In the past two years, there have been frequent reports on the Internet that ByteDance’s “App factory has shut down.” Since Douyin, ByteDance has indeed not produced a phenomenal App, and the model of rapid innovation and iterative launch of new Apps does not seem to be working.

In the past two years, ByteDance’s “app factory shut down ” voice has been heard frequently on the Internet. Since Douyin, ByteDance has indeed not produced a phenomenal app, and the model of rapid innovation and iterative launch of new apps seems to be no longer working. Now that ByteDance’s interactive drama business, which was tested for less than a year, has been shut down, this stereotype has been deepened again.

Recently, it was reported that the Bubble Heart Selection, Claw Heart Selection, Jelly Heart Selection and other IAP interactive drama mini program businesses developed by ByteDance’s commercialization department Huge Engine will be shut down on June 17. The above three Each platform has issued an announcement to cease operations. After June 17, the balance of the relevant users and the remaining validity period of the membership will be converted into refunds and returned to the payment account.

Self-made interactive drama is a new business launched by ByteDance last year. Its characteristic is that it adds real-life interactive video game gameplay to the short drama. There is no doubt that short dramas are now a new blue ocean that short video platforms have cultivated after live broadcasting and selling goods. In the past year, the wealth-making stories that have emerged on this track have emerged one after another. According to statistics from the "2023 Short Play Industry Research Report", in 2023 alone, the size of the short play market will reach 37.39 billion yuan, and it is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in 2024, and the scale is even close to the century-old film industry.

Real-person interactive video games are actually also an emerging field. Since last fall’s "It’s Over!" I'm surrounded by beautiful women! "Dominates the best-selling list of Steam in China, with 1.9 million copies and 80 million sales, ranking second in the domestic game sales of Steam. This is the result of the game only being sold for less than three months. The subsequent "Beauty, please don't affect my study" and "Please!" "Fall in Love with Me Tomorrow" also achieved good performance.

According to common sense, an interactive drama that combines short dramas and real-life interactive video games should draw on the best of others. Why were ByteDance-related products shut down less than a year after they were finally launched? The direct reason is obviously poor performance. Its first self-made interactive drama "Return to 1990: Beautiful Women Like Clouds" has less than six-digit views on Douyin, which is even more compared to the hit short drama that easily has hundreds of millions of views. There is a difference between cloud and mud.

The reason for this phenomenon is actually very simple, that is, interactive dramas are much more expensive than short dramas. Usually the price of short dramas is 0.8 yuan to 1 yuan per episode. Although the price alone is very low, it cannot support the volume of short dramas that often exceed 100 episodes. This payment method is specially designed for users who are addicted to the "feeling". Designed to make it easy to spend hundreds of dollars on just one meal.

However, the charging model of interactive dramas is different from that of short dramas. Instead, it is exactly the same as real-person interactive video games. They are all prepaid, that is, users can unlock the content by purchasing in advance. Take "Predecessor's Love Choice" launched by ByteDance on Bubble Heart as an example. Users need to purchase a membership of 199 yuan/month to experience it. But at the price of 199 yuan/month on Aiyouteng, you can buy a subscription membership for more than one year.

In comparison, the payment model of short dramas is moisturizing and silent, and users will spend more money unknowingly. Interactive dramas are explicit, but such high pricing is doomed in the domestic market. Not competitive at all. Of course, even if ByteDance's interactive dramas change the payment model, it may be difficult to succeed, because interactive dramas are simply not about taking the best and discarding the dross, because the concept of "interaction" is not yet accepted by the audience.

Interactive dramas are actually not a new concept. As early as 2017, Tencent Video launched the ancient costume martial arts interactive short film "Wangyou Town", which still starred Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin. After the broadcast, it was a flood of negative reviews. The first-person perspective of the play made many viewers "incomprehensible". A year later, Netflix also launched "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch". In 2019, iQiyi brought the interactive film and television drama "His Smile" and Mango TV launched "Celebrity Detective: Prime Suspect".

Then there was no more. Since the epidemic, interactive dramas have almost no sound. If interactive dramas are really popular, in the film and television industry that loves to follow trends, such dramas should obviously be launched intensively. The reason why interactive dramas are not popular is actually very simple, because its underlying logic is based on games, not film and television works, but the "Seventh Art" and the "Ninth Art" are not the same after all.

Games require players to have subjective initiative, and interaction with the game is an integral part of the player's gaming experience, while movies and TV series require the audience to be bystanders and passively receive the output of the creator. However, interactive dramas require the audience to take the same initiative as the players, which is equivalent to changing the audience's way of watching, so it is normal for the latter to be temporarily unable to accept it.