in 2022. From January 2020 to September 2022, Youku launched a total of 492 short dramas, occupying half of the short drama market in terms of quantity and playback share.

Obviously, the cost of short dramas in long videos is relatively smaller than that of long dramas, but compared with the micro-short dramas on short video platforms, they are still closer to orthodox dramas.

The two also differ in terms of profit model. The short drama production model of long video platforms is mainly based on self-made dramas with risks in advance and shared dramas with risks in the future. Creators only rely on fixed models such as production services and platform sharing to obtain income . Compared with the thriving commercial closed loop of short video platforms, their imagination is relatively limited.

Judging from the current development trend, the only way for Tencent, Youku and Mango to make profits from horizontal screen short dramas is still to rely on patch ads and embedded ads. However, for long video platforms, the short dramas in the long video theater are actually more like a preparation for the dehydration experiment of the drama.

With the precedent of "The Bad Kids", the major theaters of long video platforms already have preconceived idol baggage.

Combined with the platform's own development, under the dual pressure of traffic anxiety and cost reduction and efficiency improvement, it would be a good thing if the long video platform could run high-quality short dramas, whether it is shortening the number of episodes or compressing the length of a single episode, improving the quality of the content and breaking the deadlock of watching dramas at double the speed.

3. More players

But the reality is that the traffic entrance to the short drama market is still controlled by short video platforms.

According to the data disclosed by Kuaishou at the "2023•Incremental Effect" Magnet Conference, in 2022, Kuaishou's daily active users exceeded 360 million, making it the largest short drama consumption market, with 260 million daily active users of short dramas. In 2022, more than 100 short dramas on "Xingmang Short Drama" have exceeded 100 million views, and the number of hit short dramas has increased by nearly 40%.

After several years of film and television winter, short dramas have become a light lever that not only allows short video platforms to grow original content, but also gives many film and television companies the opportunity to make a small profit. Major platforms have established short drama theaters, and traditional film and television companies have also made moves to get a share of the short drama pie.

From the production side, short video platforms are still dominated by MCN organizations. Participants are not limited to this. Professional film and television companies have begun to "enter the market" one after another. Lemon Studios, Huace, Quality Gravity, Perfect World, and Linghe Culture have successively tested the waters and launched short dramas of various types to enter the short video platform.

Since it is a cross-border project, some people choose to follow the local customs step by step. Lemon Studios introduced the short drama team "Hao You Neng Ling" and opened an account "ta Chasing Theater" on Douyin, which is dedicated to the creation and operation of short dramas. In addition to the current popular short drama "Twenty-Nine" on Douyin, Lemon Studios has previously created many short micro dramas on Douyin, such as "Starting from Divorce" and "One Yuan Beauty Salon", focusing on issues such as appearance anxiety and women's plight.

Perfect World chose to create the "Perfect World Dream Theater" on the Douyin platform, and also launched two short dramas, "The Female Master" and "The Devil King".

There are also film and television companies that choose to try multiple platforms. The Happy Mahua team has launched "Going Home Youhuo", "Today's Menu: I Really Want to Be Together", "Mahjong Mixed with Majiang" and the short film "Monster in the Cardboard Box" on Kuaishou. In addition to Kuaishou, Mahua has also launched "Dear, Didn't You Expect That" on Youku and "The Glowing Uncle" on Haokan Video.

For professional film and television companies or MCN agencies with large fan accounts, there is still a lot of room for short dramas. However, for self-employed individuals who want to gain a foothold on the short video platform by relying on short dramas from scratch, the entry of professional players means that it is almost unrealistic for them to break through.

But no matter what platform it is released on or what company produces it, as a short drama, the lack of a sufficiently loud representative work means that now is not the time for it to truly shine.

Due to the different usage habits, long and short videos have great genetic differences in "short dramas". At this stage, they have gone into two completely different directions. The "short dramas" incubated in the long video platform will eventually run quickly in the direction of dehydrated boutique dramas, while the short dramas on the short video platform, although film and television companies have entered the market and the pictures and plots have become gradually refined, people are essentially more accustomed to enjoying them as fast food.

This means that it is difficult for short video dramas to achieve true popularization and become classics that people like and watch repeatedly. The commercialization dilemma of long video dramas also urgently needs to be broken through, and there is still a long way to go before they can fully mature.

It’s not time to finalize the skit yet.

Author: Xiang Xiang; Editor: Zhu Ting; Operation: Xiaobingguo

Source public account: Wenyu Talk (ID: wenyuTalk0506), records the ups and downs and changes of big entertainment, and respects all reasonable and legal free expressions.