China News Service, Beijing, March 25 (Reporter Gao Kai) In recent years, Chinese online micro-short dramas have entered the public eye with great rapidity. Their unique charms such as fast pace and multiple reversals have enabled them to gain a large number of hits in a short period of time. Follow and like.
The "2023-2024 China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report" shows that the domestic micro-short drama market will reach 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 267.65%. At the same time, online micro-short dramas are also popular overseas. According to data from Sensor Tower in the United States, in 2023, an application called ReelShort was downloaded over 10 million in the United States. It ranked first in the application entertainment rankings many times. Become one of the most popular apps. It is reported that this software is created by a Chinese company and is specifically targeted at the overseas micro-short drama market.
The explosive growth of the domestic and overseas market scale and the continuous increase in the number of users have allowed the online micro-short drama industry to move forward at a rapid pace, while also exposing some problems and causing controversy. For example, there are problems of vulgarity, roughness and anomie in some micro-short dramas.
In this regard, Lu Fan, deputy director of the Peking University Television Research Center, said that compared with traditional dramas, micro-short dramas with much shorter duration satisfy the fragmented aesthetic needs of contemporary people. However, it is precisely because of their small size and short production cycle that , coupled with the need to capture the audience in a short period of time to win traffic, some imitation and plagiarized works have appeared on the market, which only focus on plot conflicts and suspense, ignoring the depth of characterization and story, but this is by no means "inevitable" ".
Lu Fan said that the quality of micro-short dramas is entirely possible and worth looking forward to. Most of the micro-short dramas currently on the market are based on themes such as emotion and entertainment. In fact, there is a wider creative space and possibilities. "Short" does not mean that it cannot be "fine". In a few minutes, the creator can still tell a complete and in-depth story through careful planning and editing. This tests the creator's ability to "dojo in a snail shell".
Lu Fan pointed out that with the rapid development of the market, micro-short dramas have attracted more and more creators with stronger professional capabilities to "enter the market". For the sake of long-term development, some platforms are also building quality support systems for micro-short dramas, which will help micro-short dramas develop in the direction of quality, diversification, and professionalization. As market competition intensifies and audience tastes improve, some vulgar, rough, and non-nutritious content will gradually be eliminated, and high-quality, in-depth, and creative works will receive more attention and popularity.
In fact, in addition to controversies, micro-short dramas have also had many outstanding performances. Many works including rural cultural tourism themes, film and television IP derivatives, etc. are not only well-produced, but also full of ingenuity, winning traffic and reputation .
In Lu Fan's view, as a new form of online film and television, micro-short dramas will take time to become high-quality. Just like the online dramas back then, there were problems with content such as low quality and vulgarity at the beginning. However, as the government strengthens supervision and the industry's own iterative development, "content is king" has become an industry consensus. The move toward "high-quality" micro-short dramas also requires the industry itself to learn from the past and incorporate the new.
In November 2022, the official issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Online Micro-Short Dramas and Implementing the Creation Improvement Plan", proposing to carry out special rectification of "mini program" online micro-short dramas, strengthen standardized management, implement creation improvement plans, etc. aspect management measures.
Lu Fan said that as the regulatory authorities strengthen supervision of the micro-short drama market, the market will be further standardized, and micro-short dramas continue to iterate and grow. He believes that "tyrannical president" plots will not occupy the audience's attention for a long time.
Regarding the development of Chinese micro-short dramas overseas, Lu Fan pointed out that in addition to the new fast-paced storytelling method, the production model of Chinese micro-short dramas is also new overseas. As overseas audiences become more familiar with the plot patterns of Chinese micro-short dramas and overseas producers gain a deeper understanding of the production methods of micro-short dramas, Chinese micro-short dramas will also face new market competition. If they want to become popular overseas, they need to continue to Pursue high-quality innovation and growth. (over)