In Hengdian, vertical screen micro-short dramas are being filmed almost day and night. Visual China / Figure
In four years, the market size of micro-short dramas has approached 70% of the Chinese film market.
According to iiMedia Consulting data, the size of China's micro-short drama market will exceed 50 billion yuan in 2024. However, this "short, flat, fast and cool" track, which only started in 2020, ushered in a turning point in June 2024.
At the beginning of June, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued the "Latest Work Tips on the Filing of Micro-short Dramas", requiring that micro-short dramas that have not been reviewed and filed shall not be disseminated online. At this point, the micro-short drama market, which was not originally included in the review mechanism, has officially entered the "filing era".
After that, the micro-short drama will be reviewed in layers according to the amount of investment: if the investment amount is more than 1 million yuan, it will be reviewed by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television; between 300,000 and 1,000,000 yuan, it is to be reviewed by the provincial radio and television department; Where it is less than 300,000 RMB, the online audition platform that broadcasts it or directs or pushes it is to perform platform content management duties.
Some interviewees told Southern Weekend that in the micro-short drama market, projects with an investment of 300,000-1 million yuan account for the largest proportion, more than half. The new regulations will also have a greater impact on them, and the specific changes will depend on the review power of the local provincial radio and television department.
Due to the relatively simple review, after the implementation of the new regulations, the proportion of projects with an investment of less than 300,000 yuan will increase. Previously, the proportion of projects above 1 million yuan was the lowest, and it is difficult to increase it after that, because the review cycle is longer and investors will be more cautious.
A veteran producer of micro-short dramas observed that less than a month after the new rules were promulgated, many voices in the industry have been heard to leave. "After the review, the money shared may be withheld by the platform for various reasons, and the method of 'writing a drama a day' will also be eliminated." He told Southern Weekly.
"In order to survive, go to make a short drama"
Producer Luo Jin has been working in the film and television industry for decades, and has been involved in theatrical films, online movies, and micro-short dramas. In his opinion, from the movie "Thai Embarrassment" released in 2012 to 2020, it is a prosperous period for the development of Chinese films. In 2020, the epidemic has changed the audience's movie-watching habits, hot money has left, and a large number of film and television practitioners are facing a unemployment crisis.
"The film company around me is about half down, and the waist suppliers are not working. In order to survive, everyone began to shoot skits. Oscar, the founder of Dramabyte, which focuses on the distribution of overseas short dramas, told Southern Weekend that he was also a senior manager in the film industry before starting his business.
Micro-short dramas have become a new way out for film and television practitioners.
Different from the long cycle in which film investment can easily reach tens of millions and the box office can only be paid back if the box office exceeds 100 million, the investment cost of micro-short dramas is low, the cycle is short, and the risk is controllable. "A drama, with an investment of three or five hundred thousand yuan, will be filmed in a week. You can get together with a few small investors and friends, so there is a very fragmented private capital in this industry. Oscar said.
If film investment is a big gamble, then the bet on micro-short dramas is relatively safe in terms of cost. "In the early days, 100,000 yuan could shoot 100 episodes of micro-short dramas. At least for the seven days of filming, the participants have a job and don't lose money. When the project is issued, it is a profit. Luo Jin said.
Oscar described, "Hollywood was developed during the Great Depression in the United States, and it was difficult to spend a little money, buy a lipstick, and watch a movie. The quality of the micro-short script is to convert the cool text into a video, and spend dozens of dollars to see the counterattack of the boss and Dicksi, which hits the emotional point of some audiences. ”
2020 is regarded as the "first year of online micro-short dramas", with a market size of 940 million yuan this year, followed by rapid growth, 10.17 billion yuan in 2022, 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, and is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in 2024.
An interviewee told a reporter from Southern Weekend, "When the scale of the industry is not large, the regulator is too lazy to pay attention to you, and more than 30 billion yuan will start to be managed." Under a large number of script reviews, the regulator chooses to review in layers, and the platform takes responsibility. ”
Respondents generally believe that the micro-short drama industry is overheating and fast, just like a child who has been raised by pulling seedlings, after experiencing a very short period of development, directly enters the "deformed" barbaric growth period.
"Very volume, but very low rate of return"
In May 2024, the Micro Short Drama Professional Committee of the China Television Artists Association was established. Zhao Ruizhe, deputy secretary-general of the committee, told Southern Weekend, "We have visited Hengdian and Xiangshan Cinema many times. In December last year, more than 80% of the crews in the film and television city were vertical screen crews. During the National Day in 2023, eight or nine hundred short dramas will be launched. In April and May this year, the number of micro-short dramas on related platforms has been three to four times that of last year. ”
Luo Jin divides the micro-short drama track into three categories: iQiyi, Tencent, Youku and other mainstream first-line video website short dramas, 8-20 minutes per episode, tend to be horizontal, is a complete work; followed by micro-short dramas on platforms based on Douyin and Kuaishou; The third category is the vertical screen short drama of WeChat Mini Program, which is one minute long.
"It turns out that the short drama of the mini program track has learned smartly, and the account is attached to platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, and the review pressure and responsibility are transferred, and the latter is willing to take over, hoping to seize the market share of traditional video websites." Luo Jin said.
A number of interviewees mentioned that the business model of the popular micro-short drama track is "problematic". The most intuitive thing is that the content producer has become the lowest and unprofitable part.
Oscar and his entrepreneurial team observed the micro-short drama track for more than a year before deciding to join. In his opinion, the distribution logic of micro-short dramas is completely different from that of movies, which is a cultural product that has no substance and relies entirely on streaming, but runs through the content payment.
People who used to do long videos and medium videos rushed into the short drama industry only to find that the production end is the end of the entire chain. From a production standpoint, it's a laborious, rolly, but very low return industry.
"The production capacity of the micro-short drama industry will probably be more than 10,000 in 2024. This has led to the probability of a hit in the industrial chain dropping from the initial 10% to less than 5%. Oscar told Southern Weekly.
There are three main players in micro-short dramas: the production company responsible for content production, the platform responsible for broadcasting, and the streaming party responsible for attracting traffic.
Luo Jin said that at present, except for the platform side and the head production agency, companies below the waist are almost unprofitable.
From the perspective of production costs, actors' salaries have accounted for more than sixty percent. "According to the data provided by some platforms, the earliest actors were paid 800-1,000 yuan a day, and now some of them are 10,000 or 20,000 yuan a day, and they can't be invited."
From the perspective of mini program micro-short dramas, the investment cost was 80,000-90,000 yuan per piece (50-100 episodes) at the earliest, and now each is about 300,000-1.2 million yuan, including 300,000-800,000 yuan for urban dramas and 800,000-1.2 million yuan for costume dramas. The filming cycle of each urban drama is 5-7 days, taking 100 episodes as an example, about 20 episodes are filmed every day. The filming period of each costume drama is 7-10 days.
In Hengdian, vertical screen micro-short dramas are being filmed almost day and night. In order to reduce costs, actors are almost filming in one scene, such as villas, palaces, and hotels, and they shoot with their faces on their faces, and the actors don't have to memorize their lines, just read them according to the teleprompter, and make good expressions.
Zhao Ruizhe also said, "The business model of micro-short dramas determines that it is a traffic business, and the weight of streaming significantly exceeds the weight of content. "From the cost point of view, in the whole chain, the cost of the script may be 30,000-50,000 yuan, and it rarely reaches 100,000 yuan. According to the survey, 70% of the production costs of micro-short dramas are about 500,000 yuan, and the advertising cost is 5 million to 10 million yuan, and the advertising cost accounts for more than ninety percent of the total cost.
Streaming refers to traffic delivery, that is, the promotion of short dramas. According to the "2024 Micro Short Drama Buying and Streaming Data Report" released by DataEye, a micro-short drama research platform, the market size is expected to reach 50 billion yuan this year, of which the investment scale is expected to reach about 42 billion yuan.
According to the data provided to Southern Weekend reporters by the "Short Drama Study Room" platform, there are currently more than 100 short drama companies that have invested in streams, and the top 20 companies in terms of delivery scale account for most of the investment amount. According to a data from 2023, the top 10% of short dramas accounted for nearly half of the investment amount.
Spending money to buy attention, a large number of routine works have been launched. Luo Jin believes that before the promulgation of the new regulations, the development of the micro-short drama industry was not healthy, just a carnival of capital, which he summarized as "a hotbed of quick money, robbery while the fire is hot, and a rush to the top", but it is a "disaster" for film and television content and the industry.
"We have always said that content is the most important, and the industry will develop better if we further clean up bad money." Zhao Ruizhe told a reporter from Southern Weekend. The regulator doesn't want the micro-short drama to be like the big online movies in the past, where the hot money is lively, but it will soon decline.
After the new rules
In November 2022, the General Office of the State Administration of Radio and Television issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Online Micro-short Dramas and Implementing the Work Related to the Creation Improvement Plan", which included it in the regulatory field for the first time, indicating that it has the dual attributes of ideology and cultural products.
The "Latest Work Tips on the Filing of Micro Short Dramas" released this time will be divided into three layers of review according to the amount of investment. Zhao Ruizhe said, "Hierarchical and classified management is based on market research facts (results)". Consider the business model, content theme, production cost, actor salary and other aspects of the micro-short drama industry.
Zhao Ruizhe believes that as an emerging and booming industry, micro-short drama has great potential, and every practitioner has the responsibility to maintain the healthy and sustainable development of the industry and convey positive emotional value.
She said that it is necessary to pay more attention to the industrial value of micro-short dramas, especially the popularity of micro-short dramas + cultural tourism, which will bring momentum to the entire film and television industry and local governments.
After the release of the new regulations, many of Luo Jin's peers have said that they will leave the industry. For fast-paced and short-term micro-short dramas, the introduction of censorship will inevitably slow down the speed of development.
In his view, the investors, producers, distributors, platforms and relevant management agencies of micro-short dramas will face new challenges.
Yang Yang, the director of the "Short Drama Study Room", told Southern Weekend that the new regulations clarify the main responsibilities of online platforms on the one hand, requiring them to review and check the content and verify the copyright. On the other hand, in terms of subject matter and content, the creation of innovative and high-quality short dramas is encouraged. "Homogeneous content may be difficult to pass the review in the future."
(At the request of the interviewee, Luo Jin is a pseudonym in the article.) ）
Southern Weekly reporter Mei Ling
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Yue