Total investment in homemade content increased by 125% year-on-year, and homemade dramas are heading for the next outlet

according to the 2016 White Paper on the Internet homemade Drama Industry, the total investment in Internet homemade content in 2016 was about 27 billion yuan, an increase of 125 percent over 2015, and the number of homemade content production collections increased by nearly 42 percent.

original title: last year, total investment in homemade content on the Internet increased by 125% compared with the same period last year. Homemade dramas move to the next vault of the film and television industry

since the beginning of this year, the development of homemade dramas on video websites has entered the fast lane, and online video websites have shifted from buying copyrights to homemade content. In the increasingly hot online homemade drama market, what characteristics do homemade content need to have in order to win the audience? How can data and technology from the Internet help? Can video websites rely on homemade dramas to make a profit?

recently, statistics show that China's online video market has reached 60.9 billion yuan, an increase of 56% over the same period last year. The number of daily active users of online video increased by 32%, and the average daily viewing time increased by 4%. The "migration" of viewing habits and the "return" of the younger generation have made homemade dramas on video websites such as "Alliance of military Advisers" and "undocumented crimes" popular, and online video sites are paying more and more attention to homemade content.

according to the 2016 White Paper on the Internet self-made Drama Industry, the total investment in Internet self-made content in 2016 was about 27 billion yuan, an increase of 125% over 2015, and the number of self-made content production sets increased by nearly 42%. Wang Xiaohui, chief content officer of iqiyi, said that in the past year, the number of TV dramas with "first net backstage" has increased by 230 per cent. Sun Zhonghuai, CEO of Penguin Film and Television, said that the traffic of Tencent Video's online self-made content grew by nearly 300% in 2016, and the number of project reserves has exceeded 100.

< strong > accurately outline market segments < / strong >

with the changes in viewing habits brought about by the multi-screen era and the popularity of the Internet, the audience's demand for segmented content is increasing day by day. In the past, the whole family watched a TV series less and less, replaced by huge individual needs. Wu Sheng, founder of the scene laboratory, believes that it is no longer a large-scale and industrialized era of collective identification, the rise of individuals has become the most important symbol of this era, and the development of Internet self-made content has become a new advantage in the development of market segments. Yao Zhen, a leading director, explained that because of this, cultural consumption must accurately find its own values and aesthetics.

homemade drama comes into being, which sets characters and plots according to the preferences of different people. For example, some dramas are specially created for girls under the age of 20, while others are targeted at warm-blooded young people.

the reason why Internet companies are able to accurately divide and "capture" market segments comes from big data. Ding Heng, senior director of Youku homemade drama, told reporters: "the most valuable resource in the hands of Internet enterprises is data. Relying on Alibaba, Youku has accurate data of 500 million users, so it can clearly define the positioning of the series."

to what extent can the impact of data on production be "accurate"? Han Zhijie, vice president of Penguin Film and Television, said that taking a show as an example, data analysis is needed to comment on on-screen comments, such as what the top 10 keywords are and from which plot to enter the discussion. If the show has 20 million users, how many people will leave after the first episode? Do you focus on leaving at a certain point in a certain episode? These data-based observations are shared periodically with producers, providing a basis for the production of homemade content.

< strong > Collaborative Innovation Business Model < / strong >

at present, too many advertisements are implanted and the profit model is single, which has become a hard wound for self-made dramas. In fact, video sites produce their own content, at first in order to stabilize the high cost of purchasing copyright. "in fact, the purpose of homemade programs is to save money. In addition to controlling the quality, we can also decide the investment cost, which is helpful for us to evaluate and calculate the profits and losses of the broadcast series." Fang Fang, general manager of Penguin Film and Television, said.

the paid membership model of homemade dramas has become very popular in recent years. Gong Yu, founder of iqiyi, said that at present, the proportion of revenue contributed by paid members to brand advertising revenue is basically 1 ∶ 1. In addition to paying, video sites place more innovative expectations on the business model on "synergy", that is, to create a "multiplication effect" in the film and television, animation, games and even derivatives markets around the same copyrighted content. As there are multiple business lines behind the online video giant, the deployment of resources within the group will have greater maneuverability. For example, as China's largest game company, Tencent is optimistic about the direction of "video game linkage". Jeff Han said that future games should first appear in the series, and homemade TV dramas changed according to e-sports 's novel "full-time Master" have begun to try. Alibaba is optimistic about the derivatives market of homemade dramas. Yang Weidong, president of Alibaba Culture and Entertainment Group Dayouku Business Group, said that since Kung Fu Panda, from the authorization of derivatives to the brand association of derivatives, the content is broadcast on Youku, and the authorization of derivatives is bidding through Alibaba. This will form a huge ecology.

< strong > squeeze out the "bubble" to improve texture < / strong >

there is news that iqiyi spent 288 million yuan to buy and produce Zhou Xingchi's online self-made drama "Journey to the West." the investment per episode is expected to exceed 6 million yuan, and the cost of producing the homemade drama is getting higher and higher.

at the same time, the "bubble" and "virtual fire" of the film and television industry are obviously affecting homemade dramas. Yang Weidong said bluntly: "although the overall investment is large, the proportion of investment distribution is unreasonable, and the proportion of actors' pay is too large." As the video platform has a growing impact on the drama industry, the distribution ratio is also likely to be healthier and more reasonable. "

Wang Leiqing, director of the film and television drama center of Shanghai Radio and Television, said that in terms of films and TV dramas as a whole, three types of "fake and shoddy products" are still popular: "such as pseudo-cultural dramas with biographies of historical celebrities, Mary Su dog blood dramas wrapped in pseudo-reality, and shoddy fake dramas. Online homemade dramas are also being exported in reverse to traditional TV stations, and we hope that they can produce works with stronger social value. "

however, Wang Juan, editor-in-chief of Tencent Video, believes that the choice of viewers will force online video platforms to pursue "texture." "Internet video is not linear broadcast, you do not see it, there are more content to choose from, at the same time, a large number of young users have high aesthetic taste, used to watch American and British TV series, hate to follow the trend of works, so in the process of fighting for them, the video platform has to learn and improve its production ability."

"texture" also comes from a variety of self-made content layouts. In addition to self-made dramas and self-made variety shows, Internet video platforms have also begun to get involved in a variety of content, such as finance and economics, education, culture, documentaries and so on. Wang Ping, senior vice president of Alibaba Culture and Entertainment Group Dayouku Business Group, said: "by studying the viewers of programs such as' Roundtable 'and' Great craftsmen', we find that these viewers are stable, loyal, sticky and have a very high degree of completion. and it is not in line with the stereotype that the core audience of traditional cultural programs is middle-aged men, with a high proportion of young people in first-tier cities."

Edit: mary