Liu Ming (pseudonym), a 23-year-old waiter in a restaurant in Beijing, has been obsessed with online micro-short dramas with tight plots in the past six months, and has fallen into paid "serial sets" and addiction anxiety - obviously I think the plots of some micro-short dramas are very cliché and the performances are blunt and exaggerated, but there are many "cool", and I can't help but want to watch the next episode after watching one episode, and I unconsciously spent a lot of money.
"It's not much money to unlock an episode, but episode after episode, after careful calculation, 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 short drama "Teacher Don't Run", which he was chasing at the time, was removed from the whole network. According to the report, the plot of the play is vulgar, and the lines, pictures, and plot involve serious soft pornography and other violations. The association also said that it will further improve the content review mechanism, increase the supervision of illegal content, and maintain the health and prosperity of the online audiovisual market.
At present, Liu Ming is not the only worker who is addicted to online micro-short dramas.
A number of 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 transmission.
There are many "cool" points in various routines
The micro-short drama is non-stop
Micro-short dramas, that is, online film and television works with a single episode in length from tens of seconds to about 15 minutes, with relatively clear themes and main lines, and relatively continuous and complete storylines.
According to data from a survey agency, 70% of online skit users are low- and middle-income groups.
Liu Ming is one of them, with less than 2,000 yuan left after deducting rent, but he took out nearly a quarter of the "surplus grain" to recharge.
The sweet pet love between a business tyrant and Cinderella, the gorgeous transformation of a contemporary desperate housewife, and the affectionate sadomasochism of ancient times...... On the commute, when taking a bath, before going to bed, almost all fragmented time, Liu Ming will click on the micro-short drama and brush it up, and various themes are involved. During the Spring Festival this year, watching micro-short dramas became the first thing he did when he opened his eyes every day, and he got up again when he had seen enough.
The heroine was originally an ancient queen, her father had meritorious service in defending the country, but she was ordered to be executed by the emperor, and then she was also killed by the man in black, but she did not expect to travel to modern times after death and became the wife of a wealthy family, opening the story of bravely entering the entertainment industry, fighting bad guys and falling in love with the male protagonist - this is the first micro-short drama that Zheng Lin (pseudonym), a "post-90s" who works as a nail technician in a small county town in Dingxi, Gansu Province.
"One episode is just a few minutes, the plot develops quickly, I watched a few episodes and charged 39.9 yuan to watch it in one go. Zheng Lin said. Now, she has watched more than 20 micro-short dramas, and she has come up with her own plot summary: many micro-short dramas are of similar genres, either through rebirth, or revenge and counterattack, mixed with some plots such as vicious stepmothers, vicious sisters, and sweet pet flash marriages.
"The plot is cliché but it's really cool to watch, a moment of slapping the face of the vicious stepmother, and a moment of being spoiled by billionaires, the more people watch it, the more spirited they become. Zheng Lin said that she usually unlocks episodes one by one, and she didn't think it was expensive at first, but she spent too much if she wasn't careful.
Also indulging in it is Lu Chen (pseudonym), who delivers food in Beijing. It was 10 p.m. when the reporter met him, and like many riders, he was half-lying on his "workstation" - an electric car, leaning on the take-out box and waiting for the mobile phone to sound sound. At the same time, he stared at the phone in front of him and watched a short drama.
"There's nothing to look at, and if you brush it too much, you know it's all a routine. Having said that, Lu Chen still "can't help spending money", and in the past six months, he has watched dozens of micro-short dramas. Sometimes after finishing work in the early hours of the morning and lying in a rented house in an urban village, he would spend three or four hours watching a short drama in one go, "I can spend fifty or sixty yuan a night, and this day is considered a 'run for nothing'."
There are routines to make users addicted
Accurately set up paid card points
How much does it cost to watch a paid short series?
The minimum is 120 yuan, usually 60 or 70 yuan, and the more than 100 yuan. For example, Liu Ming said that a 100-episode micro-short drama, each episode is one or two minutes long, the first 10 to 15 episodes are free, and the subsequent episodes are charged at a price of 0.8 yuan to 1 yuan per episode, which requires about 68 yuan.
"It's really not cheap, it's more expensive than watching a movie. Liu Ming sighed.
The price is high, so why are so many people still chasing to pay? In the words of many respondents, "really good".
It is understood that micro-short dramas are mainly divided into two categories: one is a short drama customized by a long video streaming platform, which is characterized by a single episode lasting no more than 15 minutes, and the number of episodes is relatively small.
The other is the mini program short drama that has emerged in the past two years, which was born on the short video platform, and the source of income is the number of episodes unlocked by user recharge, which is divided by the mini program, the producer, and the promoter. Episodes tend to be only a minute or two long, while the number of episodes can reach more than 100.
The reporter randomly browsed the 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 at the end of the previous episode that is charged, "card" in the fascinating part of the plot. If users want to continue watching, they need to recharge, and there are 3 ways to pay for unlocking: purchase by episode, one-time purchase of the whole drama, and direct purchase of the annual card of the drama mini program.
Different platforms use different rules for the exchange of virtual currency, so the price of each show is also different. Taking the micro-short drama "×× Strategy Plan" on a certain platform as an example, an episode of the plot requires 150K coins, the minimum recharge is 39 yuan, and you can get 3900K coins, you can watch about 26 episodes, and you need to recharge about 88 yuan to watch the whole episode.
Liu Ming said that after the free broadcast ended, the mini program automatically jumped to the paid page, "I just saw the critical moment, and I couldn't help but recharge."
Lu Chen said that he can understand people who pay impulsively, because some micro-short dramas "Too Chicken Thief", an episode of about 1 minute, always ends with a slap in the face, car accidents, kidnapping and other wonderful things that arouse people's dopamine. When you have to pay for the end of free, it is often the node where the protagonist is injured, counter-kills, counterattacks and other reversals of fate.
Xiao Zou, who has many years of experience in script writing, told reporters that he once spent half a year writing micro-short drama scripts in order to make a living. There is a routine to make users "addicted", "For example, the favorite themes of the female frequency audience are emotion, sweet pets and revenge, while the male frequency favorite is the son-in-law, the god of war, and counterattack, but everything changes - coolness".
"Each episode is only one or two minutes, and if you want to grab the audience's attention, there can be almost no foreshadowing, flashbacks, and blank spaces, and 'bombard' the audience with simple and crude counterattack revenge, which makes many viewers want to stop. Xiao Zou said that this also caused many people to watch it for a while, and then they would feel inexplicably empty, because the frequent setting of contradictions and conflicts would make the development logic of the plot chaotic, and even doubt "their own IQ" after watching it.
Ms. Liu, who used to work in a short video agency operation company, bluntly said that one of the purposes of "tailor-made" and "paid card points" is to create data indicators, "first let users watch them for free, and then charge for 'card points'." Some have already marked it when writing the script, telling the producer which episode and which part can be 'paid card points', because at this time the audience's mood has reached its peak, as long as it is cut off, there is a high probability that they will pay to watch it."
There are many disputes after payment
Consumer rights and interests have been violated
Under the short and refreshing visual impact and emotional pleasure brought by the micro-short drama, many viewers have paid to unlock it. However, not only is the expenditure not low, but also the problems such as not being able to see it after the payment is opened, no reminder for automatic renewal, and no way to protect rights when the applet disappears.
"I saw the climax part and it jumped to the paid page.,I scratched my liver and wanted to see the follow-up plot.,I couldn't help but recharge the first option 19.9 yuan.,It didn't take long to run out.,I can only recharge another 19.9 yuan.,Just one after another.,I didn't expect to spend hundreds of yuan.,Think about it and regret dying.。 Mr. Yang, who is engaged in express sorting in Tianjin, said that some micro-short dramas become more and more "top-notch" the more you watch them, which is easy for people to consume impulsively.
Zheng Lin said that she encountered false recharge propaganda not long ago, and was watching a cool drama at the time, and the recharge was prompted at the critical moment, and the page showed that you could watch the full episode for 69.9 yuan, but after recharging, she saw more than 80 episodes and had to be charged, which was too pit.
The reporter saw on a third-party complaint platform that there were more than 700 complaints about micro-short dramas, including false publicity, inducing consumption, and difficulty in refunding.
A consumer said: "The advertisement wrote 9.9 yuan to unlock the full episode of this show, but I recharged it and asked me to recharge it after watching half of it, and the customer service replied that the recharge was paid by the episode." There are also consumer complaints: "49 yuan bought a 30-day membership to watch a short drama, and after two days, it was said that my membership expired." ”
Hu Yanyan (pseudonym), a restaurant waitress from Shaanxi, encountered a situation where she couldn't see it after unlocking. Not long ago, she watched a micro-short drama on a short video platform, and after watching 10 episodes, she needed to charge as a member to unlock it, and the interface showed that she could buy the full episode for 117 yuan and buy a permanent member for 198 yuan. felt that the latter was more cost-effective, so she recharged 198 yuan.
However, after paying, Hu Yanyan found that the micro-short drama episodes of the main drama have changed from "the show has been updated to 99 episodes" before the recharge to "has been updated to the 10th episode", and the remaining episodes need to be updated. Hu Yanyan felt deceived and wanted to contact customer service to report the situation, but so far she has not been contacted.
Under the guidance of Hu Yanyan, the reporter found that the mini program of the show could no longer be searched on the short video platform.
Xu Ying, a lawyer at Beijing Jingjing Law Firm, analyzed that low-cost gimmicks such as unlocking an episode at 0.9 yuan and unlocking the full episode of the drama at 9.9 yuan attract users, while the actual viewing cost reaches tens of yuan or even hundreds of yuan, which is suspected of false publicity;
Use skit promotion as a gimmick
"Pulling people's heads" to cheat training fees
According to industry insiders, the publicity and promotion of micro-short dramas mainly rely on the streamers. The anchor cuts the micro-short drama into suitable materials, and then publishes it on various platforms after editing the second creation. When the user watches the video and enters the mounted Mini Program, which generates a successful payment order and does not refund it, the anchor can get a share of it. These videos generally condense the most essential parts and suspense of micro-short dramas, which 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 area of some micro-short dramas, there were many comments such as "the plot is too exciting, tense and exciting", and clicking on the links is actually the promotion content of some micro-short dramas.
On a social platform, the reporter searched for "short drama promotion" as the keyword, and saw a lot of posts about "more than 1,000 earnings a day" and "short drama promotion is too fragrant". After the reporter randomly selected a post to comment on "begging for a brought", he received 6 private messages within half an hour.
The reporter added the contact information of 3 of them, and the first message received after the application was approved was a picture with a QR code and invitation code, which said "2024 Explosive Sideline Project" and declared that "0 investment and 0 threshold, everyone can do it". After scanning the code, I saw that this is an App called "Good Province Short Play", which can download non-watermark videos of various short dramas.
After the download was successful, the other party told the reporter that because the reporter's short video account did not reach 1000 fans, it was necessary to increase the number of fans in the early stage, and pulled the reporter into the "Basic 8 Group of the Short Drama Rich Team", with 480 people in the group.
Through 3 days of observation, the reporter found that the information in the group that repeatedly swipes the screen every day is the method of increasing fans, links to popular short dramas, ideas for sending dramas, order data and various cases of popular orders. The reporter clicked into the circle of friends who posted the information account and saw that there was a piece of red envelopes in which she posted more than 30 rewards for attracting newcomers and rewards for issuing orders in the "Short Drama Rich Team Thousand Fans Group".
Wang Zhi (pseudonym), who does small business in Nanning, Guangxi, has been promoting micro-short dramas for 3 months in order to increase his income, and he told reporters that in this kind of group, the so-called free apprentices and classes are all gimmicks, and the way to make money is actually to "pull people's heads" and attract new people to download software to get rewards.
"Don't do anything that pays the money, it's just a lie to you to be a leek. Wang Zhi repeatedly reminded reporters as a "passer-by" that he was cheated of his training fee in order to learn the so-called micro-short drama promotion technology.
Departments supervise industry self-discipline
Promote the quality of micro-short dramas
During the convening of the "two sessions" in various localities this year, micro-short dramas were a hot topic of concern for the deputies and committee members. For example, Yu Qingyang, a member of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and documentary director, said in an interview with the media that the core of the short drama to attract attention is still to borrow the "tricks" of traditional TV series, that is, to set up suspense points or gimmicks at the end to attract the audience to watch the next episode. The industry norms for new things are established in the process of development, and the regulatory authorities can guide them appropriately.
According to Xiao Zou told reporters, at present, some platform merchants and short video generation operating companies are selling ready-made micro-short drama scripts. In order to attract traffic, some businesses will also attach information such as the algorithm rules of the short video platform, the drainage and increase of followers, and the operation strategy. These ready-made script templates usually lack literary, ideological, and logical, and are more of an emotional refreshment like online texts. Even for the sake of traffic, there have been illegal plots that have been identified by relevant departments as vulgar plots, 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 transmission. Therefore, strengthening supervision is the trend of the times.
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 Work Related to the Creation and Improvement Plan" to carry out special rectification of online micro-short dramas such as "Mini Programs".
After a year, 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", and studying and promoting the integration of online micro-short drama apps and "mini programs" into the daily management of institutions.
"Departmental supervision and industry self-discipline should be strengthened, and detailed rules and standards for review should be introduced, as well as credit supervision systems such as the 'blacklist', and problematic dramas and related production units should be included in the 'blacklist'. Zheng Ning said that in addition to the risk of content, it is also necessary to consider the protection of consumer rights and interests, 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 recharge, there may be some fraud, and it is difficult to refund.
In fact, as for the "high-quality" of micro-short dramas, the regulatory authorities have provided guidance.
On January 10 this year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a notice on the creation plan of "Travel with Micro Short Dramas", encouraging the integration of "micro short dramas + cultural tourism" to promote consumption and promote the innovation of the genre of micro short dramas. On January 26, the Network Audiovisual Department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television held the 2024 New Year Online Micro Short Drama Publicity and Promotion Conference, focusing on the promotion of 16 high-quality micro short dramas, and promoting the Spring Festival chasing short dramas to become a new trend and New Year's custom.
"Online micro-short dramas appear with short videos and live broadcasts, which 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 should also keep pace with the times, not only to strengthen the content review in advance, but also to strengthen the supervision and management after the event. Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said.
In his view, it is very important to strengthen the content supervision of online micro-short dramas, 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 relevant subjects. It is suggested that the legislation should make it clear that the supervision of content should be strengthened, not only to clean up vulgar and harmful content, but also to strengthen the promotion of high-quality content.
"From the creative side, it is necessary to encourage the creation of some masterpieces that conform to mainstream values to meet the needs of the people; from the communication side, platforms should further optimize algorithm recommendations, improve the review mechanism for advertising streaming, and promptly deal with illegal short videos. Zheng Ning said that strengthening governance is not to restrict the development of online micro-short dramas, but to make greater progress in the industry.