It was originally thought that the era of everyone being a director and screenwriter would arrive in the video field after the maturing of AI text-to-video technology. However, surprisingly, the era of short dramas arrived before the maturing of large text-to-video models like Keling and Sora.

Recent data from the "2023-2024 China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report" released by iMedia Consulting shows that the domestic micro-short drama market size was 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, with a year-on-year growth of 267.65%. It is expected that the market size will exceed 50 billion yuan in 2024, maintaining a high growth rate. In terms of audience data, as of July this year, paid users of short dramas on Douyin have increased 10 times, with paid amounts increasing fivefold; the daily active users of Kuaishou short dramas have reached 300 million, with about 140 million users watching more than 10 episodes per day.

In addition to the two major short video platforms of Douyin and Kuaishou, the three platforms of iQIYI, Youku, and Tencent have also stepped up their efforts to increase support for short dramas. Taking Youku as an example, it recently announced a new short drama revenue sharing rule, raising the unit price of exclusive short dramas from 6 yuan to 16 yuan for S-grade and from 4 yuan to 8 yuan for A-grade. In addition to the new user acquisition coefficient, the revenue sharing income of short dramas with good data performance can increase by up to 120%. Youku promises to give 70% of the revenue to the producers.

(Image source: Youku)

Facing the rapid development of short dramas, iQIYI, Youku, and Tencent, which have struggled in the short video era, have all shown greater sincerity to attract creators. It seems that the era of short dramas is gradually unfolding.

Short dramas are short videos with clear main lines, coherent plots, and superior production. Short dramas have existed since the beginning of the 21st century, but due to limitations in internet culture and short video development, their popularity and market size were relatively modest in the past.

If you pay attention to and frequently watch short videos, you will notice a discernible path for the development of short videos into short dramas. However, those who do not often watch short dramas may wonder why short dramas have suddenly become so popular.

Compared to TV series and movies, short dramas have three main advantages.

First, low production costs. Compared to the "homemade short dramas" of the past, current short dramas have higher standards for visuals, plot, character development, sound effects, etc., and costs have increased. However, production costs are still far lower than those of TV series and movies. The low-cost nature attracts more creators to participate, which forms the basis for the prosperity of short drama culture.

(Image source: Doubao AI generation)

Second, compact and clear narrative pacing. Living in a fast-paced society, we often struggle to find enough time and patience to watch long dramas. For example, the time spent watching video summaries of film and TV works is much longer than watching the actual movies or TV series. Short dramas can be as short as one minute per episode or as long as a few minutes, with compact pacing, continuous conflicts and climaxes, quickly attracting viewers and maintaining a tense atmosphere.

Third, diverse themes that meet the diverse needs of viewers. Short drama themes cover topics such as male concubines, domineering CEOs, time travel, reincarnation, etc., and often incorporate creative elements to ensure rich and novel video content. Additionally, some current short dramas adopt a novel-to-video model, based on novels from platforms like Qidian and Qidian Chinese, ensuring the integrity of the plot.

From movies, TV series, video summaries, to short dramas, viewers' tastes and video types are evolving. With advantages such as low production costs, compact plots, rich themes, quick returns, short industrial chains, and high user stickiness, short dramas are developing rapidly.

So, will short dramas "modestly develop" into a super market like short videos? To achieve this, Leitech believes that one path lies in the deep application of AI large models in short dramas.

Is AI the cornerstone of short dramas?

The short video era belongs to the masses, where anyone can capture and share interesting moments and insights, regardless of professional videography and editing skills. Short dramas, on the other hand, have a higher threshold compared to short videos, despite lower production costs than TV series and movies. As the industry becomes more competitive, short videos are focusing on production and creativity, and short dramas inevitably need to follow suit, further raising the bar.

As a result, short dramas have become a celebration for a select few, excluding ordinary people. The creativity of a small group is limited, and the high threshold restricts the development of short drama culture. According to a report by China Research Network, the Chinese short video market is expected to reach 420 billion yuan in 2024. In comparison, the short drama market size is just a small part of the short video culture.

Data from the "Statistical Report on Internet Development in China" published by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that as of June 2024, China's internet user base has reached 1.09967 billion, with short video users accounting for 95.5% of the total and micro-short drama users accounting for 52.4%. While the user base of micro-short dramas exceeds half of short video users, its market size is less than one-eighth of that of short videos.

The key to changing the status quo of the short drama industry and enabling everyone to become a short drama creator may still lie in AI large models. While current AI large models for text-to-video cannot yet match the capabilities of professional photographers and post-production teams, they can already intelligently allocate and organize materials, automatically edit and process videos, and provide intelligent special effects, sound effects, filters, and image matting functions to refine videos and improve their quality.

(Image source: Keling official website screenshot)

With the continuous improvement of tools like Keling, Sora, and V-Gen, the day when we can input text and have AI large models automatically generate videos is not far off.

With the support of AI large models, the difficulty of video creation is greatly reduced, allowing creators without professional skills to unleash their creativity and inspiration. Teams with higher technical capabilities can pursue the upper limit of short drama production quality, while ordinary creators can use AI large models to ensure a minimum quality standard for their videos.

The core element of short video culture's growth and development is an equal and relaxed atmosphere that encourages everyone's participation as both viewers and creators. If short dramas merely raise the bar and restrict creation to professional teams, deviating from the spirit of short video culture, it will be difficult for them to grow as rapidly as short videos.

Only by adhering to the spirit of universal participation in creation and regulating relevant content can we accelerate the growth and development of short drama culture, making it an essential part of short video culture.

AI + Short Dramas: Both Highbrow and Lowbrow Are Needed

The arrival of the short drama era marks the transition of short videos from quantity to quality and sophistication. Some traditional audiovisual content producers have also joined the short drama race, such as Zhejiang Satellite TV, which has produced the vertical micro-short drama "We're Heading in Opposite Directions." Popular TV series like "Go Lala Go!," "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio," "Returning to 18 as I Am Ning Jing," "Bao Zheng and Gongsun Ce," "Ko One," and "Divorce Lawyer" are also undergoing short drama adaptations.

The entry of these financially and technologically powerful professional institutions is undoubtedly a demoralizing blow to ordinary creators. However, if they crowd out all ordinary creators, short dramas will become another TV series or movie market. The People's Commentary section of People's Daily suggests that micro-short drama practitioners should continuously enhance their legal awareness and quality consciousness to jointly promote a clear and refined industry ecosystem and sophisticated content.

It is undeniable that sophisticated and elegant content better demonstrates the capabilities of practitioners. However, relying solely on elegant, sophisticated content may lead to a lack of down-to-earth elements, hindering the rapid development of the industry. Therefore, the short drama industry needs works that may not be as sophisticated in production but are grounded and cater to viewers' preferences.

(Image source: Doubao AI generation)

The role of AI large models is to maintain a minimum quality standard for videos, facilitating the participation of ordinary creators. Current AI technology has already achieved intelligent material classification and editing, as well as some post-processing capabilities. Text-to-video tools like Sora and Keling are rapidly progressing. While early text-to-video large models struggled to generate long videos, short drama episodes are typically under two minutes, fitting within the capabilities of AI large models.

It is expected that text-to-video technology will enter a new phase within the next two or three years, enabling everyone to use text-to-video tools to "materialize" their ideas and become short drama directors and screenwriters.

Source: Leitech