This newspaper (chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Yu Yujin reported in Beijing. After the ancient puppet drama "The Great Battle" was surpassed by Mango TV's period drama "Alley People", "Aiyouteng" has started the year-end showdown of suspense dramas. Currently, "White Night Breaking

This newspaper (chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Yu Yujin reported in Beijing

After the ancient puppet drama "Fighting" was surpassed by Mango TV's period drama " Alley People ", "Aiyouteng" has started the suspense drama again. End of year showdown.

Currently, "White Night Breaking Dawn" is currently being broadcast on Youku. The popularity of the show on the Youku site exceeded 10,000 on November 23. However, compared to its predecessor, the reputation of "White Night Breaking Dawn" is not as good as expected. On November 28, the show was released on Douban The opening score is 7.0 points. As a countermeasure, Tencent Video and iQiyi have also released "Sun Stars" and "I Am a Detective", and both parties are expected to jointly launch " Crime Hunting Illustrated Book 2".

In fact, Youku has always been under great pressure, especially in 2024. Although popular dramas continue to be released online, in August this year, Rihuo ranked at the bottom of "Aiyu Tengmang", even lower than the Chinese video platform Bilibili. This also forced Youku to pay more attention to content. Recently, news came out that Youku has paid more than 10 cooperative film producers in advance. As it increases content, it is worth paying attention to whether Youku can attract more users and advertisers.

"Breaking Dawn", the hit

phenomenal criminal investigation drama "White Night Chasing ", the sequel "Breaking Dawn" released after seven years, has been long overdue in the expectations of the audience. The drama will be broadcast on Youku on November 20 , in just 3 days, the show has exceeded 10,000 hits on Youku.

It is understood that "White Night" has assembled the original cast, including the character costumes and actor styles, as consistent as possible with the previous season, continuing the fast-paced and strong logic unique narrative style of "White Night". Although

was highly anticipated, complaints about excessive advertising also followed shortly after the launch of "Daybreak". A viewer told a reporter from the China Times, “Compared with the previous film, White Night, the plot of Daybreak is watered down and there are too many advertisements. There are multiple advertisements inserted into the 40-minute plot, which greatly affects the viewing experience and makes purchases Even if you have a higher level of membership, there is no way to completely skip the ads.”

According to Youku officials, “Daybreak” has 30 pre-broadcast advertising partners, setting a new record for Youku’s pre-broadcast investment.

On November 28, "Break of the Night" was finally released, with a Douban score of 7.0. As a comparison, the current score of "White Night" is as high as 8.9 points, and its score on Douban was once as high as 9.1 points. "White Night" was even bought by Netflix for overseas distribution rights, becoming the first truly "overseas" online drama. .

According to the reporter's understanding, in a series of dramas, the first one usually receives the highest praise, while the sequels generally have a decline in praise, or even end.

Regarding the excessive advertising of popular dramas, Chinese young playwright and director Xiang Kai told a reporter from China Times, “The advertising volume of several video platforms including Youku has declined this year. Videos and embedded advertisements have become common methods. Although they will affect the audience's perception, they can indeed effectively boost advertising revenue, especially near the end of the year, when video platforms also need to improve their performance; in addition , due to the influence of the 'production economy' in the past year or two, the number of regular hit dramas or hit dramas has decreased. Therefore, popular IP dramas are also favored by advertisers to increase their popularity and popularity. "

Get it on Youku. On the occasion of the release of "White Night Breaking Dawn", Tencent Video launched "Sun and Stars" on November 20; on November 27, The criminal investigation drama "I Am a Detective", which records serious crimes, will be broadcast exclusively on iQiyi.com, and "Crime Hunters 2" will also be launched on Tencent Video and iQiyi.

Although the competition among suspense dramas is fierce at the end of the year, according to Yunhe data, on November 28, among the top five effective market shares of feature films, dramas broadcast by Youku accounted for two places, "White Night" and " and occupy the top two spots with 13.3% and 10.2% market share of effective playback of feature films.

It is worth noting that "Dawn of the White Night" is a blockbuster drama series on Youku White Night Theater. As early as 2020, Youku officially launched the Suspense Theater. In April this year, Youku Suspense Theater was upgraded to White Night Theater. Since then, " new " (Douban 7.0 score) and "Bianshui Past" (Douban 7.9 score) have been launched in the suspense category. gained recognition.

However, since the launch of "White Night", the three major long-form video platforms of "Aiyouteng" have laid out their plans in the subcategory of suspense. iQiyi launched the Mist Theater in 2020, and with the help of "The Secret Corner" (8.8 points on Douban) " The two drama series "The Silent Truth" (9.0 points on Douban) have launched a signature; Tencent Video launched "X Theater" in 2023, and the first series " The Long Season " (9.4 points on Douban) also Let the theater become famous in one fell swoop. The three major long-form video platforms all have high-profile suspense drama content, and it is difficult to say who is the indestructible king.

Youku speeds up to catch up with

Since this year, Youku has launched many popular dramas, such as "In the Clouds" and "Black Moonlight", but iQiyi and Tencent Video have also launched many hit dramas , for example, Tencent Video has successively launched many popular dramas including " Flowers ", " and Fengxing ", " Qing Yu Nian 2", " Rose Story ". In addition, Tencent's Q2 long video paid membership data this year A year-on-year increase of 13% to 117 million. In contrast, Youku’s advantages are not obvious.

According to data disclosed by questmobile on October 9, in August 2024, the top five monthly active users of online video apps were iQiyi, Tencent Video, Mango TV, Bilibili and Youku Video, with Youku Video falling to the third place. Five places, not only behind "Aitengmang", but also lower than the Chinese video platform B station.

Although the data of a single month does not completely represent the whole picture, it has also brought a lot of controversy to Youku, making it harder to tear off the label of "falling behind".

Facing fierce competition, Youku is also increasing its content layout. Reporters learned from Youku that in March this year, Alibaba Entertainment released the "Hong Kong Arts Revitalization Plan" at the Hong Kong Film and Television International Exhibition, announcing that it would invest HK$5 billion in Hong Kong dramas, movies, performances, and youth talent training. At the same time, Youku released 12 "Xingang Drama" film lists in one go.

What deserves more attention is that recently, market news shows that Youku has paid in advance to more than ten cooperative film studios, including both "big" dramas and high-potential high-quality dramas.

Youku official also disclosed that Alibaba Entertainment has attracted many high-quality talents from external film and television companies in recent years, including Dun Qi, the producer of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", Yin Xiangjin, the former general manager of Wanda Film and Television, Yan Bei, the former CEO of Yanyu Film and Television, and many other people in the industry. Producers and directors have joined Alibaba Entertainment to establish studios.

"Previously, Youku had lost a lot of talent, especially the backbone in the field of content production, which put it at a disadvantage in the competition of traditional long video platforms such as 'Aiyouteng'. Although Youku will also launch popular dramas, the popularity on the site It is not low, but it is still slightly inferior to iQiyi and Tencent Video. This year, it was even beaten by Mango TV and Bilibili. "Challenge, this forces Youku to make changes." Xiang Kai further said that whether Youku proposed the "Hong Kong Art Revitalization Plan" or now pays partners, it proves that Youku wants to focus on more high-quality content and release some in advance. Popular dramas are locked within their own scope, shortening the gap with other long-form video platforms, and striving to be "on an equal footing" with other platforms.

Xiang Kai also believes that Youku should find out the core competitive track on the one hand, and at the same time adopt some differentiated playing methods, not to be tough but to avoid the edge of other video platforms. The reporter interviewed Youku about how to maintain its own advantages in the suspense segment. As of press time, there was no reply.

Editor-in-chief: Huang Xingli Editor-in-chief: Hanfeng