The importance of “audience picks” has increased throughout the life of an episode.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Entertainment Hard Candy” (ID: yuleyingtang) , the author Gu Han, editor Li Chunhui. Authorized release.

During the epidemic, online traffic skyrocketed, and the number of daily active Internet users and the average daily user duration reached a record high. There is no doubt that the drama industry is one of the beneficiaries. The big dramas are icing on the cake, and the small dramas have changed their lives.

On January 27th, the sister article “Human Smoke and Sparkling Kitchen”, a sister article of “Huajian Hufangfang Chef”, was launched on Youku, and has repeatedly refreshed the box office records of the sub-account. The costumed sand sculpture “Small Master and Slow Moving” starring Xin Xinzi followed closely, and on the second day after the launch, it became the first sub-drama in the iQiyi station with a heat value exceeding 6000. On March 23, the “Small Kitchen Smoke Sparkling Kitchen” was officially announced to break through the box office. Liang Jie, general manager of Youku Content Open Platform, said that this means that paid members of the platform can already support the cost recovery of a very good box office project.

Ledger, where is the fragrance?

The account-sharing drama, as the name implies, is different from the self-made drama controlled by the platform and the copyright drama bought out in one fell swoop. Users pay to watch it, and the producer gets a share according to the proportion. The revenue and the drama’s market performance (clicks, effective viewing and other data) Indicators) directly linked. In simple terms, it is the difference between toC and toB. In the life cycle of an episode, the importance of “audience pick” has increased.

PGC accounting, the third choice of video platform

The legalization of online video has been going on for ten years. Players who remain in the field after struggling layers have changed from a simple broadcast platform to an entertainment content provider. And money.

Detours are inevitable. For example, in the copyright war, in order to pull up the moat of content, he smashed money and scrambled for the copyright of the head. Either supplementary budgets will be filled year after year to fill this bottomless pit, or they will voluntarily withdraw from the first echelon.

In order to break the deadlock of endless money burning, video websites have been working hard to explore. Such as intervention in the upstream content to improve the control of production; another example is membership payment, reducing dependence on advertising revenue, but it has not achieved results until the last two years.

Big online movies and account-sharing online dramas were born during the period of incremental competition. In order to activate the paid market, compete for and retain users, video sites needFor a large number of member content, PGC is the third option beyond copyright and self-control. This kind of content does not need to invest a lot of financial or human resources like the headline content, but attracts small and medium-sized companies through various incentive plans. Everyone shares the risks, and the results depend on fate.

On the surface, it is for the filmmakers, but the platform can also relieve the pressure of content investment to a certain extent. Even the mango TV, which naturally leans on the copyright database, cannot resist this temptation.

Ledger show, where is the fragrance?

For production companies (especially non-head companies and new media teams), first of all, there is an additional distribution channel for content, so there is no need to wait for the TV or movie market schedule. Second, because these projects tend to be lower cost, once successful, the return on investment is considerable.

The story of Wangda started in 2015, Taoist Out of the Mountain. Rivers and lakes rumored that the cost of the film was only 280,000 yuan, and the cost was recovered within two days of going online. The half-year box office income reached 24 million yuan, which is really amazing. Tencent video survey data shows that in 2015, 231 new teams entered the field of cyberspace, 80% of which were launched in the second half of the year after the popularity of Taoist Mountain.

In 2016, iQiyi inherited the mode of account sharing to web dramas. The ancient reasoning drama “Chang’an from the Chang’an” broadcast that year earned 20 million sub-account income with an investment of 4.5 million yuan, and the investment return ratio was as high as 1: 4.5, confirming that this model is still feasible on the drama, and the sub-account drama is also very Become a vent.

Especially after the “cleansing” policy of NetU, the teams that follow the trend to make quick money exited the stage in batches, and the teams with certain qualifications have started to develop the account-splitting business.

Ledger show, where is the incense?

In 2018, Youku ’s first online drama “Love Story of Erlong Lake” was derived from the cooperation with the new studio film industry and based on the mature online IP “Erlong Lake Haoge / Siping Youth”. The show has been online for more than 20 million sub-accounts in two months. The entry of new players has also brought more vitality to the ledger market.

Ledger play also needs to iterate

Looking at the name-separated account dramas in recent years, you can find several distinctive features.

One is enough episodesShort, mostly 12 or 24 episodes; the second is that the actors are mainly newcomers, and there are few big celebrities; in addition, in terms of subject matter, women account for half of the country’s drama, and the major elements are arranged and combined:

Sweet pets + farming, such as “Huajian Hujian Fangfang Chef”, “Human Smoke Spark Kitchen”; ancient style + sand sculptures, such as “Peerless Gold”, “Oh! Her Majesty the Emperor “; campus + sand sculptures, such as” You Are Dead on Dragon Day “,” Mary Academy “(remember the soft twilight makeup still remember!); Revenge dramas, such as” Addicted to Love “,” Dangerous Her. ”

Ledger show, where's the fragrance?

The advantage is that it is online enough and vertical, and there is no concern about the taste of the public in TV dramas. The main creators often do not pose as authors, and they are highly typed based on the principle of serving a specific group of people.

But on the other hand, over-creating with users and circles as the guide, it is inevitable to be kitsch, there are many fast foods but few classics, and they become more conservative over time. In addition, the limited cost and actors will also restrict the final content level and communication effect.

Ledger show, where is the fragrant?

Platforms are also changing. In the early years, video websites were almost “infinite shelves.” Content demand was large, and the backlog of TV dramas that were severely outdated were also refused. However, after several years of Internet dramas, the number of blowouts has been no problem, and the congested playing track has become a burden on the platform. The quality of the content and the refined operation are the future. For the account-splitting drama, the platform is also constantly optimizing the evaluation system, raising the content threshold and no longer receiving all the bills.

The “2017-2019 Report on the Development of Account Ledgers” shows that the total number of Ledgers released online in 2018 reached 161, an increase of 189% over 2017, and there was no significant increase in the number of online Ledgers in 2019. However, according to the effective play volume of the feature film and its proportion in the series, it can be seen that the audience attention and recognition of the ledger drama are increasing, and the episode is even better.

Huayi Brothers ’first part of the new drama,” The Chef of the Flower Pot “, received considerable box office revenue in 2017, and it has also gradually become rich. Based on the experience of the previous project, and considering the growth of the water level of video site members, the team pushed the cost of “Small Chef on the Smoke”