Beijing News (Reporter Teng Chao) On November 13, the high-quality micro-short drama "Return to the Yongle Ceremony" with the theme of ancient book restoration was launched. The short drama was selected into the fourth batch of recommendations of the "Travel with micro-short dram

Beijing News (Reporter Teng Chao) On November 13, the high-quality micro-short drama "Return to the Yongle Ceremony" with the theme of ancient book restoration was launched. The short drama was selected into the fourth batch of the "Travel with the micro-short drama" creation plan Recommended plays. The high-quality short drama "Jinyi Lane" that was launched not long ago was selected as a planned support project of the Beijing Radio and Television Network Audiovisual Development Fund in 2024.

Both short plays are produced by Hongguo Short Drama. In 2023, Douyin Group launched Hongguo Short Drama, a free drama product, and is committed to providing users with a large number of free high-quality short dramas. In recent years, the micro-short drama industry has continued to evolve. The free short drama model represented by the Hongguo short drama has added a new choice to users under the mainstream of the paid model. Free short plays naturally have high-quality attributes, which is good for the content of short plays to become high-quality. At the same time, it also reduces the emergence of irrational consumption scenarios such as impulsive recharging. It can be said that free short plays will lead the short play industry to a new development pattern.

The free model of short dramas is good for high-quality content. The commercialization history of

short dramas mainly relies on two models: ipa (paid model) and iaa (free model). When the short drama industry was at its hottest, the payment model really benefited the industry, with many hits appearing. However, with the rapid changes in the supply and demand structure of the industry, the scale of paying users is limited, and the probability of popular short dramas becoming smaller and smaller. The advantages of the free short drama model have become highlighted.

For copyright owners, "free" has natural traffic attributes, and there is no need to rely on heavy investment in commercial traffic to attract viewers.

can not only save a lot of costs, but also greatly expand the sinking audience market. Moreover, the free model can also effectively alleviate the piracy problem that has been plaguing the short drama industry in recent years, and effectively convert users with low willingness to pay into monetized users. Although viewers do not have to pay directly for short dramas, short dramas can quickly gather a large number of active users in a short period of time, allowing the platform to accumulate a large enough traffic pool, thereby bringing greater room for commercial realization.

In the long run, the free model is an inevitable product of the trend of high-quality short dramas and will help promote the high-quality development of the industry. Free short dramas are aimed at a broader and more diverse user group and have a more open creative environment. Only truly high-quality content can withstand the test of the market. In addition, since the short drama itself is free, it needs to be monetized through advertising to obtain revenue. This requires the producer to also consider the needs of potential brands. Factors such as play time, completion rate, review feedback, and tonality of the work are increasingly important. In order to increase the completion rate and playback time, short dramas not only need to consider emotional points, but also whether the story is complete, whether the characters are logical, whether the emotional line can make users empathize, etc. Free short dramas pay more attention to content quality rather than pure content. payment threshold.

Nowadays, the industry has begun to turn its attention to the creation of high-quality short dramas. The high-quality micro-short drama "Return to the Yongle Ceremony" launched by Hongguo Short Drama in cooperation with CCTV and the National Library revolves around ancient book restorers and shows the real process of ancient book restoration through real-life shooting. It is innovative in theme and has artistic value at the same time. and ornamental value. Free short dramas are becoming the most effective way for high-quality short dramas to reach a wide range of users with their natural advantages. The high demand for content quality has also accelerated the trend of high-quality short drama content.

The free model will bring about changes in the short drama industry

In the current short drama market chain, the platform party and the content copyright owner are in a mutual wrestling relationship, with the latter in a relatively weak position. Under the free model, the high requirements for content quality will reposition the relationship between the platform and content copyright owners.

In the past, short dramas based on the paid model relied heavily on streaming. As a small program platform that controls the streaming password, it plays a core role in this business chain. Now, the free model has caused the small program platform to lose its traffic direction, and high-quality content will be in the natural traffic pool. Get more exposure opportunities, and copyright owners with high-quality content have more say and revenue distribution.The emphasis on content will naturally strengthen the copyright holder’s position in the industry.

In the future, more and more copyright owners will start to produce finished dramas, control the copyright of short dramas themselves, organize the closed-loop production of short dramas, and continue to produce quality-assured content. The free model led by

Hongguo Short Play will greatly expand the boundaries of the current short play market and give the short play industry a new image. At the same time, the emphasis on the content itself provides impetus for the short drama industry to shift toward high-quality products, making the high-quality short drama creation model truly possible, and will also lead the short drama industry to a new development pattern.

Today, the short drama industry has gone through the initial period of brutal growth. The previous business models are changing rapidly, and a major industry change is urgently needed. Under this circumstance, the changes in the content ecology and production pattern brought about by the free model will usher in an unprecedented space for imagination.

Editor Huang Jialing

Proofreading Xue Jingning