Long and short videos are moving from being incompatible with each other at the beginning to a further integration. Recently, Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI, announced at the 2024 iJOY Autumn Enjoyment Conference that the platform has officially launched "Short Theater" and "Micro Theater". The former has a duration of 5-20 minutes per episode and releases a new work every week, while the latter mainly features 1-5 minutes of vertical screen content. iQIYI members can enjoy micro dramas in both theaters without additional single point payment. At the same time, iQiyi released over 300 of its latest film releases for 2024-2025 on site.
According to Wang Xiaohui, Chief Content Officer of iQiyi, the film and television industry has ushered in the "second era of creative collaboration in nearly 50 years". In his view, short dramas are the second fusion of long and short videos.
Members can watch short dramas for free without single point payment
Once upon a time, there were frequent battles between long and short videos due to copyright and content issues. In 2021, when the "long short dispute" was most intense, long video platforms and a group of film and television companies issued a joint statement criticizing the issue of short video infringement. In the following years, there were signs of cooperation and win-win outcomes in both short and long videos, and short videos became a necessary channel for promoting many long video dramas. Nowadays, the popularity of short dramas has once again put both parties in the same arena.
At the conference, Gong Yu reviewed the "changes in length" in recent years. Since 2016, the average number of episodes in the TV drama industry has been decreasing year by year, meeting users' viewing needs with more compact plots and faster rhythms. In 2020, iQiyi set a precedent by launching the "Mist Theater" featuring short drama collections. At the same time, short video platforms that rely on fragmented content to rapidly rise are also exploring the direction of structured narrative plot content, and paid micro dramas are developing rapidly. Data shows that the market size has grown to 37.4 billion yuan in the past year, a year-on-year increase of 268%. The evolution of long and short videos has brought the possibility of competition and new growth space to the market.
Therefore, iQiyi officially announced the launch of "Short Theater" and "Micro Theater" on the day of the conference. The short skits in these two theaters are exclusive to iQiyi VIP members and do not require additional single point payment. IQiyi believes that this move further enriches the content choices for iQiyi VIP members and brings more marketing growth opportunities for the brand.
It is understood that in recent years, expanding the dimensions of member income has become a key focus for major long video platforms to tap into the incremental growth of member income. After all, currently, it is even more difficult to drive revenue solely by increasing the number of members. According to iQiyi's Q2 financial report, one of the most important sources of profit, membership service revenue, decreased by 9% year-on-year to 4.5 billion yuan in Q2. The financial report explains that due to fluctuations in content performance. Therefore, iQiyi has begun to pay more attention to the monthly average single member income (ARM). According to iQiyi, ARM saw steady year-on-year growth in the second quarter, mainly due to optimized pricing strategies, innovative value-added services that effectively increased user willingness to pay, and strengthened high-level membership benefits and increased stickiness.
Both horizontal and vertical screens are included, with over 70% of the revenue distributed to the content producers
Southern Metropolis Daily reporter learned that the newly launched "Micro Theater" will release two new works every 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.
However, since the popularity of micro dramas, they have been deeply mired in negative public opinion of shoddy production and vulgar content. Therefore, Gong Yu emphasized that iQiyi short dramas are not equal to short low-cost web dramas, and iQiyi micro dramas are not equal to low-quality mini program micro dramas. He hopes to work together with industry partners to explore and innovate.
In addition, currently nearly 90% of the income from short dramas is used for streaming, which Gong Yu believes is actually a "very peculiar business model". Therefore, iQiyi will experiment with new business models in the micro drama section. "Unlike the micro drama business model that uses over 90% of its revenue for streaming in the market, iQiyi's designed business model distributes over 70% of its revenue to content producers and exclusively to members
Gong Yu said, "The current business model for micro dramas is to pay by episode or bundle multiple episodes. Prices have been decreasing this year, but watching a drama costs 30-100 yuan. On the other hand, iQiyi's consecutive monthly gold membership is 25 yuan/month, and if the annual pass is discounted, the price will be even lower. The future trend of micro drama prices will continue to decline. Instead of naturally falling, why is it not exclusive to members? So the business model has changed
Short dramas assist in the second fusion of long and short videos
Wang Xiaohui also mentioned that if slicing and promoting long videos through short videos is the first fusion of long and short videos, then current short dramas are the second fusion of long and short videos. He believes that the film and television industry has ushered in the "second era of creative collaboration in nearly fifty years", where the biggest creators are the masses and the greatest empathy is deconstruction. He specifically pointed out that for creators, the mainstream direction of future creation is forward deconstruction, and the biggest innovation lies in achieving reverse construction. On the one hand, creators need to have insight into public emotions and contemporary topics, and on the other hand, they need to establish new systems based on their existing creations, constantly innovating and upgrading. In addition to the newly launched micro theaters and short theaters mentioned above, iQiyi will also achieve content construction and deconstruction through five major brands: Xiaodou Theater, Love Theater, Mist Theater, Dust Theater, and Dajia Theater, continuously leading the high-quality and new aesthetics of the film and television industry.
At the conference venue, iQiyi announced that the Micro Dust Theater will bring "In the Human World", and everyone's theater will present works such as "Going North", "Creating All Things", and "Happiness". Xiao Dou Theater, Love Theater, and Mist Theater will be committed to "positive deconstruction" and analyzing current social relationships. Xiao Dou Theater will release the second season of "Don't Panic, King of Comedy" and "King of Comedy". Love Theater covers works such as "Seven Nights Snow", "Big Dreams Return", "Endless Thoughts", as well as Mist Theater's upcoming releases such as "Born by Fate" and "Just Defense".
In addition, iQiyi will continue to promote the series development of drama IPs, such as "Tang Dynasty Mystery Chronicles in Chang'an", "Police Honor 2", "Fearless 2", "Crime Hunting Guide 2", etc., which will be gradually introduced to users, continuing the vitality of high-quality content IPs.
It is worth mentioning that the popularity of mainland TV dramas in overseas markets is gradually increasing. Google search data shows that the search attention for mainland Chinese dramas continues to climb, recently surpassing that of Korean dramas. According to AMPD's Q1 2024 data, in the Southeast Asian market, the popularity and market share of mainland TV dramas have surpassed Korean dramas, becoming the preferred entertainment content for local users.
Gong Yu stated that "the value of mainland TV drama content in overseas marketing has significantly increased, and content creators should start investing their energy and focus on creating content for overseas markets." It is reported that currently half of iQiyi's overseas content is mainland content; Next are Thai dramas, Japanese and Korean content, which constitute cross regional popular content; There are also pure overseas local content such as Malay dramas, mainly serving local users.