Right now, the short drama market is very lively. Overseas, short dramas with themes such as Chinese bosses and feuds between wealthy families are wildly harvesting European and American markets; domestically, the recently popular concept of "short drama + game" has become a new trend, giving the already rapidly developing short drama market a higher imagination space.
Culture goes overseas and overtakes
Overlord's cool drama is going crazy overseas
A few days ago, Chinese Online's short drama App Reelshort has made rapid progress in the ranking of European and American app stores. In less than half a month, it has moved from the top 400 on the US iOS free list. Jumped to 2nd place. On November 13, Reelshort topped the U.S. iOS entertainment list, even surpassing the popularity of the overseas version of TikTok.
According to third-party data, the APP was downloaded 2.25 million times in October and generated approximately US$3.5 million. The stock price of the app’s parent company, Chinese Online, has skyrocketed, with a cumulative increase of 105.60% in just two weeks from November 2 to November 17.
Who would have thought that on this APP, earthy short dramas with fast pace, lots of fun, and frequent twists and turns would become popular content with themes such as "Domineering President", "Grudges between Wealthy Family", "Marriage First, Love Later" and "Dirty Revenge". , is constantly harvesting overseas markets, and even foreigners are shouting, "The more you look at it, the more you get attracted to it."
Unlike the domestic market, European and American audiences prefer localized themes, such as werewolves, vampires, heroine revenge, etc. Among them, werewolves are a fantasy theme that is very popular in Europe and the United States, such as "The Twilight Saga" and "The Vampire Diaries". This type of theme has a profound background and a wide audience base in European and American culture, so it is more likely to be welcomed by the audience.
According to Mike, a veteran in the short drama industry, "The production team of this type of short drama is mainly composed of overseas Chinese. The cost of 70 to 90 episodes of urban love dramas is 130,000 to 150,000 US dollars, and the popular werewolf type costs 2,100 to 2,300 US dollars per episode. Episode."
Reelshort's first hit drama "Fated To My Forbidden Alpha" is about werewolves. It tells a love story in which two werewolf tribes compete for supremacy and a young woman is involved.
"Dear Moon Goddess, I humbly ask you to give me a strong and powerful werewolf when I turn 18!"
This is the line in the first episode of "Fated To My Forbidden Alpha", the heroine She is a Cinderella-like servant who needs a werewolf hero to save her.
This series contains the main elements of previous urban earthy dramas, such as "love at first sight", "marrying into a wealthy family", etc., and also incorporates the settings of local werewolf culture. These plots, which are abandoned by domestic TV dramas, are actually very popular among foreigners after being localized.
In addition to werewolves, vampires and other themes that adapt to the aesthetics of the European and American markets, love-themed dramas such as "The Boss Falls in Love with Me" that are "killing" overseas have also made many Chinese viewers call it "a very familiar formula" .
Compared with the blunt domestic short drama translations in the early days, this round of popular overseas short dramas are different in terms of cast and form of expression. Most of these short dramas invite foreigners to act and speak in pure European and American accents, but the plot is "a different story" compared to popular domestic short dramas. Dramas like
usually do not follow logic, regardless of the characters, and only focus on the compactness and thrills of the plot, creating multiple shocking reversals within a minute or two. This fast-paced narrative method is indeed very effective and can instantly attract people. The audience's attention is unstoppable.
When you get into it, it’s time to pay.
is different from domestic mini-program dramas, which focus on the sinking market. The main consumers in European and American markets are the middle class.
If you choose to pay to watch, it will cost 66 cents to unlock an episode of "Fated To My Forbidden Alpha", with each episode lasting about two minutes. This means that watching 60 complete episodes at this price will cost nearly $40.
You must know that the production cost of short dramas on the market (mini programs) is generally only about 100,000 US dollars. After Reelshort has a big hit drama, it pays more and more attention to the quality of shooting. The production budget of a short drama can reach 200,000 US dollars. , and even hired the American special effects director of "The Wandering Earth" to shoot a werewolf short drama.
Then it can be understood that the payment for unlocking is rising.After all, although the entry threshold for the short drama market is low, it will eventually move towards high-quality products.
Movie and game capital is rushing into the game
Game companies are also going overseas to produce short plays
Not only overseas, but the domestic short play market is also greatly affected. However, expansion is not necessarily a bad thing, and it may also catalyze innovation and advancement in content production.
is like the recently popular "It's over!" I'm surrounded by beautiful women! 》 (hereinafter referred to as "Finished!"), this is a real-life interactive video game product, with a production cost of only 5 million yuan and a selling price of more than 40 yuan, it has created a profit of up to 34 million yuan, quickly dominating the hot list of Steam in China. Ranking first in sales and fourth in the world, it has driven the stock prices of A-share film and television game companies to soar, and even AI concept stocks have also hit their daily limits.
However, according to the game production team, "We have done many game demos internally, but no one was optimistic about us before the release." "It's over! "The popularity can be seen as luck, but the "short drama" logic embodied in the product can be worked out. The drama model of
caters to the fast-paced and fragmented life of modern people, and uses high-frequency and fierce conflicts and multiple reversal narrative strategies to poke at the core anxieties and collective desires of many viewers.
《It’s finished! 》Behind the popularity is the cost-effective emotional value provided to target users. It is understood that the effective viewing time of the short drama is about 90 minutes on average, with an episode costing 0.9 yuan, and the payment for the full episode is between 80-120 yuan.
and "It's over!" "For example, the length of a single line and single ending is about 120 minutes, it takes about 3 hours for players to experience the entire ending of a single character, and it takes about ten hours to complete the full ending route for all characters, but the actual price is only 42 yuan.
With the emphasis on lightweight production and timely payment and timely enjoyment, mobile short drama platforms or small programs are undoubtedly more in line with the development needs of interactive products, and even unique interactive video game products can become the trump card of competition among various platforms.
《It’s finished! "The success of "Short Play" has catalyzed short plays and games to become new trends. This cross-border integration innovation not only enriches the expression form of short plays, but also provides new possibilities for the exploration of its business model. It is foreseeable that the concept and style of interactive drama will be redefined, and a large number of similar works will emerge in a short period of time. Interactive video game products such as
can be understood as an upgraded form of short dramas. It is also a novel and exciting article, but with the addition of interactive elements, it has a stronger sense of immersion and can form a differentiated content section on the short drama platform.
《It’s finished! " became popular, and a group of "interactive video game" concept stocks soared collectively. It is understood that Chinese Online’s stock price doubled in 7 trading days, and Tianwei Video exceeded the eight daily limit. According to media reports, Jumei Youpin Chen Ou is setting up a short drama platform to promote copyright transactions. The popularity of
has also been transferred to the capital market. A large number of players have poured into the short drama track. Many listed companies such as Baina Qiancheng, Qishu Youyu, Ningmeng Film and Television have successively disclosed that they are arranging short drama business, or developing Live interactive video game.
On November 20, Baina Qiancheng stated on the investor interaction platform that the long-form real-life interactive full-video film and television game "Hidden True Detective" jointly produced by the company, Big Fish Kuaiyou and bilibili Games has entered the internal testing and approval stage.
《It’s finished! The production team of "I'm Surrounded by Beautiful Women" has also begun preparations for a new series of works "Finished 2!" I'm surrounded by handsome guys! "(tentative title), the production team INTINY has reached a cooperation with HippoJoy Hippo Games to jointly produce and distribute it.
game companies have also joined the "short drama army".
Recently, Perfect World publicly stated that the company established a special micro-short drama team last year and is actively looking for excellent micro-short drama writers, directors, and actors to work with. On November 7 this year, the micro-short drama "Awakening!" "Love Brain" is broadcast on Douyin. In the future, Perfect World will actively participate in the creation of micro-short dramas and explore innovative business models.
On November 23, Shengtian Network recently accepted an institutional survey and stated that the company has begun to develop a live-action interactive entertainment game with multiple endings on a love-themed short drama that has been completed. The game is expected to be completed in December this year. Produced and launched.
Tom Cat also said that the company is paying attention to the new game form of "short drama + game", and will actively study changes in market demand, explore rich and diverse interactive gameplay and new content expression forms, and create an immersive game experience for users.
In terms of technology, Huace Film and Television has launched the "Intelligent Creation System for Film and Television Scripts", independently developed a vertical model suitable for the development of micro-short dramas, and built an LED virtual studio to assist the production of AI virtual humans; Mango Super Media has laid out 5G, AI, VR technology, independent research and development of interactive drama production platform; Sanqi Interactive Entertainment invested in the VR industry and launched short drama layout.
Whether these actions can add value to the future of interactive video game dramas remains to be seen.
"Out of the circle" of short dramas must be "excellent"
Supervision upgrades are good for industry development
The rise of the short drama industry is an indisputable fact, but its content is often limited to common Internet writing routines, and has little to do with the quality of the content. Its performance and production levels are also relatively low in the film and television drama genre.
As the short drama track becomes increasingly crowded and competition becomes increasingly fierce, discussions within the industry about the future of short dramas have begun to shift towards "premium" and "quality". This can be seen from the content of the short dramas promoted by major platforms this year. Obvious theme innovation and production upgrades are taking place.
For example, the production level of the Douyin short drama "Love Magic" has reached the passing standards for film and television dramas, and Kuaishou's "Xingmang Short Drama" has also gradually become more sophisticated in terms of content, subject matter, and service methods.
It is worth noting that the healthy development of the short drama industry cannot be separated from the effective supervision of relevant departments. As early as the end of 2022, the regulatory announcements issued by major long and short video platforms were to control the tendency of unhealthy content in the creation of short dramas. In June of this year, short dramas entered the "license" era, which will also effectively curb the spread of some vulgar and bloody short drama plots.
On November 15, the China Internet Audiovisual Program Service Association issued a document saying that since last year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has continued to carry out management of online micro-short dramas and has offline more than 25,300 micro-short dramas. After the special rectification work is completed, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television will normalize its management of online micro-short dramas.
On November 21, three platforms, Douyin, Kuaishou, and WeChat, announced on the same day that they had removed the micro-short drama "Black Lotus's Handbook" from their shelves. Next, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television will establish a mini-program "blacklist" mechanism and once again carry out a one-month special rectification work, focusing on the orientation, title, content, aesthetics, personnel, publicity, and broadcast of online micro-short dramas. Increase the handling and exposure of illegal online micro-drama, further optimize algorithm recommendations, and improve the advertising push review mechanism.
After two years of rapid development, the short drama industry has significantly improved its content supply. The SARFT’s standardized governance work will help accelerate the removal of low-quality content and provide guarantee for the healthy development of the short drama industry.
With the continuous development and standardization of the short drama market, content producers and platform parties may accelerate their concentration on the top. This is mainly driven by the trend of market competition and industry consolidation. In this process, those listed film and television production companies and platforms with capital, talent, production capacity and brand advantages may benefit more from the growth of the short drama industry, and short dramas will also usher in new opportunities when going overseas.
In addition, the combination of short dramas with interactive games, AI, and XR technologies may bring a richer and immersive user experience. The use of these technologies can make the content of short dramas more lively and interesting, improve user participation and sense of involvement, meet user needs, and enrich monetization models.
Generally speaking, although the short drama industry is still booming, it has passed its early stage of brutal growth. The audience's pursuit of good content and their willingness to pay will drive the short drama industry to develop in a higher quality and deeper direction. Content innovation and quality improvement will become new growth points for the industry, and will also increase the audience's recognition and love for short dramas.
