IQiyi is going to break into the micro drama track.
On September 25th, at the 2024 iJOY Autumn Enjoyment Conference with the theme of "centripetal upward", iJOY founder and CEO Gong Yu stated that the evolution of long and short videos is bringing the possibility of competition and new growth space to the market.
At the meeting, iQiyi announced the official launch of "Short Theater" and "Micro Theater". The micro drama content in the theater is exclusively enjoyed by iQiyi VIP members.
With low investment, short cycle, and fast returns, the short drama market has become a hot track verified by numerous traffic players. In 2024, the development of short dramas has bid farewell to the period of wild growth. The entry of top video websites, professional screenwriters, and production teams has raised the threshold for short drama production and gradually led short dramas onto the path of refinement.
Launch micro drama theater, members are free of charge
During the decade when major long videos were competing for copyright and user base, iQiyi stood out from the crowd with high-quality content and pioneered the paid subscription membership model. Popular TV dramas such as "The Wealthy Husband," "The Legend of Canglan," and "Crazy Racing" often ignite social media and have a high long tail effect.
In the field of short dramas, iQiyi has also been involved for a long time.
In 2020, iQiyi launched the "Mist Theater" series, which focuses on short drama collections. The length of the series is mostly limited to 12 episodes, incorporating layers of reversed climax plots. High scoring short drama collections such as "The Hidden Corner", "Kidnapping Game", and "Silent Truth" on Douban are all based on this.
At the same time, short video platforms that have rapidly emerged relying on fragmented content have also begun to explore the direction of structured narrative storyline content. Paid micro dramas have developed rapidly, with a market size of 37.4 billion yuan in the past year, a year-on-year increase of 268%.
From the perspective of growth rate and development prospects, short dramas are undoubtedly a trend that major video websites cannot miss. According to data from iMedia Consulting, the size of China's micro drama market will reach 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 267.65%. It is expected that the size of China's micro drama market will reach 100.68 billion yuan in 2027, with enormous market potential.
Among them, short dramas targeting the silver haired generation have become a new force that cannot be ignored, with scenes such as middle-aged bullies falling in love with me and the entanglement between nannies and wealthy families often igniting social media.
In addition, in the context of an aging trend, the elderly short drama market still has great prospects. According to the 2023 Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Civil Affairs, as of the end of 2023, there were 296.97 million elderly people aged 60 and above in China, accounting for 21.1% of the total population. Among them, there were 216.76 million elderly people aged 65 and above, accounting for 15.4% of the total population.
In response to this change, Gong Yu announced that iQiyi has officially launched "Short Theater" and "Micro Theater". The micro dramas in these two theaters are exclusively enjoyed by iQiyi VIP members and do not require additional single point payment. Gong Yu stated that iQiyi short dramas are not equivalent to short, low-cost web dramas, and iQiyi micro dramas are not equivalent to low-quality mini program micro dramas.
Unlike the micro drama business model where over 90% of revenue is used for streaming, iQiyi has developed a more benign business model by distributing over 70% of its revenue to content producers.
According to iQiyi's broadcasting plan, "Micro Theater" will release two new works per week, focusing on male and female frequency and silver haired groups, with 1-5 minutes of vertical screen content as the main content; The "Short Theater" program plans to release a new work every week, covering various genres such as ancient stories, current events, suspense, etc. Each episode is 5-20 minutes long and mainly features landscape content.
The key leap for video websites
Although the competitive landscape of long video platforms has basically taken shape, high-quality content has always been the core indicator pursued by major platforms, which can directly drive important data such as platform revenue, membership numbers, and user viewing.
The popularity of the short drama track represents the variables of competition and a new round of competition.
According to the "2023 Short Drama Report" by Yunhe Data, Tencent Video released a total of 218 new short dramas in 2023, with a cumulative effective playback of 4.6 billion; Youku has launched 159 new episodes, with a cumulative effective playback of 1 billion; 42 new episodes have been released on Mango TV, with a cumulative effective playback of 400 million; IQiyi has released 16 new films, with a total of 500 million effective views. Compared to other video websites, iQiyi still has significant room for growth in the number and investment of short dramas.
In addition to traditional video websites, traffic players such as Tiktok, Kwai and Station B also add short drama tracks. "The Wedding Mother Surprises the Audience", "The Group's Favourite Mother Can't Afford" and "The Golden Pig and the Jade Leaf" became the top players of Tiktok short dramas, with the broadcast volume reaching hundreds of millions; Previously, Kwai launched the first AIGC original fantasy mini drama "Breaking Waves and Chopping Waves" directed by director Chen Kun.
It is worth mentioning that the entry of professional players represented by iQiyi has significantly improved the production level of short dramas, and has given rise to more diverse narrative perspectives and themes, attracting a wider range of user groups.
However, the current situation facing the short drama market is that the phenomenon of content homogenization is still quite common, and there is still no phenomenon level IP with popularity and reputation comparable to long video works.
Industry insiders involved in short drama projects told Time Finance that although the production cycle of short dramas is not long, the requirements for the script are very high, and the collaborating screenwriters must have at least three popular works experience to ensure that the finished product does not fall through. The requirements for the script and production team in subsequent short dramas will also become increasingly high
With the launch of the micro drama theater, the "global ecosystem" of iQiyi's content marketing will continue to upgrade. Wu Gang, Senior Vice President of iQiyi, stated that iQiyi will further unleash the commercial potential of the new ecosystem of "long+short" dramas.
We need to diligently study what kind of long video stories 800 million users really need, "said Wang Xiaohui, Chief Content Officer of iQiyi." On the road of integrating long and short videos, we will see the flames of long videos still burning fiercely. He believes that good long video content: firstly, it is necessary to stabilize the fundamentals in the face of the overall trend; Secondly, we need to accumulate new momentum; Thirdly, we must persist in innovation without stopping.