The salary is more than 4,000, and I spent 500 on a mini-series.
Some micro-short dramas are so "refreshing" that many migrant workers can't stop.
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
□ Wen Xuchen, an intern of this newspaper
23-year-old Liu Ming (pseudonym), who works as a restaurant waiter in Beijing, has become obsessed with online micro-short dramas with tight plots in the past six months, and has fallen into a paid "serial" and addiction anxiety - Mingming feels that the plots of some micro-short dramas are very boring. It's cliche and the acting is blunt and exaggerated, but it's a lot more "enjoyable". After watching one episode, I couldn't help but want to watch the next one, and I spent a lot of money without realizing it.
"It doesn't cost much to unlock one episode, but one episode after another, it costs about 500 yuan every month. And my monthly salary is only more than 4,000 yuan." Liu Ming said.
Not long ago, a notice issued by the China Network Audiovisual Association made Liu Ming re-examine his hobby. It turned out that the micro-short drama "Teacher, Don't Run" that he was following at the time was removed from the Internet. According to the report, the plot of the play is vulgar, and the lines, scenes, and plot involve serious soft pornography and other violations. The association also stated that it will further improve the content review mechanism, increase supervision of illegal content, and maintain the health and prosperity of the online audiovisual market.
Nowadays, Liu Ming is not the only migrant worker who is addicted to online micro-drama.
Many interviewed experts said that some micro-short dramas rely on pornographic, vulgar, violent and bloody content to attract attention, which will destroy the good ecology of the platform and disrupt the order of online audio-visual program dissemination. Department supervision and industry self-discipline should be strengthened, and review rules and standards should be introduced. Establish a credit supervision system, put problematic dramas and related production units into the "blacklist", and strive to achieve the "high-quality" micro-short dramas.
Various routines are more "cool"
I can’t stop reading the micro-short drama.
Micro-short dramas are online film and television works that last from a few dozen seconds to about 15 minutes in a single episode, have a relatively clear theme and main line, and a relatively continuous and complete storyline.
According to data from a survey agency, 70% of online short drama users are from low- and middle-income groups.
Liu Ming is one of them. He has less than 2,000 yuan left after deducting rent from his salary, but he spends nearly a quarter of his "surplus food" to top up.
The sweet love between the business tycoon and Cinderella, the gorgeous transformation of contemporary desperate housewives, the painful sadomasochistic love in ancient times... Liu Ming clicks on almost all fragmented time on the way to work, in the shower, before going to bed. Open a micro-short play and watch it, covering various themes. During the Spring Festival this year, watching short dramas became the first thing he did every day when he opened his eyes. He would not get up until he had seen enough.
The heroine was originally a queen in ancient times. Her father served in defense of the country, but was executed by the emperor's order. Then she was also killed by the man in black. Unexpectedly, after her death, she traveled to modern times and became a wealthy wife, embarking on a brave and wise career in the entertainment industry. A story about fighting bad guys and falling in love with the male protagonist - this is the first short drama that Zheng Lin (pseudonym), a "post-90s" manicurist in a small county in Dingxi, Gansu, came across.
"One episode only lasts a few minutes, and the plot develops very quickly. After watching a few episodes, I paid 39.9 yuan to watch it in one go." Zheng Lin said. Now, having watched more than 20 micro-short dramas, she has come up with her own plot summary: Many micro-short dramas are of similar types, either time travel and rebirth, or revenge and counterattack, with some vicious stepmothers, vicious sisters, and sweet pets mixed in between. Plots like flash marriage.
"The plot is cliché but it's really fun to watch. One moment, he slaps the evil stepmother in the face, and the next moment, he's pampered by a billionaire. It makes people more and more energetic as they watch." Zheng Lin said that she usually unlocks one episode after another, and at the beginning I don’t think it’s expensive, but it can cost a lot if you’re not careful.
Also addicted is Lu Chen (pseudonym), who delivers food in Beijing. It was 10 o'clock in the evening when the reporter saw him. Like many riders, he was half-lying on his "work station" on the electric car, leaning against the take-out box and waiting for the sound of his mobile phone notification. At the same time, he stared at the phone in front of him and watched the short drama.
"There's nothing interesting to watch. If you watch it too much, you'll realize it's all the same routine." Even so, Lu Chen still "can't help but spend money." In the past six months, he has watched dozens of micro-short dramas. Sometimes after finishing work early in the morning, he would lie down in a rental house in a village in the city and watch a mini-drama in one sitting in three or four hours. "If you can spend fifty or sixty yuan in one night, it's a day in vain." ”.
There are ways to make users addicted
Accurately set payment card points
How much does it cost to watch a paid mini-series?
It can range from one to twenty yuan, usually six to seventy yuan, and more than one hundred yuan. Liu Ming gave an example. For a 100-episode micro-short drama, each episode is one or two minutes long. The first 10 to 15 episodes are free, and subsequent episodes are charged at 0.8 yuan to 1 yuan per episode, which will cost about 68 yuan. .
"It's really not cheap, more expensive than watching a movie." Liu Ming sighed.
It’s expensive, so why are there so many people chasing after paying for it? In the words of several interviewees, it’s “really awesome.”
It is understood that micro-short dramas are mainly divided into two categories: one is short dramas customized by long video streaming platforms. Its characteristic is that the duration of a single episode does not exceed 15 minutes, and the number of episodes is relatively small. You can watch it completely by purchasing a membership. , the income goes to the platform, and the producer can only get the production fee.
The other is the mini program short drama that has emerged in the past two years. It was born on the short video platform. The revenue comes from users recharging to unlock episodes, which is divided among the mini program, producers, and promoters. The length of a single episode is often only one or two minutes, but the number of episodes can reach more than 100.
The reporter randomly browsed 10 popular micro-short dramas on the market and found that the platform usually sets the first 10 to 15 episodes as free to watch, and gets "stuck" at the end of the previous paid episode with a fascinating part of the plot. If users want to continue watching, they need to recharge. There are three paid unlocking methods: purchasing by episode, purchasing the entire drama at once, and directly purchasing an annual pass for the drama mini program.
Different platforms use different virtual currency exchange rules, so the price of each drama is also different. Take the micro-short drama "××Strategy Plan" on a certain platform as an example. One episode requires 150K coins, and the minimum recharge is 39 yuan. If you get 3900K coins, you can watch about 26 episodes. To watch the full episode, you need to recharge about 88 yuan.
Liu Ming said that after the free playback ended, the mini program automatically jumped to the paid page. "I just saw the critical moment and couldn't help but top up."
Lu Chen said that he understands people who pay on impulse very well, because some micro-short dramas "Too Chicken Thieves", which last about one minute each, always end with dopamine-stimulating highlights such as slaps in the face, car accidents, and kidnappings. When free ends and requires payment, it is often the point where the protagonist is injured, counterattacked, counterattacked, etc., and the fate of the game is reversed.
Xiao Zou, who has many years of experience in script writing, told reporters that he once spent half a year writing micro-short scripts to make a living. There are routines to make users "addicted". "For example, the favorite themes of female channels are emotions, sweet pets and revenge, while the favorite themes of male channels are son-in-law, god of war, and counterattack, but they never depart from the same principles. ——Refreshing feeling."
"Each episode is only one or two minutes long. If you want to grab the audience's attention, there must be almost no foreshadowing, flashbacks, or blank spaces. You can 'bomb' the audience with simple and crude counterattacks and revenge, leaving many viewers unable to stop." Xiao Zou said, this It also causes many people to feel inexplicably empty after watching it, because frequent conflicts will make the development logic of the plot confusing, and they may even doubt their "own IQ" after watching it.
Ms. Liu, who once worked in a short video agency operating company, said bluntly that one of the purposes of "tailor-made" "payment card points" is to create data indicators. "First let users watch for free, and then charge for 'card points'." When I wrote the script, I had already marked it, telling the producers which part of the episode could be 'paid for', because at this time the audience's emotions have reached its peak, and as long as they cut it off, they will most likely pay to watch it."
Many problems and disputes after payment
Consumer rights are infringed
Under the short but refreshing visual impact and emotional pleasure brought by the micro-short drama, many viewers paid to unlock it. However, not only are the expenses high, problems such as being unable to view the app after paying for it, not being reminded of automatic renewal, and mini-programs disappearing without a way to protect rights have also become points of complaint.
"Just when I saw the climax, I jumped to the payment page. I was scratching my head and wanted to watch the follow-up plot. I couldn't help but recharge the first option of 19.9 yuan. It ran out soon and I could only recharge for 19.9 yuan. That's it. One after another, I didn’t expect to spend hundreds of yuan, and I regret it to death.” Mr. Yang, who works in express delivery sorting in Tianjin, said that some micro-short dramas become more and more addictive the more you watch them, which can easily make people spend impulsively.
Zheng Lin said that she encountered false advertising about recharge not long ago. She was watching a cool drama at the time. At a critical moment, she was prompted to recharge. The page showed that you can watch the full episode for 69.9 yuan, but after recharging, you had to pay for more than 80 episodes. It was too cheating. .
The reporter saw on a third-party complaint platform that there were more than 700 complaints about micro-short dramas, including false propaganda, inducing consumption, and difficulty in refunding fees.
Some consumers said: "The advertisement said 9.9 yuan to unlock the full episode of this drama, but after I finished watching half of it, they asked me to recharge. The customer service replied that the recharge was paid per episode." Some consumers complained: "Buy it for 49 yuan. I had been a member for 30 days to watch short dramas, but after two days it said my membership had expired."
Hu Yanyan (pseudonym), a restaurant waiter from Shaanxi, encountered a situation where she couldn't see it after unlocking it. Not long ago, she watched a micro-series on a short video platform. After watching 10 episodes, she needed to recharge as a member to unlock it. The interface showed that it cost 117 yuan to purchase the full episode and 198 yuan to purchase a permanent membership. Feeling that the latter was more cost-effective, she recharged 198 yuan.
However, after making the payment, Hu Yanyan discovered that the mini-series episodes of the main drama had changed from "the drama has been updated to episode 99" before the recharge to "has been updated to episode 10", and the remaining episodes need to be updated. Hu Yanyan felt cheated and wanted to contact customer service to report the situation, but so far she has not been contacted.
Under Hu Yanyan’s guidance, the reporter found that the mini program for the show could no longer be found on the short video platform.
Xu Ying, a lawyer at Beijing Jingdu Law Firm, analyzed that low-price gimmicks such as unlocking one episode for 0.9 yuan and unlocking the full episode of the show for 9.9 yuan attract users, but the actual viewing cost reaches tens or even hundreds of yuan, which is suspected of false propaganda; in the mini program The payment pages are interspersed with so-called welfare recharge advertisements, without clear and detailed usage rules, user instructions or membership agreements. Some recharge interfaces have "automatic renewal" checked by default, which is suspected of infringing on consumers' rights to know and free choice.
Promoting short plays as a gimmick
"Pull people's heads" to defraud training fees
According to industry insiders, the publicity and promotion of micro-short dramas mainly relies on investors. The anchor cuts the micro-short drama into suitable materials, edits and publishes them on various platforms. When a user watches the video and enters the attached mini-program, making an order with successful payment and no refund, the anchor can get a share from it. These videos generally condense the best parts and suspense of micro-short dramas, and can often attract a lot of attention.
And this also gives some people the opportunity to speculate in the name of "promotion."
During the investigation, the reporter noticed that in the comment areas of some micro-short dramas, there were many comments such as "The plot is so exciting, tense and exciting", and clicking on the links actually contained promotional content for some micro-short dramas.
On a certain social platform, the reporter searched with the keyword "short drama promotion" and saw many posts about "earning more than a thousand a day" and "short drama promotion is so popular". After the reporter randomly selected a post and commented "please help", he received 6 private messages within half an hour.
The reporter added the contact information of three of them. The first message received after the application was approved was a picture with a QR code and an invitation code, which said "Hot Sideline Project in 2024" and declared "No investment, no threshold, everyone can do it." After scanning the QR code, I saw that it was an App called "Haosheng Short Drama", in which you can download watermark-free videos of various short dramas.
After the download was successful, the other party told the reporter that since the reporter's short video account did not have 1,000 fans, it was necessary to increase the number of fans in the early stage, and the reporter was added to the "Short Drama Get Rich Team Basic Group 8", with 480 people in the group.
After three days of observation, the reporter found that the information that repeatedly flooded the screen every day in this group included methods to increase fans, links to popular short dramas, ideas for dramas, order data, and various popular cases. The reporter clicked on the Moments of the account that posted the information and saw one post in which she sent out more than 30 red envelopes for new recruits and orders in the "Short Drama Get Rich Team Thousand Fans Group".
Wang Zhi (pseudonym), who runs a small business in Nanning, Guangxi, once promoted micro-short plays for three months in order to increase his income. He told reporters that in this type of group, the so-called free apprenticeships, classes, etc. are all gimmicks. The way to make money is actually It's "pulling people in" and getting new people to download the software to get rewards.
"Don't do anything if you pay me, I'm just tricking you into being a leek." Wang Zhi repeatedly reminded reporters as a "experienced person" that he himself was defrauded of training fees in order to learn the so-called mini-drama promotion techniques.
Departmental supervision and industry self-discipline
Promote the quality of micro-short dramas
During the "Two Sessions" held in various places this year, micro-short dramas were a hot topic for representatives and committee members. For example, Yu Qingyang, a member of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a documentary director, said in an interview with the media that the core of eye-catching short dramas still borrows the "tricks" from traditional TV series, that is, setting up suspense points or gimmicks at the end to attract the audience. Watch the next episode. Industry norms for new things are established during development, and regulatory authorities can provide appropriate guidance.
Xiao Zou revealed to reporters that currently, some platform merchants and short video operating companies are selling ready-made micro-short drama scripts. In order to attract traffic, some merchants will also attach information such as the algorithm rules of the short video platform, attracting traffic and increasing fans, and operating strategies. These ready-made script templates usually lack literature, thought, and logic, and are more of an emotional refreshment like online writing. Even for the sake of traffic, there are illegal plots that are considered vulgar by relevant departments, and the lines, pictures, and plots involve serious soft pornography.
Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, believes that some micro-short dramas rely on pornographic, vulgar, violent and bloody content to attract attention, which will destroy the good ecology of the platform and disrupt the order of online audio-visual program dissemination. Therefore, strengthening supervision is the general trend.
At the end of 2022, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Online Micro-Short Dramas and Implementing the Creation Improvement Plan" to carry out special rectification of "mini program" online micro-short dramas.
A year later, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced seven major measures for the governance of online micro-short dramas, including accelerating the formulation of the "Detailed Rules for the Creation, Production and Content Review of Online Micro-Short Dramas", studying and promoting the inclusion of online micro-short drama apps and "mini programs" into the agency Daily management, etc.
"Department supervision and industry self-discipline must be strengthened, and audit details and standards must be introduced, as well as credit supervision systems such as 'blacklists' to include problematic dramas and related production units into the 'blacklist'." Zheng Ning said, in addition to In terms of content risks, we also need to consider the issue of consumer rights protection, because the profit model of micro-short dramas is often to watch a few episodes for free first, and then start charging at the climax. Users need to top up, and some fraud may occur, and refunds are difficult. question.
In fact, the regulatory authorities have already provided guidance on the "high-quality" micro-short dramas.
On January 10 this year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a notice to launch the "Travel with micro-short dramas" creation plan, encouraging the integration of "micro-short dramas + cultural tourism" to promote consumption and promote innovation in micro-short drama themes and genres. On January 26, the Internet Audiovisual Department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television held a promotion meeting for the 2024 New Year online micro-short dramas, focusing on promoting 16 high-quality micro-short dramas, promoting the pursuit of short dramas during the Spring Festival to become a new trend and new custom.
"Online micro-short dramas appear with short videos and live broadcasts. They are different from traditional film and television dramas in terms of production cost, content, subject and purpose. From the perspective of Internet development, the regulatory model must also keep pace with the times. , not only should we strengthen the pre-content review, but also strengthen the supervision during the process and the management after the event." said Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law.
In his view, it is crucial to strengthen the content supervision of online micro-drama, which involves not only the protection of the rights of minors, but also the maintenance of the order of Internet communication and the legitimate rights of other related subjects. It is recommended to make it clear in legislation to strengthen the supervision of content, not only to clean up vulgar and harmful content, but also to strengthen the promotion of high-quality content.
“From the creative side, we should encourage the creation of some high-quality masterpieces that are in line with mainstream values to meet the needs of the people; from the communication side, the platform should further optimize algorithm recommendations, improve the advertising push review mechanism, and promptly handle illegal short videos. The video will be processed." Zheng Ning said that strengthening governance is not to restrict the development of online micro-drama, but to make further progress for the industry. (Legal Daily)