[Source: China News Network] From September 2 to September 3, 2024, the 2nd Beijing Online Audiovisual Art Conference was held in Beijing. Zhang Lina, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Youku, shared Youku’s ideas and practices in exploring high-quality online audio-visual cre

From September 2 to September 3, 2024, the 2nd Beijing Internet Audiovisual Art Conference was held in Beijing. Zhang Lina, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Youku, shared Youku’s ideas and practices in exploring high-quality online audio-visual creations and promoting high-quality development of the online audio-visual industry, focusing on expressing Youku’s determination to embrace young creators and provide a stage for young people. Xie Ying, Vice President of Youku, shared Youku’s new practical results in promoting high-quality online dramas, saying that “mining certainty” is no longer the only key to hit hits, and needs to shift from the creative side to “exploring more possibilities” to “create The two-wheel drive of "high-quality short dramas" and "enhanced efficient narrative" has built a value moat for long videos with the continuous supply of high-quality content.

Embracing the power of youth, Youku provides a stage for young creators

Internet audiovisual is not an "easy" industry. It is always faced with challenges such as user habits, cross-border integration, technology iteration and international competition. To meet the challenges, Youku Vice President and Editor-in-Chief Zhang Lina believes that we must first believe in young people and provide a stage for young creators.

Zhang Lina said that as a beneficiary of the power of youth, Youku believes in the power of young people. Many of Youku's hit dramas come from emerging directors, such as the director of the suspense drama "Rebirth", Xu Hongyu, the director of the comic drama "Under the Stranger", and the director of "Once Upon a Time in the Edge of Water". In the past five years, Youku has provided a stage for the debut dramas of 294 screenwriters and 38 directors.

Facing the current wave of new technologies sweeping the world, Youku is actively planning to "change lanes and overtake". Zhang Lina introduced that the costume drama "Code of Along the River During the Qingming Festival", which was selected into the SARFT's "Walking with the Times and the People" outstanding TV series, will reach new industry heights in terms of virtual shooting volume and effects. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Grand Canal's successful inscription as a World Heritage Site, the online cultural variety show "Shine!" "Grand Canal" will also use AI and other new technologies and new perspectives in a cool way to convey Chinese cultural stories that have flowed for thousands of years to young audiences.

Putting users first, seeking innovation and change, Youku promotes high-quality online dramas

In 2024, long-form videos have produced many hits, including many dark horses that create surprises such as "Mo Yu Yun Jian" and "Bian Shui Past". Xie Ying, vice president of Youku, said that Youku has observed that "mining certainty" is no longer the only key to popular products, and the platform needs to shift from the creative end to "exploring more possibilities" to find emotional connection points and the same frequency as users. Value-carrying point, so as to fit users and even lead users.

This year is a year of “blowout” for Youku’s high-quality drama series. The popular "Once Upon a Time in Bianshui" scored 8.1 on Douban, and it has soared to 8.3 in just a few days. It is the domestic suspense drama with the highest score on Douban this year, making many people turn their attention to domestic dramas again. In the first half of this year, Youku ranked second in the industry in terms of drama playback volume; among the top 10 summer drama series, Youku accounts for half. "In the Clouds" showed a clear lead, with more than 3.2 billion views of the feature film, more than 70% more than the second and third place.

The earlier "New Life" achieved a double harvest of word-of-mouth and popularity, topping the rankings in many countries and regions. "The short length of 10 episodes, the strict narrative structure, and the cinematic audio-visual style use the Blizzard Villa model to lead the audience to continuously see through human nature and reality. The play's exploration of the complexity of human nature and the construction of multi-layered plots have broadened the national The road to high-quality dramas and the road to innovation." Quan Xianglan, producer of the drama and general manager of Alibaba Entertainment Flash Studio, shared her thoughts on the exploration of high-quality Chinese dramas in "Rebirth".

Whether it is "In the Clouds" or "Rebirth" or "Bianshui Past", there are varying degrees of innovation in terms of drama style, topic expression, character intensity, narrative density, and aesthetic quality. In Xie Ying’s view, only by pursuing innovation and change around “user first” can the platform continuously accumulate experience and build a value moat for long videos with the continuous supply of high-quality content.

Focusing on multiple originals, Youku continues to create high-quality variety shows

Since this year, Youku Variety Show has launched "This!" in different tracks. There are many high-quality original variety shows such as "Slam Dunk 6", "Blind Box Travel Agency", and "Infinity Class 2".Youku has launched the "Humanities Travel" column in the humanistic variety show track that has been deeply cultivated for many years. The track is currently preparing for the high-profile "Shine!" "Grand Canal", and continues to plan to "travel with Youku variety shows".

"The Grand Canal is obviously closely related to everyone, but we often don't realize it." Wang Xiaonan, general manager of Youku Humanities Center of Alibaba Entertainment Group, said that the solution lies in people. By telling the stories of Guo Shoujing and other sages, and combining resources such as museums and intangible cultural heritage, the charm of the Grand Canal is shown. At the same time, experts from multiple disciplines are invited to form a "lucky group" to visit together. I hope that through this program, the audience can feel the charm of the ‘Grand Canal’.

Talk about how to continuously create high-quality variety shows. Peng Zhengyuan, chief producer of Youku Youzi Studio, said that variety shows must continue to explore the depth and breadth of content in the blue ocean track and insist on opening up diversified innovation tracks. He started with "This!" Take "Slam Dunk" as an example. This program is based on the new content excavated from the blue ocean track of variety shows - "trend sports" are currently very popular in the young market.

Xie Dikui, the chief director of "Blind Box Travel Agency", which is currently being recorded, believes that if a variety show wants to be a hit, it must amplify its own advantages. First, it must be fast. It can be made into a live broadcast like the Olympic Games, interacting with the audience at all times and forming a hot spot; second, it must be real. As an unscripted art form, variety shows can truly reflect the personality charm of the participants; third, it must be " "Long-lasting", variety shows must fight for a long time, "record for a long time", and create various "Truman Shows".