Kunpeng Project
Wen Jide edited Midnight
If you want to ask which track is most sought after by big factories and capital in 2023, short dramas are undoubtedly one of the answers.
As an emerging market, short dramas have a large plate and a complete commercial closed loop.
In July this year, two vertical screen short dramas of reelshort, a short drama app owned by Chinese**, attracted attention for quickly harvesting European and American users. The app implements a single-episode payment model, but many users can't help but pay episode by episode when their emotions are mobilized, and watch the entire episode before they know it.
The cost is much higher than the monthly membership fee of most overseas long-term ** platforms, which also makes Reelshort have a good monthly turnover. Last month, the record of investor relations activities disclosed by Chinese** mentioned that the company's paid short drama revenue in 2022 has exceeded 300 million yuan.
In the domestic short drama market, it is not out of reach for players to achieve tens of millions of revenues. In fact, there are now works in the market with a daily turnover of more than 20 million yuan, namely "Oops! The Queen Mother Came to Work" and "After the Flash Marriage, Mr. Fu's Vest Can't Be Hidden", clearly written on the celebration cake of its production team, one broke 12 million yuan, and the other broke 20 million yuan.
The sudden rise of short dramas can also be clearly perceived from the number of new companies in the past year. According to the data of the enterprise investigation, up to now, there have been 1 new short drama-related enterprises in China this year980,000, of which 1 was added in the first 10 months890,000, a year-on-year increase of 1995%。And the existing short drama-related enterprises in China have only reached 7620,000.
Many large manufacturers have also accelerated their layout in the short drama market, looking at China, ByteDance, China Literature, Noon Sunshine and other well-known head companies in various fields, invariably began to form teams, recruit creators, and adapt short drama IP, a small short drama, carrying their ambition to bring high growth to the new outlet.
Among them, China Literature Group, which has fought in the online literature trend, is impossible to miss the hot land of short dramas due to its own accumulation in the field of online literature. Whether it is to give full play to its advantages in the industrial chain or to seek the second curve, short dramas are obviously more likely to bring growth to China Literature, but how to do it and what effect it can make need to be answered by China Literature as soon as possible.
The short drama market is getting hotter and hotter, and it is inseparable from the emergence of "wealth legends".
The production cycle of short dramas is short and the cost is low, generally speaking, a work only needs about 300,000 yuan and half a month to complete the shooting and editing of 80-100 episodes. A single company can launch more than 60 works per month.
On top of this, short dramas also have a clear way to monetize and high returns. The beginning is free, and the subsequent plot needs to be paid**, which is a typical payment method for short dramas. In addition, you can also sell tens of yuan, 100 yuan, or **298 yuan and 365 yuan annual cards through a single episode. It is not difficult to find that the membership fee charged by the short drama platform is not lower than that of the long ** platform.
A short drama can often create tens of millions of profits, and it has also given birth to many stories of "getting rich overnight" in the market.
At the same time, the wind of short dramas can blow from overseas to China because this business model can be quickly replicated.
As early as 2020, the domestic short drama market has already sprouted: in April of this year, China Literature's IP short drama "Life is Sweet" was launched, showing the content to the audience in a short** way; At the end of the year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television added a "network micro-short drama" section to the filing system.
In essence, the emotional needs of skit users are generally the same at home and abroad; Most of the domestic short drama-related practitioners are also from the film and television industry, and the process-based production model can be applied to the short drama industry; The popularity of domestic short ** also provides a foundation for the traffic conversion of short dramas.
This good business has attracted more entrants, and since the beginning of this year, domestic leading companies have been digging into the short drama market, and many teams have appeared.
From ByteDance, a major Internet company, to state-owned enterprises such as Guoguang Global Media and China Radio and Television Media, to film and television companies such as Noon Sunshine and Huace Film and Television, and then to online literature groups such as China Literature.
ByteDance's Hongguo short drama APP, which was launched this year, has now launched a number of short dramas, and launched a gameplay method in which users can sign in and withdraw money continuously, as a means to attract new users. The Ruiwang Microvision APP, launched by Guoguang Global Media at the end of last year, also attracted new users by giving free of charge the first five episodes and giving new users 5,000 gold coins to unlock paid episodes.
In addition to the user welfare policy, players have also launched a short drama support program to attract creators. On December 5, Hou Xiaonan, CEO and President of China Literature, released the "Short Drama Galaxy Incubation Plan" to increase flow and cash support for short drama creation and accelerate the Group's development of the short drama market. In April this year, Noon Sunshine launched the short film support program "Photosynthetic Project", and since then a total of 684 works have been received, from which eight different types of short dramas have been selected for filming.
In the past year, the myth of wealth creation in the short drama market has accelerated the pace of entry of leading companies, but as the audience's choices increase, the short drama market will become more and more "rolled", and it is impossible for every company to eat the cake.
From the collection of short drama scripts, the establishment of an internal incubation platform, to the provision of 100 million yuan in cash and flow supportChina Literature is adding heavier weight to the skit business.
On December 5, at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Shanghai International Online Literature Week, Hou Xiaonan, CEO and President of China Literature, released the "Short Drama Galaxy Incubation Plan", launching three major measures: 100 IP adaptations, 100 million yuan of ** support, and AIGC empowerment.
Among them, the adaptation of 100 IPs, China Literature will mainly incubate short dramas through self-made and joint development. At the same time, through the establishment of 100 million yuan of creation**, China Literature hopes to encourage creators to participate in adaptation and production, domestic and foreign distribution in the form of cash and traffic support.
This is the second time that China Literature has released news about the skit business. In October this year, China Literature also issued a "Short Drama Script Solicitation Order" on the official writers' service***, soliciting original or adapted scripts from creators. If you are contracted, you will get 150,000 to 50,000 yuan guarantee plus up to 2% of the turnover account.
Among the entrants, online literature platforms such as China Literature are the closest players to the short drama track.
The short drama industry chain is divided into two major links: production and distribution. China Literature plays the role of copyright owner in the content production process, and short drama companies can cooperate with China Literature to purchase copyright and incubate IP. Most of the short drama users come from the sinking market, and their favorite themes, such as president, crossing, counterattack, etc., are actually the most popular genres in the online text market.
After China Literature officially entered the short drama, it directly completed the "layout" of the upstream. So far, China Literature has accumulated more than 10 years of online content incubation, and the thriving online content ecology undoubtedly gives China Literature a great advantage in its short drama content reserve. According to the financial report, in the first half of 2023 alone, China Literature will add about 200,000 writers and 350,000 books**.
The IP works of China Literature, source of China Literature's official website.
In terms of audience groups, short dramas and online articles also have a certain degree of overlap. In the early days, most of the user groups of short dramas were middle-aged people, and they were also classified as "three guarantees": security guards, cleaners, and nannies. Nowadays, with the scale of the market, short dramas are gradually reaching younger people, mainly men and women aged 20-30.
According to the data released by the Aladdin Index, the audience of online short dramas comes from long-term users, and most of them are mainstream young male and female users; The micro-short drama comes from the short ** platform, and the mainstream users are young and middle-aged women; Mini program short dramas are more for the sinking crowd.
China Literature has a large number of young users, with more than half of them in the age range of 19-35 years old, which is a disadvantage in meeting the needs of the middle-aged and elderly groups, and needs to follow the trend of younger dramas to capture the demand of more young users to watch dramas.
Compared with other entrants, China Literature emphasizes the importance of "high-quality short dramas", and the logic behind it is also because of the demand of young users for watching dramas, which is more inclined to high-quality products.
Short dramas are a traffic business, and the key to drama production is to quickly hit the user's cool point. This also makes the short drama not emphasize the production level, the actor only needs to find a small Internet celebrity who meets the aesthetics of the Internet, acting does not need the blessing of acting skills, the whole filming process relies on shouting, and the group performance can be made up by random people. The chaos in the industry has also appeared, and in order to gain traffic, many short dramas have sidelines and bloody scenes, and the trend of vulgarization is obvious.
Since the end of last year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has required mainstream platforms such as WeChat, Douyin, and Kuaishou to carry out special rectification actions, and non-compliant content will be dealt with by the platform.
More importantly, from the perspective of content, it is difficult for shoddy production to make products stand out from the market, and with the gradual fierce competition, short dramas also need to be more sophisticated production to avoid the problem of content homogenization.
Next, it depends on how China Literature makes high-quality short dramas, and whether it can take the lead to meet the needs of young users for watching dramas.
From going deep into AIGC to dabbling in short dramas, China Literature has focused on seeking the second growth curve this year.
Before catching up with the skit craze, China Literature had already told AIGC as a new story. From the release of the first large-scale model of the domestic online literature industry in July, "Reading Writing Wonderful Pen", to the application product "Writer's Assistant Wonderful Pen Edition" based on this large modelWith the launch of version 0, China Literature has made great moves since the beginning of this year.
Similar to short dramas, AIGC is also highly synergistic with the online text business. China Literature can use AI technology to use AI technology in the fields of IP development, derivative creation, and overseas translation of online literature services, so that each business chain can run faster and more efficiently.
However, the AIGC industry is still in the early stage of development, and it is not realistic for China Literature to implement AI and seek commercial monetization in the short term, which is a business that requires long-term technology accumulation.
In an interview with LatePost, Hou Xiaonan also mentioned that AI is a very important opportunity for China Literature to change. "It's still very early stage for the industry, and we still hope that AIGC can be very solid in our business scenarios, not just release a big model. ”
Source: China Literature official website
In contrast, the new consumer market of short dramas may become the second growth curve of China Literature sooner.
According to data released by iiMedia Consulting, the size of China's online micro-short drama market in 2023 will be 373900 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26765%, and it is expected that the market size of China's online micro-short dramas will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2027.
In the future, the market size of short dramas is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan, laying the foundation for China Literature to seek new growth space and potential monetization scale.
If players want to eat more cake in the short drama market, they can't just rely on a few traffic works to attract people and continue to do so, but they need a lot of data to verify user preferences and form an IP effect around demand production, so as to "win by quality".
China Literature has the ability to output top authors and highly influential big IPs, and cultivate a large number of loyal paying users. Previously, in the online literature market, the starting point Chinese website under Reading Literature pioneered the ** paid reading model and developed it into a feasible monetization method, which brought a lot of revenue to Reading Literature. According to the financial report data, in the first half of this year, the average monthly paying users of China Literature reached 8.8 million, a year-on-year increase of 86%。
Focusing on the international market, China Literature can also further explore the value of short drama consumption. In the process of adapting and disseminating IP overseas, China Literature has learned how to attract local users through targeted market operations, which is also the most important part of cross-cultural communication.
Combined with the domestic and overseas markets, China Literature can make short drama works go on a large scale, and it is also possible for the business to form a larger volume and release greater growth potential.
However, as the industry changes and the number of players increases, there is not much time left for China Literature, so how to maintain its own IP advantages while meeting the needs of users and occupying the traffic position in the short drama market has become an important challenge that China Literature must overcome in the process of exploring a larger living space in the short drama market.