Picture source @Visual China
author | Cheng Shushu, editor | Zhu Ting
In the past 2023, what content products can easily and quickly verify the rate of return?
The answer is: a short play.
With its short and fast business logic, short plays have become a hot wealth code and have become popular overseas. They have also become one of the most popular "trends" in 2023.
looks back on the short drama market this year. First, high-quality works such as "Escape from the British Museum" were released, which aroused attention and discussion across the Internet; and several other paid short dramas, including "Wu Shuang", were released in a short period of time. News that the internal recharge has exceeded 10 million or even over 100 million; towards the end of the year, the game + short drama mode of "It's finished, I'm surrounded by beauties" exploded out of the circle, triggering the craze for overseas short dramas and driving the A-share market; at the end of the year, it was concluded that The market size reaches 37.39 billion, which is quite exciting.
According to the "2023-2024 China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report" released by the research agency iiMedia Consulting, the domestic micro-short drama market size will be 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 267.65% from 10.17 billion yuan in 2022. It is expected that China’s micro-short drama market will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2027. While the number of
is booming and commercialization is booming, short plays are also facing stricter supervision this year. Now, kk will review the short drama in 2023 from four aspects: quantity, content, business, and supervision, trying to find its development direction in 2024.
01 More than a thousand copies were released throughout the year. High-quality products earn "popularity". Is there a "money path" for local flavor?
In 2023, quantity expansion will be the most direct manifestation of the short drama market.
According to data from the "2023 Micro Short Drama Industry Report", In 2023, Douyin, Kuaishou, Youku, Tencent Video, Mango TV, and Bilibili launched 455, 214, 189, and 176 new micro short dramas respectively. The long and short video platform saw more than 1,000 videos online throughout the year. According to a research report released by Professor Zhao Hui of Communication University of China, the number of key micro-short dramas premiered on the five major platforms of iQiyi, Youku, Tencent, Mango TV, and Bilibili in 2022 will be 276, achieving leapfrog and step-by-step growth. .
In addition, according to data released by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, from March to November 2023, a total of 2,459 online micro-short dramas were registered and publicized in the "Key Online Film and Television Drama Information Registration System" of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Considerable.
Judging from the box office statistics released by major long-form video platforms, there are a total of 15 short films with revenue exceeding 5 million in 2023. Among them, the Republic of China pure love micro-short "Invitation" broadcast on Tencent Video Platform, with 20 million The box office split breaks the ceiling of single-part split dramas in the history of micro-short dramas. Comparing
, Tencent Video has the best performance. In addition to 's "Invitation", it also has two short dramas that have a revenue of over 10 million yuan, namely the urban love micro-short drama "Blind Heart Daughter" with a revenue of 18 million yuan and the urban drama love micro-short drama "Let It Go" with a revenue of 10 million yuan. 》.
Of course, Mango TV and Youku will also have tens of millions of micro-short dramas in 2023.
In the summer of 2023, the costume fantasy romance drama "The Wind and Moon" will be broadcast on Mango TV and Sohu Video. With the continuous high-energy plot twists, the joint investment amount exceeded 13 million. It is worth mentioning that this drama series landed on Hunan Satellite TV and became the first micro-short drama to be launched in the country.
The Republic of China love short drama "Love for Three Lives" on Youku has a lot of bloody plots such as revenge, amnesia, forced kissing, abortion, etc., but its "earthy" flavor is loved by the audience. Some viewers couldn't stop watching it, and the final amount exceeded 10 million.
From a word-of-mouth perspective, the short video platform seems to be even better. According to KK statistics, there are 9 short dramas on Douban that will be launched in 2023 with a score of 6 or above. The first four are all from short videos.
The first place is this year’s hit short drama "Escape from the British Museum", with a Douban score of 7.6. The play uses anthropomorphic techniques to tell the story of the journey home of a missing jade pot from the British Museum.As soon as it was launched on Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili, Weibo and other platforms on August 30, it quickly occupied the hot search lists of major online platforms, including six CCTV movie channels, CCTV.com, People's Daily and other mainstream media Everyone praised it one after another.
has only three episodes of "Escape from the British Museum", with a total plot length of 17 minutes, but has been viewed more than 1 billion times online. In the "Notice on the Registration and Project Announcement of National Film Scripts (Summaries) in August 2023" released on the website of the National Film Administration, the animated film "Escape from the British Museum" filed by Manen (Shenzhen) Film Co., Ltd. has been approved. Agree to shoot.
In addition, Kuaishou's youth fantasy healing short drama "The Reason I Returned to Seventeen", the ancient style short drama "Donglan Snow", and Douyin's emotional short drama "Twenty-nine" all have Douban scores of 7 points above.
But what really made the short drama market dubbed "the most profitable track in 2023" is the mini program short drama. In the past 4 years, the "myth of getting rich" related to mini-program short dramas has emerged one after another. "Ex-Wife Strategy, Mr. Fu Wants to Spoil Me" has a recharge of more than 10 million yuan in 24 hours, and "Oops!" has a recharge of more than 12 million yuan in 24 hours. "The Empress Comes to Work", "Wushuang" which had a recharge of over 20 million yuan in 24 hours and exceeded 100 million yuan in 8 days, and "Tenglong" which had a recharge of over 22 million yuan in 24 hours online... The plot is so cool that it takes off, and it's so earthy. Above, but it allows users to pay.
Generally speaking, the number of short dramas in 2023 has grown on a large scale, and the content is also upgrading to "high-quality", but "local flavor" content is more magical.
02 Account sharing, recharge, advertising, brand customization, diversified business models
Commercial exploration is an important part of the development of short plays. However, just like the market before Qin Shihuang unified weights and measures, short dramas have not yet formed a self-consistent and stable revenue model. However, has also explored multiple profit models such as account sharing, plot advertising placement, recharge, advertising payment, and brand customization.
Based on the platform on which it is released, short plays can now be divided into four categories: long video platform category, short video platform category, mini program category and independent app category.
Most of the long-form video platform short dramas adopt the traditional account sharing model. After the series is launched, the video platform will draw funds from the membership fee within the framework of the rules and distribute the accounts to the film producers based on clicks and viewings.
Relatively speaking, the business model of small program short dramas is more c-end. Usually, they will continue to stream on various platforms to attract users to watch. They will first use free as a bait, and then set up different charging nodes at the 10th and 20th episodes, etc., so that users can pay to unlock and watch. This has also created a way to monetize a type of short drama, recharging. There are two main ways to recharge and pay for
. One is to unlock content at different prices once, for example, the recharge amount is set at 29.9 yuan, 39.9 yuan, 59.9 yuan, etc.; the other is to purchase an annual card, and the usual membership price is 365 yuan/ year, 298 yuan/year. All in all, watching a short drama is more expensive than watching a movie. But because each short drama will end abruptly at a different plot climax, there is a lot of room for recharging the audience's hearts. Because
is both a distribution carrier, a player entry point, and a publicity and distribution platform, the profit model of short-form TV dramas has more diverse ways to play.
is packaged and paid, like Douyin's attempt in popular short dramas such as "Twenty-Nine" and paid unlocking after 4 episodes; brand implantation, Kuaishou implanted the "Jingdong New Department Store" brand in the popular ancient style "Donglan Snow" .
In addition, drama studios directly cooperate with brands to produce commercial customized dramas. On Douyin, many brands such as Han Shu, Proya, and Cha Baidao have customized micro-short dramas, with more than 20 dramas. Oppo collaborated with Kuaishou to launch the micro-short drama "I'm Bound to a Love System", which designed Oppo mobile phones into a magical love system to promote the plot. The cumulative views of the entire drama reached 240 million.
The last type of independent app short drama is the product of mini program short drama going overseas. After the popularity of domestic short dramas, major short drama producers and overseas online game manufacturers have launched short drama apps in overseas markets, pushing the popularity of short dramas overseas.
By analogy with the mobile game and online literature industries, short dramas also have an iap (in-app purchase) model, an iaa (in-app advertising) free model.The former is the same as the recharge payment model of domestic mini-program short dramas, while the latter is where users unlock dramas that require payment by watching advertisements, and the platform charges advertisers, that is, "the wool comes from the pig."
In addition, there is also a model that uses iaa plus iap, which allows you to pay and watch ads to unlock, but generally there is a daily upper limit for watching ads.
Nowadays, short drama apps have begun to be launched in China, such as Douyin’s short drama app Tomato Skits (formerly “Hongguo Short Drama”), Kuaishou’s short drama app Xifan, and Dianzhong Technology’s Hippo Theater. The first two have short dramas. Most of the dramas require users to purchase limited episodes, while the latter are completely free to watch.
can see that the business model of domestic short dramas is flexible and diversified. Among them, the user recharge viewing model that has sprouted in small short dramas is to some extent a positive catalyst for the content of the film and television industry. The only criterion for payment has become whether the content is good-looking. The focus of production can also return to the content.
03 was prosperous for a while, but supervision was tightened.
It is said that there is no rule without rules. After experiencing chaos and disorderly expansion, the skit industry has gradually developed into a large industry, and it has also ushered in tightened supervision.
In May last year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued new regulations for the broadcasting of online dramas: after June 1, 2023, online micro-short dramas must adopt a management approach with full license coverage and obtain an "Internet Drama Distribution License" in accordance with the law. It can be broadcast later. At that time,
was targeting micro-short dramas broadcast on video platforms. After experiencing the popular "craze" of mini-program short dramas in July and August, which even affected the A-share market, mini-programs also came under supervision.
On November 15, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced that it would once again launch a one-month special rectification work on online micro-short dramas. In response to regulatory policies, platforms including WeChat, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili and other platforms have successively announced micro-short drama management announcements, and collectively launched a collective crackdown on illegal and low-quality micro-short dramas. More than 20,000 short plays have been removed from the shelves due to suspected violations. The previously bustling top-up ranking list has suddenly become a "removal list."
On the evening of November 20, Douyin’s massive advertising announcement stated that short dramas including Douyin mini program and short dramas that jump to other third-party platforms can only be released after being reviewed and approved for playback. In addition, Douyin also prohibits distribution and proxy investment. Kuaishou announced that it will stop the commercial launch of third-party micro-short drama mini programs on the evening of December 31 and focus on the development of Kuaishou mini programs and Kuaishou internal links.
can see that in the face of supervision, Douyin, Kuaishou, and WeChat platforms are on the one hand banning illegal short drama content and accounts, and on the other hand they are raising the threshold for streaming. Cutting off external links and in-end payment will cause the platform's advertising revenue to drop temporarily, but in exchange, the content risk control and in-end short drama payment ecology will be strengthened.
At present, the heavy regulatory pressure has not dampened everyone’s enthusiasm for the short drama industry. On December 5, China Literature Group announced the "Short Drama Galaxy Incubation Plan" and will launch a "100 million yuan creative fund support". The leading online company will enter the short drama industry. On December 14, Mango TV and Douyin released the "Quality Short Drama Support Plan", marking the first time that long and short video platforms would cooperate on micro short dramas; on December 21, more than 20 mainstream media organizations, including Xinhua News Agency, and Douyin cooperated with Douyin. Yin reached an intention to cooperate in high-quality micro-short dramas.
From these trends, it may be felt that the short drama industry is still a "hot" track in the content field. Each platform has begun to lay out its own ecological internal cycle. 's previous small program short drama business model is also being reshaped. It is foreseeable that the industry's rapid growth bonus period is about to end, and the entire short drama industry will become more formal. I believe we will see what the short drama market will look like after the shuffle in the near future.
