The short drama market is experiencing explosive growth, and the phenomenon of only pursuing “refreshing points” is prominent.
Liberation Daily reporter Zhang Yi
There was “I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s” before, and later there was “Hot and Hot: Gorgeous Transformation”. Since entering 2024, the short drama market has grown explosively, and the vertical screen mini-program short dramas that have emerged have frequently occupied the market. Hot topic search list. On Station B alone, the former has been clicked 13.251 million times; the latter’s cumulative recharge exceeded 20 million yuan 24 hours after it went online. According to iiMedia Consulting’s “2023-2024 China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report”, China’s online micro-short drama market size will be 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 267.65%.
The short drama market is being regarded as the biggest trend at the moment and has sparked discussions about the “Spring Festival short drama show” during this year’s Spring Festival. On the one hand, various platforms have increased their emphasis on short dramas, and even celebrities have tried their hand at short dramas, sparking heated discussions on social media. On the other hand, phenomena such as the homogenization of the content of short dramas and the pursuit of only “cool points” are also worthy of attention. Quality transformation is still a problem faced by the industry.
Celebrities enter the short drama market
Entering 2024, more film and television companies, stars, and actors will enter the short drama market. At the end of January, Douyin announced an exclusive cooperation with Stephen Chow on high-quality micro-short dramas. The two parties will jointly develop and operate the “9527 Theater”. The first season of the first high-quality micro-short drama “Golden Pig and Jade Leaves” is expected to be launched in May. The horizontal screen short drama “New Year’s Day” starring actor and singer Xu Mengjie was also launched recently, and the feature film has been viewed 790 million times.
“The increasingly rich themes of short dramas and the rapidly iterative production and broadcast methods can better capture the current group expectations and reflect the current social concerns.” The relevant person in charge of Douyin told reporters that last year “Twenty-Nine” was the first A Douyin short drama with over 100 million views, the overall playback count of the feature film has exceeded 800 million, and IP spin-off dramas such as “Su Wuming from the Tang Dynasty” and “Goddess Hotel” have achieved popularity of over 100 million. “This year’s ‘Short Drama Spring Festival’ is officially launched, including “Beyond! A Juan”, “Little Nyonya from the End of the World“, “My Way Home Is Windy” and other high-quality short dramas derived from film and television IP, as well as dragons from the “Escape from the British Museum” team The new work “Little Nian Beast and the Monster Catcher” in 2019.”
According to reports, the daily playback volume of Douyin short dramas has doubled in 2023, and the number of users actively searching for micro short dramas on Douyin every day has tripled. “Short drama users have a wide range of users, mainly young and middle-aged people, and people in third-tier and above cities.”
“Micro-short dramas are a new form of online audio-visual business, which has been in a stage of explosive growth in the past two years. It is estimated that by the end of last year, the industry scale exceeded 30 billion yuan; it is predicted that by 2027, the output value will exceed 100 billion yuan. Some majors Film and television institutions, directors, screenwriters, actors, and capital have all entered the micro-short drama market one after another.” According to Yang Mingpin, deputy director and researcher of the Development Research Center of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the rapid development of micro-short dramas is related to its form, artistic characteristics, and business model. “Fast pace, multiple reversals, meeting the consumption needs of users in fragmented time.”
The mature business model of micro-short dramas is also an inducement for the rapid expansion of the industry and attracts other business entities to accelerate their entry. “It mainly relies on user payment. A mini-program short drama can easily have hundreds of episodes. The first few episodes are free, and the ‘attractive’ plot design is used to make the audience willing to pay, and the funds flow quickly.” In comparison, the long-term short drama has a fast flow rate. Drama investment requires a long period of time, while micro-short dramas require almost “instant payment”. “Film and television bases such as Hengdian and Xiangshan used to be dominated by long-form drama crews, but now they are all micro-short drama crews. We can see the siphon effect of micro-short dramas on film and television resources.” Yang Mingpin said.
What are the development directions of short plays?
While micro-short dramas are booming, issues such as homogeneous content and uneven production levels still deserve attention. Judging from the hot list of short dramas on the short drama data platform DataEye, the most popular short dramas recently are mainly about emotion, counterattack, God of War, and rebirth. They do not escape from common subject types and have obvious homogeneity characteristics.
Popularity has also become the “traffic password” of short dramas, especially mini program short dramas whose market is sinking. For example, “Hot and Spicy Transformation”, which was once at the top of the popular short drama list, not only competed with the popular Spring Festival movie “Hot and Spicy” directed and starred by Jia Ling, the plot also focused on the theme of “weight loss” It took Jia Ling a year to lose weight, but the heroine in this short drama achieved an exaggerated weight loss effect in just one month. There are also short dramas on the market such as “The Rise of the Fool”, “The Age of Blooming Flowers”, “Snow and Rivers Are Red”, “Passing Through Your World“, etc., all of which have a bit of déjà vu in their titles.
“There are few mainstream themes in micro-short dramas and many marginalized themes, such as domineering CEOs, fantasy, sudden wealth, etc. The simple plot duplication and homogenization tendencies are more prominent; stories that can truly reflect China’s excellent traditional culture and the development and progress of contemporary society. , it’s not enough.” Yang Mingpin believes that the development of micro-short dramas and their spread overseas should be viewed in a rational manner. On the one hand, we must attach great importance to it and see its broad development prospects, and on the other hand, we should not blindly praise it.
“Micro-short dramas also have a certain market abroad. Many organizations operating locally in foreign countries have used Chinese scripts to shoot and be played by European and American actors in response to local market needs, realizing the international transformation of Chinese micro-short dramas.” In his view, the important responsibility of international communication of micro-short dramas is to spread China’s excellent traditional culture. “Compared with this goal, micro-short dramas still have a long way to go”