In 2024, Xing Ye's "nonsensical" killed a horse pistol, codenamed "Nine Five Two Seven". On January 29, Douyin announced that it had reached an exclusive boutique micro-short drama cooperation with Stephen Chow, and the two sides will jointly develop and operate the "9527 Theater", and the first season of the first high-quality micro-short drama "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is expected to be launched on Douyin in May this year. Some people say that this is a collision between "Zhou's nonsense" and fast-paced and short**.
It is still inconclusive what kind of sparks will be sparked between the "king of comedy" and the king of traffic today, but one thing has been clear, the short drama market has become close to "invincible", and the role of big names joining is to improve quality and efficiency, and upgrade files.
*From Beijing Business Daily).
"Short, flat and fast" meets "nonsensical".
Short drama is a rapidly developing field of technological innovation and media innovation in recent years. This time, we will cooperate with Douyin in the short drama theater, hoping to bring more joy to the audience. In the news released by Douyin, Stephen Chow said that he is looking forward to this new attempt.
According to reports, Stephen Chow will be the initiator and jointly unite outstanding young creators to create content directly for users based on the Douyin account of "Stephen Chow's directorial works".
At present, the first works of the "9527 Theater" are already in production. The first work "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is produced by Stephen Chow, produced by Yi Xiaoxing, and starring first-line actresses, and the first season is expected to meet the audience in May this year.
The stalk of "9527" comes from the code name of Zhonghua An in the movie "Tang Bohu Dots Autumn Fragrance", and after years of ridicule, it is also widely recognized as a synonym for a nonsensical and funny style, so it is not difficult to understand the overall style of "9527 Theater". For more content of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" and the first batch of "9527 Theater" and other issues, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily contacted Douyin, but did not receive a reply.
Stephen Chow is mainly known for funny and light-hearted content, in the context of today's film and television and the rapid growth of the audience, it is not only in line with the communication characteristics of the micro-short drama itself, but also in line with the development direction of Douyin's micro-short ** content, which is conducive to promotion, and is expected to produce a 1+1)2 effect, and may even produce a more considerable chemical reaction. In an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, Xiang Kai, a young Chinese playwright and director, said.
However, Zhang Shule, an expert from the China Economic Media Think Tank, mentioned to a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that although Stephen Chow's comedy style has the characteristics of short dramas, his overly nonsensical performance does not match the aesthetic needs of the current mainstream user base of Douyin, and it remains to be seen whether it can be truly combined and successful.
*From ***
From "brainless" to "short".
Stephen Chow is to short dramas, just like Wong Kar-wai is to TV dramas, appearing represents quality and "exemption from inspection". The significance of this cooperation between Douyin and Stephen Chow is not only the strong alliance between the two sides, but the "quality" in it.
Hong Yong, an expert at the think tank of the 50-person forum on the integration of data and reality in China, told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that the cooperation between Douyin and Stephen Chow can not only improve the artistic quality and market attention of micro-short dramas with the help of Stephen Chow's brand influence and content creation capabilities, but also Douyin can further strengthen the content differentiation and high-quality strategy of its own platform through this cooperation.
Zhang Shule also mentioned that the introduction of professional partners like Stephen Chow on Douyin is also a strategy to accelerate the development of short dramas into high-quality products. "The effect of Stephen Chow's test of the water will directly affect the determination of more professional film and television workers to attack short dramas. ”
About ten days ago, Douyin just launched the "Chenxing Project" for high-quality short dramas, which is aimed at film and television companies, ** institutions, MCNs, individual creators and other industries, and cooperates with high-quality short dramas. Douyin's 2024 Spring Festival high-quality micro-short drama list will also be released soon, and 10 works will be launched during the Spring Festival, including "Beyond! Ajuan", "Little Nyonya of the World" and many other popular film and television IP-derived micro-short dramas.
Coincidentally, on January 25, Kuaishou also announced a newly upgraded Kuaishou "Starlight Short Drama" cooperation plan, which provides greater support for high-quality short dramas from account sharing rules to commercial empowerment. Wang Sixun, deputy general manager of the marketing business department of Kuaishou Magnetic Engine, once said that in terms of investment promotion of Kuaishou short dramas in 2024, it is planned to reserve more than 200 short dramas.
Xiang Kai said that in recent years, with the rapid development of micro-short dramas, certain shortcomings have also been revealed in terms of content, production level, production capacity, etc., and professional film and television workers can make up for shortcomings in this regard, especially high-quality micro-short dramas. "We believe that if micro-short dramas can achieve the effect of film and television, there must be a considerable market in the future, and high-quality micro-short dramas are also in line with the future development direction. ”
The uneven content is also a lingering haze in the development of short dramas. Hong Yong mentioned to a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that the current problems in the development of the short drama market mainly include serious homogenization of content, lack of originality, scarcity of high-quality content, imperfect copyright protection mechanism, and sustainable profit model to be improved. In addition, with the tightening of regulatory policies, compliance and value orientation have also become issues that need to be focused on in the development of the industry.
Dachang "Hurricane" short drama.
There is one of the most out-of-the-circle "myths" in the short drama market - the hit "Wushuang", which has been recharged for more than 100 million yuan in 8 days. It allows the outside world to see the crazy gold absorption of short dramas, and also sees the burning oil of short dramas. At the most prosperous time, some people once said that Hengdian has become a "vertical store".
According to data, the current number of short drama users exceeds 500 million, and more than half of the short ** users have watched short dramas and instant noodles for less than 3 minutes, and young users account for nearly sixty percent. In terms of quantity, the total number of short dramas launched in 2023 will exceed 1,400, a year-on-year increase of 50%. According to other data, the market size of short dramas in 2023 will be nearly 40 billion yuan, close to 70% of the volume of the film market, and the market size is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan within five years.
Short dramas with the nature of "cool text" are forming a new outlet, and it is even more unlikely that big factories represented by Douyin and Kuaishou are willing to miss it. It is reported that in 2023, there will be 500 micro-short dramas on Douyin that will exceed 100 million, of which 12 works will exceed 1 billion, and the daily number of micro-short dramas will double. In 2023, the average daily DAU of Kuaishou short dramas will reach 2700 million, the number of users of heavy micro-short dramas with more than 10 episodes per day reached 94 million, a year-on-year increase of 526%。
Micro-short dramas have the characteristics of short production time, low cost and high income, which is also the reason why large Internet companies and non-professional capital have entered the battle for the micro-short drama market. Xiang Kai said.
Guo Tao, an angel investor and senior artificial intelligence expert, also told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that major Internet companies have set foot in the short drama market, first of all, because the form of short dramas is suitable for the fragmented consumption habits of the mobile Internet era; Secondly, short dramas can attract young users and increase the activity and stickiness of users; Finally, skits are also a form of content marketing that can help brands increase their awareness and influence.
Big factories are involved in short dramas, which is nothing more than a new round of traffic or attention competition on short ** platforms at the moment when Internet traffic has peaked. And this trend has long been not only focused on the short ** platform.
On January 16, at Youku's "2023 Fuyao Night", Liu Huabo, the person in charge of Youku's PGC long drama and short drama, mentioned that in 2024, Youku's support budget for account-sharing dramas and short dramas will be doubled, and subsidies will be increased in terms of resources and marketing for head projects that perform well during the hot broadcast period, and high-quality film partners who have long-term cooperation will be given all-round optimization and support in terms of mechanism policies, cooperation models, and talent recommendations.
At the same time, Tencent** teamed up with Yunhe Data to launch the "2023 Short Drama Report", and Mango TV reached a "Boutique Short Drama Support Plan" with Douyin and launched the country's first Shangxing micro-short drama "Wind and Moon Change".
Zhang Shule said that short dramas, as a combination of short and long, are a must for both sides, and they are also the key points in the battle for traffic and user duration on the long and short platforms. At the same time, short dramas are more in line with the characteristics of online texts, and they also make the IP adaptation of online texts more useful, which makes it possible for the field of online text derivation, which has been difficult to break through, to have a new blue ocean possibility.
But at present, due to the popularity of short dramas, there will inevitably be a problem of mud and sand, and a large number of vulgar content may become a cancer in the development of short dramas. Zhang Shule mentioned.
At the end of last year, the State Administration of Radio and Television once again announced seven major measures for the governance of online micro-short dramas, including speeding up the formulation of the "Detailed Rules for the Creation, Production and Content Review of Online Micro-short Dramas", and studying and promoting the integration of online micro-short drama apps and "mini programs" into daily institutional management.
Subsequently, Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat and other platforms successively issued announcements to remove illegal micro-short dramas from the shelves, and disposed of accounts that illegally promoted micro-short dramas. (ENDS).
Reporter Yang Yuehan.