In just a few years
The micro-short drama industry is showing a blowout development
The maximum length of an episode is 10 minutes
The shortest is less than 60 seconds
It is especially popular with young people
However, with the popularity of micro-short dramas in the past two years
Quite a few aunts, uncles, and even grandparents
All entered the ranks of the watchers
Some are even watching dramas at the same time
"One Thousand Dollars"
Some of the total consumption is as high as tens of thousands of yuan
Recently, Ms. Zhao (pseudonym) from Anhui inadvertently discovered that her 60-year-old mother, Ms. Du (pseudonym), had a WeChat payment bill of nearly 7,000 yuan in June this year.
The payment records show that the amount of a single payment is tens of yuan, the payment interval is about ten minutes, and most of the payees are "XX video", "XX theater", "XX network", etc.
Part of Ms. Du's payment records for June. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
After communication, Ms. Zhao learned that her mother was recharging to watch a skit. According to a screenshot of the payment record presented by Ms. Du, in June this year, her mother spent 6,992.7 yuan through WeChat Pay.
At 1:25 a.m. on June 27, she paid 49.9 yuan to "XX Popular Video", and then paid every 10 minutes or so;
At half past two in the morning, she made the last payment to "XX Hot Video";
After 3 o'clock in the morning, she paid 39.9 yuan to "XX Technology" twice;
At half past nine in the morning, she began to recharge again and paid 49.9 yuan to "XX Theater".
On this day, Ms. Zhao's mother spent a total of 548.8 yuan for chasing the short drama.
Paid skits require top-up
to unlock the next episode
A number of netizens said with the post
Their parents are addicted to micro-skits
And invest in high consumption for it
Ms. Du's viewing record shows
The skits she has chased are:
"The president's wife takes the cub ......" and "Cute Treasure Strikes ......"
"The eldest lady is ...... in the entertainment industry" and so on
The reporter learned
These are paid short dramas that make people "go up".
often ends abruptly at key points in the plot
There is a need to pay to unlock the next episode
Some require a fee to be ad-free
Viewers who are eager to know the follow-up plot
It is often unlocked for a fee
The cost of a single episode is often only a few pennies
However, when recharging, you need to buy a package worth dozens of yuan
Accumulated into a "huge amount of money"
"On some film and television platforms, the membership for one year is only more than 200 yuan. It's unreasonable for a skit to cost so much. Ms. Du told reporters that after she communicated with her mother, her mother learned that there were still free or more preferential channels to watch dramas, and told her daughter that she would never watch paid short dramas again, and would only watch free dramas in the future.
Many elderly people watch short dramas
"停不下来"
Coincidentally
Ms. Wang (not her real name) from Jiangsu Province had a similar experience
Her 61-year-old father, Mr. Wang
also spent a lot of money chasing short dramas
At the end of 2023, Ms. Wang said, her father found that he had a large amount of money in his account and "didn't know where to spend it." Ms. Wang looked at her father's mobile phone and found that he had spent a lot of money on the skit. Her father explained to her that at first, she only needed to charge 1 cent, but then she spent so much money for some reason.
Ms. Wang complained to the platform and wanted to recover the fees, but only a few dozen yuan were returned.
Ms. Yang, a 67-year-old consumer of skit dramas, said that when she was fascinated by watching dramas, she would ignore the voice of her wife urging her to serve food. Ms. Yang told reporters that those dramas made her feel very "relieved", and she would write comments during the advertisement: "It's good to beat that negative guy, girls can't be so stupid." ”
Ms. Yang said that she got married when she was 20 years old, and she was tired of almost all the housework after marriage. When I see the heroine of the short drama "counterattack", I will also have the illusion of "success".
Lawyer:
Seniors in terms of network payments
should be subject to special protection
Elderly people spend thousands of dollars chasing skits on dramas
Can my child request a refund from the platform after they find out?
Fu Jian, director of Henan Zejin Law Firm, believes that if the family wants to request a refund from the platform, they can provide evidence to prove that the skit platform is illegal, otherwise the two parties should be bound by the contract shown at the time of payment, and cannot terminate the contract at will or ask for a refund. If the short drama platform has clearly informed the specific price and charging method of the short play, it cannot request a refund.
There are also lawyers who think
The elderly belong to a special group, in terms of online payment
It deserves special protection under the law
Zhao Liangshan, a lawyer at Shaanxi Hengda Law Firm, believes that if the form of the fee is automatic deduction, there should be a separate reminder, and it must be eye-catching, otherwise it violates Article 26 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law: If the operator uses standard terms in business activities, it shall draw consumers' attention to the quantity and quality of goods or services, the price or fee, the performance period and method, safety precautions and risk warnings, after-sales service, civil liability and other content that has a major interest in consumers. and to explain it according to the consumer's request.
- If the platform fails to fulfill its obligation to prominently display the information in a conspicuous position
- If the auto-deduction service terms are determined to be overlord clauses, the auto-deduction service will be characterized as invalid
- The elderly can request a refund from the platform based on the above two reasons
The lawyer reminds consumers to be cautious when clicking on the prompt window, be familiar with the content of the contract, press the pause button for doubtful terms, and do not blindly click on options.
Some people earn more than 10,000 yuan a day
The cost of casting is ten times the cost of production
In just a few years
The micro-short drama industry is showing a blowout development
"Scripts, actors, directors, cinematography and production, and streaming, every link is 'gambling'." Li Sanping, a short drama practitioner, said that the cost of every chain in the short drama industry is rising, and the overall cost has increased by 50% compared with 2023.
"Actors' pay is uncontrollable." According to Fu Dongdong of the knight's short play, the daily salary of popular actors is as high as more than 10,000 yuan, while that of ordinary actors is about three or four thousand yuan.
According to industry insiders, the salary of the "top stream" actors in male frequency dramas is 6,000~8,000 yuan/day, and the "carrying drama" protagonists of female frequency dramas are 10,000~12,000 yuan/day. The filming cycle of a modern drama is about 7~10 days, and the budget of the actors has been doubled.
According to industry insiders, the cost of a short drama from production to launch includes script cost, production cost and streaming distribution cost.
People familiar with the matter broke the news that the reason why the cost of domestic investment is so exaggerated is that the rules of the media side, the overall input-output ratio is not high, the gross profit is only 10%, and the drama with a cost of 500,000 yuan often needs to reach 5 million, and the investment cost accounts for 80%~85%, and the output ratio can be repaid.
For example, the cost of this year's popular head cool dramas "Wushuang" and "I Was a Stepmother in the 80s" has already exceeded 100 million.
The average daily cost of advertising on a platform's large-scale short dramas can reach 60 million. According to the "2024 Micro Short Drama Buying and Streaming Data Report", the market size of micro-short dramas is expected to reach 50 billion yuan this year, of which the investment scale is expected to reach about 42 billion yuan.
The new regulations for micro-short dramas are officially implemented:
Implement "classification and hierarchical audit"
June 1 of this year
The new provisions on the management of online micro-short dramas have officially come into effect
The new regulations require for micro-short dramas
Implement "classification and hierarchical audit"
All incremental dramas
All of them must obtain an issuance license or record number
All stock dramas must obtain a record number
It has not been reviewed and filed for the record
Micro-short dramas must not be disseminated online
The implementation of the new regulations has been put into use in many provinces and cities across the country, and the "online audio-visual program filing system" for micro-short dramas has been put into use. The short drama industry, which was once considered a "myth of wealth creation", has passed the era of recklessness, and under more standardized supervision, the industry will usher in a period of consolidation.
Sources: Morning News, Guangzhou Daily, National Business Daily, Beijing Daily, Newsroom, etc