In the era of short videos, how many opportunities does online literature have?

I wonder if you have come across classic passages from online novels that have recently appeared frequently on Douyin. Online literature is gradually becoming short videos. What does this move indicate? Can the connection between Zhihu novels and Douyin short videos help promote the development of online literature?

• "It is now 12 noon on July 20, 2020, and there are only 6 hours left until the end of the world. I traveled through time and was reborn 6 hours before the end of the world."
• "I am the emperor's favorite, but he fell in love with my body double. When I was three months pregnant, he forced me to drink a potion that would cause me to have an abortion."
• "Master has just accepted a talented junior sister with mutant ice spirit roots..."

These classic passages from online novels have recently appeared frequently on Douyin. Kass observed that many accounts have made videos of the climax of the novels by dubbing the pictures, which has attracted a large number of users to like and follow. It is worth noting that these videos have one thing in common, that is, many of the passages in them are from the content of Zhihu's paid Yanxuan members.

Have some Tik Tok creators started “copying” content from Zhihu?

1. Zhihu Novels “Short Video”

Converting a text-based novel story into a video format is a common creative technique in the industry.

Of course, the general pattern is to adapt and shoot the original story into a relatively independent film or television work.

Because many novels have accumulated a certain amount of popularity before being adapted, they are even more popular after being adapted into TV series. According to incomplete statistics from Kas, the hit TV series in recent years, such as "The Beginning", "The Stars Are Brilliant", "The Blue Orchid", "The Secret Corner", "The Untamed", "Joy of Life", etc., are all adapted from online novels. The attempt to "make online novels into long videos" has been successful for many years.

However, for short video platforms, the platforms themselves emerged relatively late, and the length of short video works also limits the creators' creativity. More importantly, the high investment and difficulty of the traditional production model are not affordable for ordinary creators, so apart from the short drama projects led by the platforms, there has been no further exploration.

The recent emergence of short video versions of Zhihu online articles has undoubtedly provided many creators with some new ideas.

In fact, in Kas's opinion, this model is more like an extension of audio novels, because most works adopt the form of "electronic voice reading the original novel + editing pictures".

For more sophisticated ones, creators will choose images from existing film and television works based on the storyline to echo the content of the novel, so that there is less sense of disconnection between the images and sounds.

In a rougher version, the picture and the background sound are totally unrelated. The audience's screen shows the decompressed video, while the headphones tell the "bloody plot".

In general, neither form of "creation" can be considered attentive.

@阿哒tweet Tik Tok video screenshot

Although it is not a fine video work, many viewers bought it.

In the comment area, there are countless fans who are following the novel. The creator will also leave corresponding "codes" in the comment area from time to time to guide fans to read the novel on the platform, completing this "invisible recommendation". Kas observed that there are quite a few users who are attracted by this, and even many old fans have become "tap water" of Zhihu Yanxuan.

@小仙仙TikTok comment area screenshot

The reason that attracts many creators to join, in addition to the traffic of the short video platform, is more importantly the economic benefits provided by the Zhihu platform.

It is understood that Zhihu officially launched the "Retweet Project" a long time ago. Simply put, it is to guide short video creators to recommend Zhihu's Yanxuan novels on Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, Video Account, etc., and attract fans to watch the ending on the Zhihu platform. As long as someone uses the creator's keywords and recharges the membership, he can get a certain amount of direct commission.

This simple and direct way of monetization has attracted the interest of many people. There are even corresponding guidance courses on many platforms, which focus on helping short video novices get started with this side job as quickly as possible.

2. Zhihu has a long history of exploring online literature

In August 2019, Zhihu officially launched the "Yanxuan" column. Ordinary users can also view some paragraphs of Yanxuan articles, but if they want to read the full content, they need to open a paid Yanxuan membership.

As a selected column on the platform, it contains multiple sections including stories, social sciences, finance, art, etc., among which the most popular is the novel story section. The column content is originally created by users, and the columnists can also share part of the membership fee as income.

The opportunity for the emergence of the "Yanxuan" column was the unexpected popularity of the novel "Palace Wall Willow" on the platform.

In April 2019, Zhihu user @梦娃 wrote about the different lives of the girls in the harem in a story-telling way in the discussion post "Why do concubines in the harem have to compete for favor?"

Zhihu screenshot

Because of the author's excellent writing style, unique answer format and ups and downs of the story, this answer was loved by many Zhihu netizens. Everyone liked, collected, and forwarded it, and kept urging for more updates in the comment area.

The love of netizens also became the motivation for @梦娃 to continue the series. In this way, "Palace Wall Willow" gradually took shape under the following of many Zhihu netizens, and received great exposure under the platform's recommendation mechanism. At present, the number of likes on the original reply post of "Palace Wall Willow" has reached 453,000, and

The topic "Why do concubines in the harem have to compete for favor" has been viewed 190 million times.

Gradually, the enthusiasm of netizens extended from the site to outside the site, and remixed videos and secondary creation videos based on "Palace Wall Willow" appeared on various video platforms, further expanding the influence of the novel.

In addition, the popularity of "Palace Wall Willow" has also spawned more online articles. On the Zhihu platform, more and more users are trying to serialize stories under some open topics. For example

“What should I do if I travel through time and space and become the female supporting character in a sadistic novel?” “What is it like to be the silly female protagonist in a domineering CEO novel?” “Write a story starting with…”…

Under many similar topics, we can see the creators’ amazing ideas, and popular short articles appear frequently, and the Zhihu online literature ecosystem has also begun to take shape.

Zhihu screenshot

Unlike the complex mechanisms and update pressures of serializing on professional online writing platforms, Zhihu is freer and easier for creators. Although many authors started writing on Zhihu by chance, now, Zhihu's online writing section has become a very competitive content on the site.

In addition, Zhihu online articles have relatively distinct characteristics, which some netizens summarize as "re-opening and reversal", and call this mode "Zhihu style" online articles. Zhengguan News reported that Zhihu writer @白鲸梦 said: In addition to re-opening and plot reversal, it also focuses on "high empathy" and "high substitution", and the first person is the mainstream in Zhihu novels.

In Kas's opinion, it may be precisely because of this style of writing, which is highly compatible with the "pleasure points" of short video users, that Zhihu online articles have become so popular on Douyin and Kuaishou.

3. In the era of short videos, how many opportunities does online literature have?

A few days ago, the cooperation agreement between Bilibili and Jinjiang became a hot topic.

Prior to this, online literature platforms including Yuewen, Qimao, Midu, and Fanqie Novels have joined hands with short video platforms to launch short drama content to the market, and used support plans to encourage more creators and institutions to join in the creation of short dramas, further broadening the monetization forms of online literature IP.

It is not surprising that online literature embraces short videos.

On the one hand, words are the most precious core of all kinds of artistic works. Various plots and scenes in novels can shine with new brilliance in various art forms, and novel stories have audiences under any circumstances.

The cooperation between online novels and short video platforms can not only continue to deepen the influence of works and authors, but also supplement the expressiveness of text; for short video platforms, the "short videoization" of novels is also an opportunity to find new growth. As far as Kas's personal experience is concerned, the patience when "watching" online novels may be dozens of times that of watching ordinary videos. Even videos longer than 10 minutes will be viewed unknowingly.

@小仙仙TikTok video screenshot

On the other hand, short videos have long occupied all aspects of people's lives. At present, among the three major short video platforms in China, industry insiders estimate that Douyin's DAU exceeds 700 million, and the maximum DAU of Video Account in August 2022 is 485 million. Kuaishou's 22Q3 financial report shows that the DAU reached 363 million.

Under the high-intensity and high-density stimulation of short videos, many people no longer have the patience to read text. If the human brain is always under high-intensity stimulation, it will lose interest in things with low-intensity stimulation. The "videoization" of online novels is also a form of self-help to some extent.

However, there are also many hidden dangers.

The first issue to be affected is copyright. "It is difficult to protect original rights" has always been a consensus in the content industry. In the era of short videos, copyright infringement has become more and more common, and protecting rights has become increasingly difficult.

As mentioned above, many of the existing short videos on the Internet are from TV dramas and movies. In March 2018, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued the "Further Standardization of the Order of Online Audiovisual Program Distribution", requiring that classic literary and artistic works, broadcast film and television programs, and original online audiovisual programs should not be re-edited, re-dubbed, or re-subtitled without authorization, and that several program clips should not be spliced ​​into new programs for broadcast.

If these netizens' works are turned into short videos and "moved" to short video platforms without permission, it will naturally damage the interests of the original author of the novel, and will become more and more serious as the work becomes more popular, and the consequences will be immeasurable.

Secondly, there is the problem of homogeneity of short video content. At present, the recommendation mechanism of most short video platforms has achieved the effect of "making hot spots hotter and hot products more popular". Many short video production teams are even happy to use the same popular text, audio or picture to "batch" create similar hot products.

According to Kas's observation, there are four almost unavoidable themes in the current popular novels on short video platforms: time travel, rebirth, zombies, and stand-ins. Many of the contents are "the same old stuff in a new bottle". Even if the creators do not choose the same novel, the plots are similar, which can easily cause aesthetic fatigue among users.

Finally, there is the issue of the quality of such short video works. If you want to get rid of the current situation where many works are "shoddy", you must invest more, but many creators choose to join because of the small investment and low cost. In the short term, these videos may still have room for survival, but in the short video track that is so competitive, there is probably not much time left for such works.

Author: Jiangbei

Source: Caas Data (ID: caasdata6), data empowers short video content creation, operation, marketing and e-commerce sales.

Original title: Douyin “copies” Zhihu?