's familiar "bloody" plot, less than two minutes in length, high-energy twists and turns in one episode... As if overnight, the local short dramas that were popular in China a while ago are now being used by overseas actors who speak authentic foreign languages. Actor, taking the overseas market by storm.
Clips such as "Marriage First, Love Later", "Sweet Revenge" and "Falling in Love with a Billionaire" are widely disseminated through overseas social platforms such as TikTok and Facebook, attracting users to jump to relevant apps and pay to continue watching.
What themes do foreigners like to read? How to make money from short plays overseas?
Popular product reelshort page screenshot
The boss takes over the world, and the son-in-law is no one interested in.
In general, romance themes with love as the main line are applicable in all regions. In addition to universal themes such as wealthy heirs and CEOs, in terms of breakdown, European and American audiences love to watch highly dramatic and visually impactful themes such as werewolves and vampires; in the Southeast Asian market, themes such as sadomasochism and forced love are more popular. In essence, the core is the "overbearing president fell in love with me" routine that has been popular in China for many years.
At the same time, the "brother-in-law" theme, which is very popular in China, has fallen into the predicament that no one cares about it overseas. It is basically "doing one thing and fighting the other". This may be related to the fact that there is no "brother-in-law" culture overseas.
A list of popular overseas short dramas
One episode lasts less than two minutes, and it is refreshing and rough.
It is similar to domestic short dramas on Douyin and Kuaishou. Most of these popular overseas dramas are one to two minutes long. The rhythm is simple and rough, and it is refreshing. The spots are dense, earthy and "up there".
is also a popular "marriage first, love later" genre. In the traditional costume idol drama "Changfengdu" produced in recent years, from the second episode when the engagement was made, to the fifth episode when the male protagonist stood up for the female protagonist and had a mutual affection for each other, There are about four episodes, and based on an average of 40 minutes per episode, there is a total of 160 minutes apart. There are many side plots interspersed with foreshadowing. The hit European and American short drama "The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband" (the double life of my billionaire husband) has a single episode of about one and a half minutes. As of about the 18th minute (episode 12), the male and female protagonists are intensively The intersection of plots has quickly completed the emotional warming, and covers ancient bloody plots such as "evil female supporting role", "contract marriage", "hero saving beauty", "property fight" and so on.
application rankings are soaring, is TikTok the next one?
As many short dramas became popular overseas, related applications also became popular. Take reelshort, the flagship product of Maple Leaf Interactive's overseas short drama application under Chinese Online, as an example:
Since July this year, reelshort has been soaring in the app store rankings of many countries (regions). During Double Eleven, reelshort successfully ranked among the top three in the Apple store app list in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, and ranked first in the entertainment app list in the Apple store in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries (regions); in addition, it set a record of downloads and It set a single-day revenue record, with 326,000 new installations and a net income of US$459,000. It became a dark horse application that temporarily overshadowed tiktok, and was generally considered to have perfected its business model.
According to the application data analysis platform
, a single episode costs nearly 4 yuan. If you watch the entire hotpot meal, it will cost you
. There are mainly two types of short dramas overseas: translated dramas and original dramas. Translated dramas, by dubbing domestic short plays and then playing them on overseas apps, with machine-translated subtitles, or bilingual recordings, many may face the problem of acclimatization; original dramas, that is, localized original dramas, look for overseas teams and hire them locally Acting and recording and shooting are currently relatively successful types. In addition, some companies are trying AI face-swapping technology, trying to directly transfer popular domestic products to overseas markets, but there are no mature cases yet.
In terms of business model, overseas short dramas currently generally rely on user payment and advertising to share the two major incomes. Paid dramas still account for the majority, such as reelshort, flextv, etc. In addition to free episodes and some episodes unlocked by watching ads, Subsequent episodes require the user to consume the purchased recharge coins in order to continue watching. In addition, some platforms such as GoodShort have tried the membership subscription model.
It is worth mentioning that the European and American markets, especially the United States, have strong payment capabilities and higher pricing than domestic and Southeast Asian markets. According to preliminary calculations based on mainstream conditions in Europe and the United States, the price of a single episode is US$0.54 (approximately RMB 3.78), and it will cost US$27 (approximately RMB 189) to watch the entire episode. The price of a single episode of domestic short dramas is often between 0.6-2 yuan, which is close to that in Southeast Asia.
reelshort recharge interface screenshot
There are online writing platforms that have gone overseas, as well as "familiar faces" in domestic short dramas
Looking at the representatives of short dramas overseas, in addition to the international versions of apps of traditional video websites (iQiyi, Tencent, Youku) and their respective In addition to overseas social platform accounts, a considerable proportion of them are web-based manufacturers with IP reserve advantages and overseas experience, such as Chinese Online, Xinyue Times, etc. The two companies' overseas paths and market entry are quite similar. , although the latter entered the market late and there is still a gap in data, it has also developed rapidly. It has previously launched many novel apps such as goodnovel, goodfm, buenovela, and meganovel overseas. Secondly, there are leaders in domestic short drama platforms, such as Jiuzhou Culture and Dianzhong Technology, who have certain experience in business processes and team formation.
Overseas representative applications list, according to manual statistics from public information
In 2024, short dramas will still be popular
As the domestic short drama market becomes increasingly involution, more and more people are turning their attention to the blue ocean overseas. Some leading manufacturers speculate that the market value of overseas short dramas will reach tens of billions of dollars in the future, with promising prospects. But for now, the overseas expansion of short plays is still in its initial stage of exploration and lacks a complete industrial ecology. Companies trying to "nugget gold" overseas still face huge challenges such as high costs, cultural differences, and copyright risks. The real explosion There are still only a small number of funds, and many companies have not yet figured out the profit model and are in the "burning money" purchase stage. Where will
's short plays go overseas? No one can answer this question at present, and everything remains to be verified by time.
(source Chao News)
