[Text/Observer Network Ruan Jiaqi] According to a Reuters report on the 23rd, through interviews with more than ten people in the industry, scholars and media analysts, it was found that China’s micro-short dramas with an annual output value of up to 5 billion US dollars are shak

[Text/Observer Network Ruan Jiaqi]

According to a Reuters report on the 23rd, through interviews with more than ten people in the industry, scholars and media analysts, it was found that Chinese micro-short dramas with an annual output value of up to 5 billion US dollars are shaking China. The film industry has become an increasingly powerful competitor in this market, which is second only to Hollywood in the United States.

reported that at the same time, the craze of Chinese micro-short dramas is rapidly sweeping the United States, becoming a rare case of Chinese cultural export being welcomed in the West.

According to data released by mobile application intelligence agency appfigures, in the first quarter of this year, the downloads of the three major Chinese micro-short drama apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play App Store reached 30 million times, and the international market revenue reached 71 million US dollars. . Data from

media analysis consulting company endata also shows that Kuaishou is in the lead in this field. Last year, 60% of the top 50 short dramas in China came from this app. The

report quoted data released by Kuaishou Vice President Chen Yiyi in January as saying that last year, 68 Kuaishou works were played more than 300 million times, of which 4 works were played more than 1 billion times. According to her, there are about 94 million so-called "heavy users" who watch more than 10 episodes of programs on Kuaishou every day. This number has exceeded the population of Germany.

Reuters said that while domestic companies such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili are making efforts in the field of short dramas, many Chinese micro-short drama producers are targeting the Western market, as it is often difficult for Chinese culture to export overseas. On the contrary, the overseas short drama market has experienced a sharp increase in popularity in recent years. According to a research report by

comprehensive mobile application data analysis company Sensor Tower, as of the end of February this year, more than 40 Chinese short drama applications have tested overseas markets, with a cumulative download volume of nearly 55 million times and in-app purchase revenue reaching US$170 million.

accounts for half of reelshort, contributing 52% of downloads and 48% of revenue. It has surpassed American streaming media Netflix (netflix) on the entertainment list of the US area of ​​​​the Apple App Store.

Since last year, NetEase, a well-known domestic Internet company, has also begun to produce micro-short dramas for the United States. These mini-series are usually outsourced to local teams in Los Angeles and filmed locally.

Ashley Dudarenok, the founder of a market consulting agency in Hong Kong, believes that the audience's attention span is limited. It is obvious that the more time they invest in short videos, the less time they will spend watching TV and other long-form programs.

"China first tapped this audience group." Layla Cao, a Chinese producer in Los Angeles, also said, "Hollywood has not realized this yet, but all Chinese companies have begun to provide content."

reelshort official website screenshot

According to According to Reuters, the vertical screen shooting on mobile phones and the distribution through the application level make the production cost of micro-short dramas relatively low, and the publicity and distribution are also easier. The budget of such series is often between US$28,000 and US$280,000, and there is no need to wait for several years for a chance to be released online like traditional film and television works.

However, when it comes to Chinese micro-short dramas, which are mainly popular with audiences such as "rebirth and revenge", "bloody cheating", "forced love of the boss", "chasing his wife in the crematorium", etc., this company The British media reverted to their old ways, showing off their sense of superiority, complaining that these subjects were "vulgar and vulgar", and taking the opportunity to attack and badmouth the Chinese economy, claiming that Chinese audiences were addicted to "electronic mustard".

But in fact, this kind of earthy and refreshing drama full of high-frequency reversals and bloody plots is also a favorite of Western audiences. According to statistics from the mobile advertising analysis platform appgrowing, young and middle-aged American women aged 25 to 44 are especially interested in the theme of "tycoons".

's popular hit with nearly 200 million hits on the reelshort platform, "The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband" is a textbook-style ancient "boss" drama.

In the drama, the heroine can be called the "Lu Yiping" of North America. Her biological father does not love her and her stepmother does not love her. In order to save her biological mother, she agrees to marry the male protagonist who is rumored to be poor and ugly. In the end, she is married to the handsome and rich diamond king Lao Wu. , counterattacked and turned around, making everyone envious.

If there is any difference, it is just that the "son-in-law" and "dragon king" characters that are common in domestic dramas have been replaced by "werewolves" and "vampires" that are more suitable for European and American audiences.

For example, in another overseas short drama "Fated to my forbidden alpha", the heroine is an orphan, a maid who is bullied in a werewolf tribe, and only waits for the emperor to save her. She fell into a sea of ​​misery, which eventually triggered a fight between two wolves from rival tribes.

"Dear Moon Goddess, I humbly ask you to give me a strong and powerful werewolf on my 18th birthday." In the first episode, the heroine performed a "silly white" that was so embarrassing that she picked her toes. "Sweet" classic plot, but this does not affect this drama in the "Werewolf Zone" to be the best and attractive.

"Vampires and Werewolves" theme area

As one micro-short drama actor said, these short dramas attract attention precisely because of their exaggerated and nonsensical plots. For this reason, many colleagues agree that the artistic value of micro-short dramas is limited. If long-form dramas are like a gluttonous feast, micro-short dramas are more like convenient fast food.

It is true that there are also some high-quality works with sincere intentions in the micro-short drama track. This is precisely why we must promote the high-quality development of the micro-short drama industry and continue to output high-quality audio-visual content to the public, and cannot allow it to grow wildly.

Reuters also noticed that in the face of the rapid development of the micro-short drama industry, China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has continued to strengthen supervision in the past two years, and has successively introduced a series of policies and measures to actively guide the standardized development of the industry. From the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023, more than 225,300 micro-short dramas have been offline, with a total of nearly 1.4 million episodes. These micro-short dramas have been criticized for "containing pornographic and vulgar content, bloody violence, low style, vulgar aesthetics, etc."; for some deliberately programmed The Chinese media "China Women's Daily" also criticized "Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law War" and mini-drama that exaggerated family conflicts, saying that portraying unequal and distorted marriage and family relationships as a common phenomenon deviates from the mainstream values ​​of society. The

report also mentioned that starting from June 1 this year, the China State Administration of Radio, Film and Television began to implement classified and hierarchical review of micro-short dramas. Micro-short dramas that have not been reviewed and registered are not allowed to be disseminated online.

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