When Long Aotian becomes Sebastian, when Leng Bingning becomes Selena, a number of Chinese tyrant-style short dramas are becoming popular in the United States.
This kind of short drama that uses overseas filming teams, uses European and American actors, and retains the core of the theme of Chinese hegemony makes North American users, especially female users, extremely attractive.
The data shows that the **App Reelshort, which released these short dramas, once overshadowed the "overseas version of Douyin" TikTok, ranking first on the iOS entertainment list in the United States, and also ranked second on the overall list.
Subsequently, in the competition for "doxxing" at home and abroad, its ability to absorb gold is even more surprising.
If you want to finish chasing a short drama on Reelshort, Marriage Before Love, Sadomasochism, Werewolf and other themes, in just over an hour, users have to pay about $20, which is 15 more than NetflixThe $49 monthly Standard membership subscription price is even higher.
According to the statistics of the data analysis platform AppFigures, every time there is a user**, Reelshort can generate about $2 in revenue, and now its ** volume is close to 14 million. Even if you don't count the user's follow-up payment actions, it is already considerable for an overseas "non-mainstream" new APP.
Behind Reelshort is Crazy Maple Studio (hereinafter referred to as "CMS"), an American company called "Maple Leaf Interactive" in Chinese.
Recently, China News Weekly interviewed its founder Jia Yi, who said that it is not easy to cooperate with the main creative team in Europe and the United States to shoot short dramas for overseas audiences. For example, it is difficult for Hollywood-trained actors to adapt to the way of performing "like a madman";And the creative mechanism that has always been director-centered has also been forced to become a screenwriter-centered system in the short drama crew.
Interestingly, Jia Yi himself is not the audience of the boss, or even all the female frequency content, and even resists the cool narrative himself, on the contrary, "failure" is the word he mentions the most.
In fact, his anxiety is not unfounded. After a brief ascent to the top, Reelshort has returned to normal, and as of press time, it has fallen to the seventeenth place on the iOS entertainment list. Jia Yi said frankly that while Reelshort is out of the circle, there are still 70% of dramas that can't be pushed.
For this company, how can it continue to create hits, and how long can the field of short dramas be popular?The answers to these two questions are perhaps inseparable.
Jia Yi, founder of Crazy Maple Studio, and members of the Chinese team. Figure provided by the interviewee.
"At the beginning of the launch, we actually performed very badly".
China News Weekly: When did you first come up with the idea of making a short play?
Jia Yi:When the company was founded 7 years ago, the product was only interactive game chapters, but we hoped to use diversified ways to help creators monetize, including text, games, and **. From 2018 to 2019, I went to Hollywood many times, hoping to sell a concept to the people there, which is to use the data we have accumulated on Chapters and KISS (CMS's online text platform) to accurately select excellent books for film and television monetization. Unfortunately, they didn't approve of my idea at the time.
And at that time, it was too expensive to do **. Until the first half of last year, it wasn't a one-minute skit at that time, but a three- or nine-minute skit, and I wondered if the short drama format could greatly reduce the cost. Sure enough, by June, we saw that the cost of [skits] in the entire Chinese market had dropped to an acceptable range, and if we were shooting in the United States, I think it would be affordable. That's when I decided to get involved in this field.
China News Weekly: Even if the cost is reduced to a controllable range, it has also achieved rapid development in China, but is there really a chance for the form of short drama in the US market?There were companies like Quibi in the United States that tried to make high-quality skits before, but they took 17After $500 million in financing, it was announced that it would be shut down just six months after it was launched.
Jia Yi:We have analyzed the reasons for the failure of quibi internally, and I think there are a few core points. First of all, Quibi, including products like Reelshort, is a mobile Internet product, and it is not a simple content-based product. If it is a mobile Internet product, the first thing to think about is "who is my core user", it must not be everybody, this is the first point. Secondly, you need to use the most core content strategy to match your core users, and finally choose the most appropriate monetization method.
I think quibi is completely wrong on these three points, but we want to find a new path from them to do it.
First, Quibi chose the mass market, and based on several past products, we judged that we should not target the mass market, but should target the female marketSecond, the content strategy should not be suspense, war or horror, it should be female romance, which is our choice;The third point is the business model, if you use the monthly business model, others will definitely ask you, why do I have to pay so much (for you) instead of choosing Netflix, there will definitely be such a problem, so we use a hybrid monetization model in the business model, users can unlock ads, and you can also accelerate by paying in order to save time.
China News Weekly: With these thoughts in the early stage, what specific preparations did you and your team make before the official launch of Reelshort in August last year?
Jia Yi:We formed a filming team in Xi'an at the time and wanted to shoot our drama, but it failed because the actors had a strong Russian accent. Later, we also tried to use dubbing, but it was also unsuccessful. So we decided to shoot all the content on U.S. soil.
At the beginning of the launch, our performance was actually very bad, and the retention was only a single digit, which was equivalent to a complete failure. At that time, we reflected that the failure was not because of the business model, nor because of the presentation, but because of our content strategy. When I say content strategy, it's not just about what books to choose, it's about how to repackage the content into a one-minute pattern.
So after intensive thinking and reflection, we turned the whole creative process around. In the past, our most conventional practice was for several authors to brainstorm an outline first, and then set the character and world view, which is normal thinkingBut our current creation is completely opposite, we must first determine the bridge - we call it magic moment, which is the most explosive point in a drama, and then the character design and world view are in the service of the bridge.
This kind of creative process is actually a bit anti-human, but we have to do it, because the skit requires it, and the user only watches the cool and explosive points, and we have to strengthen it. During this period, I was also learning Xi with popular domestic dramas. This is a major content overhaul, and I think it's been relatively successful.
A hit drama by Reelshort - The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband. Figure reelshort's official website.
China News Weekly: What is the production process of Reelshort skits now?
Jia Yi:At the beginning, the most important part is called material selection, we have accumulated a lot of chapters and kiss data, we know very well which works are good for retention and liquidity, and will make a primary selection based on the actual performance of these works, and then enter our material selection meeting.
There will only be three people in the selection meeting, one for the content team and one for the production team, and I will make the final decision. But I don't usually make decisions, basically I only have one veto, for example, when they wanted to be a male frequency, I used my only veto to no, but basically respect them. Very few people are involved in the selection of materials, which gives us the advantage that the decision is made quickly, but at the same time, the requirements for everyone are getting higher and higher, and we must be extremely sensitive.
After the selection is completed, the production is carried out by our in-house screenwriting team. We have an internal target that requires the completion of the screenwriter's start to launch within three months, so that the screenwriter can quickly see the first round (delivery feedback) data, so as to correct some assumptions and judgments in the creation, and then enter the second cut and promotion stage.
From screenwriting creativity, screenwriting adaptation, shooting and production, post-production, to operation and promotion, and social media operation, the whole process is done by our own employees, because the model is too new to find anyone, so we have to cultivate it ourselves.
China News Weekly: After deciding to shoot overseas, how receptive are the overseas creative teams and actors to the form of short dramas?
Jia Yi:[They] were shocked. Like an actor trained in Hollywood, he was taught to act very subtlely, and he used the micro-expressions of his face to act. But this micro-expression is something that no one can understand on a skit, you have to exaggerate. So we often tell the actors, please multiply the emotional fluctuations of your acting by 2 to 4 times, but they are very uncomfortable, saying "movies are not played like this, how can you be like a madman". Of course, some people can accept it, some people can't, and that's a lot of running-in process.
Generally speaking, the director is the biggest on the set, but when we shoot a short play, we also debate internally for a long time, and finally we decided that it must be a screenwriter-centered system, and all the lighting, props, and directors all serve the screenwriter and script. Many American directors say, "I'm a director, this is my art," and I finally turned around, "It's not your art, it's the art of our screenwriting." Of course, some directors say "I won't cooperate with you anymore", and I say that if I don't cooperate, I won't cooperate, but our philosophy has to stick to it.
The scene of the reelshort skit shooting. Figure provided by the interviewee.
"70% of dramas just can't be pushed".
China News Weekly: In November, Reelshort's ranking on the entertainment list and the overall list of the app store soared, making this product for overseas markets also out of the circle in China. What do you think of this result internally?
Jia Yi:This out-of-the-circle gave our team great confidence and courage. When we surpassed Paramount, Gmail, Instagram, Facebook, and then TikTok, we were shocked to know that we could do so much with such a small team.
The best influence for us may be that it will be easier to recruit people, and a lot of people are starting to hear about us. We are now recruiting a large number of people, for example, in the United States, we are recruiting content and media, in Beijing we are recruiting users to grow, and in Shenzhen we are recruiting production and research.
In addition, when we were doing products, content, and operations, we found that many of our assumptions were wrong, and (this time) brought us a new understanding of users, and I think this was the biggest impact on our thinking.
Reelshort's counterattack moment on the leaderboard. Figure screenshot.
China News Weekly: So how did you and your team review it?
Jia Yi:We did make it to the list in November, but a lot of it was by accident and luck, and we realized that we had a big problem. To tell you the truth, I just pointed out a lot of issues to the user growth team at a conference before this interview.
Our whole team does not use a set of language to speak, the content team has its own judgment on a work, and the team will have their own judgment, and the logic of these two judgments is inconsistent and cannot be compatible. When a drama explodes, everyone is hello and I am good, but once the promotion does not go smoothly - 70% of the dramas just can't be pushed, whose problem is it?Is the content not good, the script is not good, the production is not good, the lighting is not good, the shooting is not good, the actors are not good, the service is not good, the product is not good, or the business model is not good?Everyone is bound to point fingers at each other, so that's a huge problem.
In order to avoid such problems, we must first unify. Because we now have a content team in the United States, a Yongzeng team in Beijing, and a product team in Shenzhen, communication cannot only rely on personal feelings and influence, but more to let everyone have a very unified cognitive standard for something, and this standard is being established.
That's why we just had a reflection meeting, we must use the same set of underlying logic, establish the same set of evaluation criteria, and use a set of language for dialogue.
China News Weekly: You mentioned Netflix as well. In fact, compared to now, the payment of a short series of reelshort has exceeded the monthly fee of Netflix's standard version, have you considered that this business model will affect the enthusiasm of users to continue to pay?
Jia Yi:The monthly business model is very popular in the United States, but I have always thought that the monthly business model itself is an irrational tolerance for content creators, because I don't need to look at the long-term retention, monetization and absorption of this content, so some indiscriminate works can be mixed with good works. And those very valuable works, they should have created more value, but they were flattened by the monthly system. In Netflix, users may watch a lot of classic dramas that are less than 10%, but he has to pay for thousands of other works.
If we also have a monthly subscription, I can't compete with Netflix, he invested tens of millions of dollars, and we only had $300,000. So I can only PK him with my sharpest sword, which is that our urge to pay is stronger than his. Is a domestic e-commerce platform really winning the sinking market?In fact, it won because many people consumed irrationally, so it won. Our spiritual products and reelshort are essentially irrational cultural products, that is, the victory of impulsive consumption.
It's really expensive, and it costs $20 to finish a work. But according to our data, many people actually haven't finished reading it, more than 50% may see that they don't like it and leave, he only spent four or five yuan, and he doesn't need a monthly subscription, so it's actually cheap. If some works find their own real audience, then these people are willing to spend 20 yuan to watch it, but you just make less money, which is unfair to the creator.
China News Weekly: How to ensure the supply of Reelshort's content?
Jia Yi:In my opinion, on the horizontal axis of creators, Netflix is at the far right end of the axis, and it is entrenched in Super PGC, attracting all the most well-known directors and producers in Hollywood, of course, this requires big capital to drive;TikTok is completely grassroots UGC, no cost, you can shoot if you want. And in the middle of the two, there are a large number of PUGC creators, and no one cares about them, because they can't reach Hollywood, and they don't have the money to make money by doing low-end work, so we are targeting these PUGC creators with creative ability.
The real revolutionary change of one-minute short drama is not in the form of expression, nor in how powerful our content creation is, but in the fact that it has broken the big capital game on the mainstream ** communication channels for hundreds of years for the first time, that is, a small number of companies have invested tens of millions of dollars to guide the audience to say what kind of works you can only watch.
And now we only invest $300,000 in short dramas, and it has fundamentally changed the way content is produced, and many companies can invest in it, even small and medium-sized companies. This will definitely become the creators themselves to guide the discourse, and it will also change the way the entire content is disseminated, so I think this is revolutionary.
"The end of globalization must be localization".
China News Weekly: How big is the CMS team now?What is the organizational structure?How to divide the labor between the Chinese and American teams?
Jia Yi:We're probably less than 400 people now. We are now in a 3+1 architecture, with three content platforms and a game division, the content platforms are KISS, CHAPTERS and REELSHORT, and the game division is our card game. The Shenzhen team is mainly responsible for production and research work, Beijing is our marketing center and content center, responsible for content promotion and copyright management, and the United States is our local content team and project management team, and all localized content is completed by local colleagues in the United States.
CMS USA Team. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
China News Weekly: Under this new 3+1 architecture, what changes have taken place in the core tasks undertaken by different products?
Jia Yi:Our mission in the future must be an IP content company. In order to build our own IP, from the perspective of content creation, it needs to have three milestones: the first needs to have the ability to select, the second needs to have the ability to adapt, and the third needs to have the ability to be original.
The core of KISS is the ability to select and compile, that is, to choose the best IP and bridge, and to choose popular models;Chapters is the core of the adaptation ability, testing our ability to turn a work into a gamified work through appropriate adaptationNow Reelshort's core staff are all from the Chapters team, and the core competencies include both selection and adaptation.
But we don't have the ability to be original now, or we are very weak in originality, so I hope that Reelshort will grow in the future. And Reelshort will be the flagship product of the entire company, driving the development of several other vertical communities of the company.
China News Weekly: After seven years, do you think CMS has the core barriers?
Jia Yi:7 years ago, when we did chapters, we were still an overseas company in Chinese**, I remember a meeting at that time, many people jumped out and said, you chapters don't have books, people don't have people, what barriers do you have?I said that by the time you think about the barriers, we probably don't need to think about these issues anymore. What is a barrier?Is time a barrier?Is it a barrier to do the market?Is your understanding of something a barrier?These are barriers.
For us, we recognize very clearly that we are a content company. I think that as a content company, whether it is as big as Disney, Netflix, or as small as us, it is actually competing for one thing - the probability of continuing to output explosive products. If Netflix spends $7 billion to make 700 films a year, and the hit rate is only 10%, and if we invest tens of millions of dollars and we achieve a hit rate of 30% or 50%, then in time, we will definitely surpass it. As long as our probability of a hit is higher than it, we represent the future, and it represents the past.
So how can we increase the probability of a hit?It does not mean that only one content is enough, it requires the whole industry of the entire company, from material selection, content, production to promotion, must have great competitiveness. When it becomes an industrial chain, I think that's the barrier.
China News Weekly: So it can actually be said that you and your team have a lot of anxiety about the explosion?
Jia Yi:There must be, everyone will be anxious, or should it be called desire, we are all very eager for the next hit, and we are very eager for our works to be recognized and loved by more mainstream people. If you make a piece that people don't like, it's a blow to any content creator. Of course, many traditional creators may say that this is my work, created for me, and the rest is not in the scope of consideration, but because our goal is to entertain the public, it is important for us to say that the public is recognized.
China News Weekly: Now CMS's products cover not only the US market, what are the big differences between these markets when different countries and regions are gradually expanding?
Jia Yi:Chapters has a presence in nearly 110 countries and 16 languages, and we do find that different markets have different preferences, which is closely related to cultural attributes. Therefore, the end point of globalization must be localization.
For example, the theme of werewolves is mainstream in Europe and the United States, but not in Mexico and Latin America, because wolves are a symbol of the best in Latin America, and in Latin America it is a gangster theme experience that will be very good;Southeast Asia has a high degree of consistent preferences with the mainland, such as hegemony and counterattack.
Author: Shi Hanxu.