Visual China.
Text dataeyeNetEase, the game giant, is making a comprehensive layout of short dramas.
NetEase Antelope, NetEase Youdao, NetEase News, all forces gathered and successively entered the short drama track.
For example, NetEase Antelope frequently appears in the list of short drama producers this year, NetEase Youdao released the "NetEase Youdao International Short Drama - Contracted Screenwriter Cooperation Plan" in July to recruit short drama script screenwriters from all over the world, and NetEase News recently issued a convening order for short drama distributors.
In just over a year, NetEase has at least three business departments involved in the short drama business, which is enough to see that NetEase attaches great importance to the short drama business.
This article will answer when NetEase will deploy short dramas, which business lines or subsidiaries have entered the game, the reasons and advantages of NetEase's layout of short dramas, and the challenges it faces.
NetEase is making a comprehensive layout of short dramas.
Dataeye Short Drama Observation understands that within NetEase Group, there are at least three departments and subsidiaries (NetEase Antelope, NetEase Youdao, and NetEase News) involved in the short drama business, and short dramas are also listed as key projects of the group.
According to insiders, "(the company's) content team and delivery team are ready-made, and they must be the focus under this heat." ”
Netease Antelope is the "first department to eat crabs" in the group. In 2022, the NetEase Antelope team in Hangzhou (NetEase Antelope is affiliated with NetEase Cloud Reading) will be the first to test the water short drama business.
In the short drama industry chain,Netease Antelope mainly plays the role of the producer of the short drama, responsible for funding, bearing production costs, short drama shooting and production of finished products and other work to the contractor is responsible.
Because it is backed by the online text platform NetEase Cloud Reading, NetEase Antelope also plays the role of the copyright owner, output ** IP, responsible for producing scripts.
It can be said that in the three simplified links of short dramas (script, production, and delivery), NetEase Antelope has participated. NetEase Antelope is currently the main department of the group's internal short drama business.
*: Skit study room.
According to incomplete statistics from Dataeye's short drama observation, in 2022, NetEase Antelope will participate in the production of at least four short dramas: "The Strongest ** System of Shenhao", "The Holy Doctor's Son-in-law", "Urban Super God of War" and "Business Ladder". Among them, Netease Antelope's self-made drama "Urban Super God of War" will consume a total of 11 million in 7 days on the National Day in 2022.
In the past year (especially in Q3), NetEase Antelope's layout speed for short dramas has been significantly accelerated. According to incomplete statistics from Dataeye short drama observation, Netease Antelope has participated in the production of at least eight short dramas, "Dumb Wife Huo Ye is a Divine Doctor", "Flash Marriage, Huo Don't Love Too Much", "Phoenix Palm Nine Days", "Mrs. Ji is not easy to mess with", "Duzun", "God-given God of War", "Rebirth and Rise 2003", "Invincible Prince" eight short dramas.
*: Public information;Dataeye skit observation mapping.
The number of short dramas associated with NetEase's official accounts of short dramas on Douyin and Station B is as high as dozens.
Up to now, Netease Antelope's Douyin account "Antelope Good Drama" has launched 53 popular ** adapted short dramas, with more than 220,000 fans and more than 1.4 million likes.
*: Tik Tok. Netease Antelope B's official short drama account "Hangzhou Yunyue Reading" has launched 11 short dramas, with a cumulative number of more than 920,000. Among them, "Meng Bao is coming, Daddy is the big guy" once ranked second on the short drama hot list on December 11.
*: Station B. This year,NetEase's subsidiary, NetEase Youdao, also entered the short drama track, mainly responsible for the short drama overseas business.
When short dramas go overseas, translation or localization creation is the first difficulty, and NetEase Youdao's housekeeping skill "translation" can help localize the content of short dramas.
In March this year, NetEase Youdao's international department recruited actors for its overseas short dramas. NetEase Youdao has also released a number of recruitment positions such as international short drama business interns, overseas short drama business assistant interns, and short drama translation and editing interns. From the perspective of the market, NetEase is more interested in the North American market.
*: WeChat***
In July this year, NetEase Youdao officially released the "International Short Drama - Signed Screenwriter Cooperation Plan", which plans to recruit short drama script screenwriters from all over the world.
The official preferential conditions are to open some or even the entire network of NetEase's IP, as well as exclusive global film and television apps, professional KOLs and various channels to distribute and launch short dramas.
*: WeChat***
It can be seen that in the short drama industry chain, NetEase Youdao mainly plays the role of the copyright owner and the producer, responsible for getting the script, funding and bearing the production fee, and the short drama shooting and production of finished products are handed over to the producer.
Netease Youdao's entry into the short drama is relatively low-key, and after the release of the "International Short Drama - Contracted Screenwriter Cooperation Plan" in July, there is almost no information on the Internet except for recruitment information.
Recently, NetEase has another department involved in the short drama track.
In December, NetEase News issued a convening order for short drama distributors, and the company plans to take out a 10% share to recruit short drama distributors. This is also a key project of NetEase Media in Q4 2023.
As a veteran ** platform, NetEaseNews primarily plays the role of distributionFang's role is mainly responsible for the distribution of short dramas.
Dataeye Short Drama Observation learned that NetEase News has short drama mini programs such as "Cool and Crooked Small Theater", and the team's business is mainly in the domestic market, and it does not involve overseas business for the time being.
At present, the distribution of short dramas mainly focuses on three points: sharing, the first release of new dramas, and the settlement. NetEase News' 10% share is low overall, and the industry share is generally around 15%.
Due to the late entry of NetEase News, it is still in the exploration stage, and there is not much information on the Internet for the time being.
At present, NetEase has participated in the three simplified links of short dramas (script, production, and delivery), but in the production process, NetEase mainly cooperates with third-party producers.
NetEase Antelope and NetEase Youdao mainly play the role of producer and copyright owner of short dramas, and NetEase News mainly plays the role of distributor. Netease Antelope entered the game at the earliest, and has achieved certain results, NetEase Youdao and NetEase News have just entered the game, and they have not achieved much for the time being.
From the perspective of domestic and foreign markets, NetEase Antelope and NetEase News mainly focus on the domestic short drama market, and NetEase Youdao focuses on the overseas short drama market.
(1) Reasons and advantages of NetEase's layout of short dramas:
First, at the market level, the short drama industry is growing rapidly.
According to iiMedia Consulting data, the size of China's micro-short drama market will reach 373 in 2023900 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26765%, and it is estimated that the market size of China's micro-short dramas will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2027.
With a market space of nearly 100 billion, NetEase will inevitably not be absent. In addition, the regulatory measures in the gaming industry continue to tighten, and NetEase is also trying to find new growth points.
Second, abundant IP resources.
At present, the script of the short drama is mainly adapted from the Internet, NetEase has an online text company NetEase Cloud Reading, NetEase Cloud Reading has 60w+ massive** resources, and there are a large number of networks** that can be adapted into scripts. At present, many of the short dramas produced by NetEase Antelope are adapted from NetEase Cloud Reading IP.
In addition, the audience of short dramas is highly overlapping with the target audience of online texts, and the number of NetEase Cloud reading users has exceeded 18 million, and the above-mentioned ** users are very likely to be converted into short drama users.
Third, compared with small and medium-sized players, the financial strength is strong.
Compared with small and medium-sized players, NetEase has a capital advantage and relatively strong financial strength. According to the financial report, in the third quarter of 2023, NetEase's net income was 27.3 billion yuan, and the net profit from continuing operations attributable to the company's shareholders under non-GAAP was 8.6 billion yuan.
Due to its abundant funds, NetEase has a higher fault tolerance rate in the new business of short dramas, and the business department may have more room to play independently. The fact that NetEase Antelope, NetEase Youdao, and NetEase News subsidiaries have been involved in short dramas is the best proof of this.
Fourth, big brand endorsement and good reputation.
As a veteran game company, NetEase owns many well-known games such as "Fantasy Journey to the West", "Journey to the West", "Onmyoji", "Egg Boy Party", etc., and has a good reputation in the industry and among players.
NetEase's entry into the short drama, compared with novice players, has a certain brand advantage and user base.
(2) Challenges faced by NetEase in the layout of short dramas:
First, the short drama business is divided into three departments, the directorTo the company's resources are dispersed.
Within NetEase Group, NetEase Antelope, NetEase Youdao, and NetEase News have successively set foot in the short drama business. Among them, NetEase Antelope has the longest and deepest layout, and has participated in script, production, delivery and other links.
NetEase's short drama business is scattered in three departments, and the three forces work independently and do not communicate much with each other, which to a certain extent causes a waste of the company's resources and affects the company's long-term development.
Second, the production link is weak, and the quality of the short dramas produced is low.
In the short drama industry chain, NetEase's overall layout is biased towards the upstream, mainly providing scripts, responsible for funding, and the production process is mainly handed over to third-party producers.
Since it does not undertake the production process, NetEase cannot really control the quality of the short drama. At present, most of the short dramas participated by NetEase belong to mini program short dramas (no version number is required, self-reviewed by the platform, and the scale is relaxed), and the duration of a single episode is 1-2 minutes, and the overall quality is not high, which is not much different from the high-quality short dramas on the market.
For shoddy short dramas, the window period is closing, supervision is following up, and the quality of short dramas will be a major trend in the future. With the entry of "professional players" such as Huace Film and Television, Tangde Film and Television, Lemon Film and Television, and Wanda Film, the living space of NetEase's short drama business will be further compressed.
Third, it has little competitive advantage in the overseas short drama market, and third-party assistance is required in many links.
In the overseas short drama market, NetEase has little competitive advantage. Judging from the available information, NetEase's overseas short dramas mainly target the North American market.
Due to differences in culture and habits, the short dramas produced by NetEase in China cannot go overseas directly. NetEase needed to "start anew" and tailor its short drama products specifically for the North American market.
Without the IP blessing of NetEase Cloud Reading, NetEase mainly plays the role of a producer overseas, and third-party assistance is required for script and production.
The production cost of a short drama in overseas markets is relatively high, and the production cost of a single short drama is as high as 15-200,000 US dollars. If most of the links are outsourced, it will inevitably reduce the company's profit margins.
In general, the root cause of the above problems in NetEase's short drama business is that NetEase has not raised short dramas to the height of the group's strategy within the company, and the company's internal mentality of testing the waters and playing tickets for short dramas - when you see the outlet of short dramas, you can try to enter the game at a small cost, and it is best to make money and become a new growth point, and if you can't make money, it won't cause much loss to the company.
It is not difficult to understand why NetEase, although it is a big manufacturer, still produces cool dramas with bloody plots and routines, rather than high-quality short dramas.