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Text丨Fan Dongcheng

The trend of micro-short dramas has already reached middle-aged and elderly people.

Screenwriter Chen Meng discovered that his 80-year-old grandmother has recently become obsessed with short dramas. Chen Meng took a photo of his grandmother from behind, and posted it on WeChat Moments with the caption "My grandmother is paying to watch short dramas." In the photo, Chen Meng's grandmother placed her phone on the table, watching the drama very attentively, with melon seeds and peanuts placed next to her.

The "short drama" in the public's mouth is the common name for "micro short drama". According to the definition of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, short dramas such as series with a single episode of 15-30 minutes and serial dramas with less than 20 episodes are called short dramas, which complement medium and long dramas, but ordinary people generally do not distinguish between more and fewer episodes; micro short dramas refer to online dramas with a single episode length ranging from tens of seconds to about 15 minutes, with relatively clear themes and complete plots. To be more precise, the short dramas in everyone's mind mostly refer to dramas with a single episode of 1-5 minutes, which are broadcast on short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, or short drama platforms such as Hongguo and Xingya.

The audience for short dramas is becoming increasingly broad, and users like Grandma Chen Meng are not uncommon.

According to the 2024 China Micro Drama Industry Research Report released by iResearch, a research organization, users aged 40-59 account for 37.3% of micro drama users, and users aged 60 and above account for 12.1%. In other words, about half of micro drama users are over 40 years old.

Since 2024, short dramas with middle-aged and elderly people as the protagonists have frequently appeared on the popularity lists of various platforms.

For example, the popular drama "Flash Marriage at 50" tells the love story of a 50-year-old male protagonist who is the president of a group and a 45-year-old female protagonist after a flash marriage. The Douyin topic of this drama has been played 470 million times, and the topic of the finale has been played 110 million times; the related topic of Kuaishou has been played about 60 million times, and the platform statistics show that 274,000 users like it. Similar dramas include "Flash Marriage at 50" and "You Are My Life".

The unique emotional needs of the middle-aged and elderly groups have opened up a new blue ocean for the short drama market. It is not difficult to see that the producers have actively adjusted their strategies to focus on the interests of this group and strive to make the characteristics of the drama fit their emotional needs; the distributors use algorithms to optimize content push, form a closed-loop effect, and maximize the payment rate of the middle-aged and elderly.

Micro-short dramas are still growing rapidly, and middle-aged and elderly people are one of the main players, but the path to industry standardization and long-term development is still being explored.

01

Mass production based on hot spots

The short drama market is developing extremely rapidly.

According to iResearch Consulting data, the market size of the domestic micro-short drama industry will be 35.86 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 234.5%. The market size will reach 48.46 billion yuan in 2024, and will exceed 100 billion yuan by 2028. The number of micro-short dramas registered online in 2021 was 107, 336 in 2022, and 584 in 2023. Love and urban are the two most popular themes.

The fierce momentum is based on the extremely short production cycle, because only "speed" can make the hot spots work for micro-short dramas: many micro-short dramas only take two or three weeks from project establishment to online launch, with about one week for pre-shooting and about 1-2 weeks for post-production; the entire crew has only a few dozen people, and in order to rush the work, the crew even shoots for more than 12 hours a day.

If you can catch a hot topic, you can attract users' attention, especially if it is a hot topic that has gone viral.

The skit related to the music variety show "Singer 2024" is a typical case. In May 2024, Hunan Satellite TV launched a new season of the singer competition variety show "Singer" series, "Singer 2024". The guests of the show include foreign singers such as Canadian singer Vanshia Oiya and American singer Shanti Mo, as well as domestic singers such as Na Ying and Hailai Amu. In the previous episodes, other domestic singers ranked relatively low, and only Na Ying performed relatively well, which aroused heated discussions among netizens. Since Na Ying is a Manchu, "Na" was changed from the Manchu surname "Yehenala", and netizens derived the sayings such as "Yehenala fights foreigners" and "Fifty-year-old lady guards the country's gate", and related topics quickly became hot searches on multiple platforms.

Less than three weeks after the hot topic emerged, the related micro-short drama was already online.

For example, "Fifty-year-old Lady Guarding the National Goal, the Great Summer Song God Wins the Game" (hereinafter referred to as "The Great Summer Song God") is quite popular. The series "The Great Summer Song God" has a total of 91 episodes, each lasting 2-4 minutes. It begins with a Chinese and foreign singing competition in "Great Summer", mentioning that a "fifty-year-old queen" in the music world failed in the battle, and creating a conflict with "no one in the music world". The main plot is that the well-known singer Lin Tianwang died suddenly while competing against foreign singers, and his "soul" traveled to the body of the designated driver Lin Yang, and he wanted to use Lin Yang's young body to win the game again and become the "Great Summer Song God". The related topics of "The Great Summer Song God" have been played 230 million times on Douyin and about 43 million times on Kuaishou.

For middle-aged and elderly users, hot spots are important, but “cool points” are more important.

Some viewers of "The Great Summer Singer" were indeed influenced by "Singer 2024", but what attracted them was the plot itself.

Zhou Cheng, who is nearly 50 years old and works in the decoration industry, told Haike Finance that he usually likes to watch music variety shows and knows the "stalks" of Na Ying's competition, so he clicked on the relevant videos, but the singing competition in it was "not interesting" and they were all lip-syncing to the original soundtrack of the songs; what attracted him to spend money to watch the whole series was actually the experience of the male protagonist Lin Yang - the designated driver worked hard to earn money to support his family, but found out that his wife had cheated on him, and he could only kneel down and beg his wife not to leave with the rich man. Zhou Cheng said that he just wanted to see how Lin Yang would "fight back" and "slap" the scumbag woman.

Compared with "The Great Summer God of Songs", which features men as the protagonists, another short drama "Singer 2024: The Return of the Queen" (hereinafter referred to as "The Return of the Queen") is more attractive to female audiences. Apart from the name and the format of a music competition, the plot of "The Return of the Queen" has little to do with the hot searches of "Singer". The drama tells the story of the queen Xuezhu who hides her identity and becomes a music producer Lin Keke, but is betrayed by her boyfriend. The heroine Lin Keke gets married and falls in love with a group president, while returning to the music scene through the competition.

In short, the essence of "Return of the Queen" is no different from "The Great Summer Song God", both are counterattack dramas. The plots of many judges questioning the protagonist's ability and then being "slapped in the face" are exactly the same in the two dramas.

This mass-produced "coolness" is not acceptable to everyone. Qiu Qiu, a girl born in the 1990s, and her mother have both watched "The Return of the Queen". Qiu Qiu told Haike Finance that her mother thought it was "ridiculous", but she watched it out of curiosity and entertainment, and would watch it to the end after being attracted by the plot; she is "immune" to this kind of plot, and only watched it because she likes the appearance of the male lead.

02

Where does emotional resonance come from?

The plot that is close to the lives of middle-aged and elderly people is enough to attract these audiences.

Take "Flash Marriage at 50" as an example. The opening of the series shows the blind dates of the male and female protagonists: some of the blind dates of the female protagonist Li Xiuqin said, "Men are in their prime at 61, but women are nothing at 60." Some said that their 3,000 yuan pension could provide Li Xiuqin with "enjoyment", and some hoped to have another son; the male protagonist Jiang Jianguo is the chairman of a company, but he pretended to be a taxi driver. Some of his blind dates were already pregnant, and some asked for a 280,000 yuan gift and disliked Jiang Jianguo for being poor. The two failed in their blind dates, and then met each other by chance, and soon got married. The first episode only has 1 minute and 55 seconds of content, which has laid the groundwork for the male protagonist to hide his identity as the president and get married with the female protagonist. The reason for the flash marriage is that he hopes to "have a companion to take care of each other", which is in line with the mentality of middle-aged and elderly people.

There is also "Mother's Honor by Son" (hereinafter referred to as "Mother's Honor by Son"), which tells the story of two sons who both received admission letters, but because of the family's poverty, the two brothers had to draw lots to decide who could go to college. Later, the elder brother who did not go to college disappeared in a mudslide, and many years later became the president of the group; the younger brother who went to college despised the poor and loved the rich, forcing his mother to sell the ancestral home, and even not letting his mother attend his wedding. At the beginning, when receiving the admission letter, a user commented that "good people don't have a good life" and said that he hoped his grandson would be as ambitious as the son in the play. In the subsequent plot, when the younger son insulted his mother, many middle-aged and elderly users commented that "young people should be grateful to their parents."

The plot also involves some elements that are easy for middle-aged and elderly people to resonate with. For example, in "Flash Marriage at 50", the male and female protagonists passed by a wedding dress shop. The female protagonist said that she had never worn a wedding dress or taken wedding photos. She said that in those days, "the two families held a banquet together and went through the motions." Therefore, the male protagonist insisted that the female protagonist try on the wedding dress and take wedding photos. This "dream-fulfilling" plot is quite contemporary.

If youth romance dramas are the love fantasies of young people, then these short micro-dramas are immersive dreams specially created for the middle-aged and elderly groups.

In "Mother's Status by Son", the younger son firmly denied his mother's identity at the wedding. When he was exposed, he was furious and raised his hand to hit her. The eldest son, who had lost his memory due to the mudslide and has become the president of the group, finally remembered and hurriedly stopped him, and wanted to "teach the rebellious son a lesson" on behalf of his mother. In other words, the implicit logic of the plot is that only filial people can hold high positions, and unfilial sons will "suffer retribution".

"Flash Marriage at 50" is an "idol drama" style. The heroine is gentle and kind, so she is often bullied by various "villains", such as local bullies, women who rob square dance turfs, snobbish shop assistants, and female classmates with bad intentions. Whenever the heroine is in danger, the hero will come out to rescue her, and the plot is "miserable at first and then exciting".

In addition, both series use "hidden identity" as a key conflict point. The eldest son of "Mother's Status" failed to find his family due to amnesia, while the male protagonist of "Flash Marriage at 50" pretended to be a taxi driver and the chairman's driver. In the 95 episodes of "Flash Marriage at 50", the identity of the male protagonist was not known to the female protagonist until nearly 90 episodes. Around this plot, the drama has a lot of snobbish plots, that is, the supporting characters belittle the protagonist because they don't know the identity of the protagonist, and then they are "slapped in the face". In order to "be miserable first and then feel happy", the plot does not need to be logical, such as the heroine is the lobby manager of the male protagonist's company, but she doesn't know what the boss looks like, and the executives of the male protagonist's company don't know their chairman, etc.

In the past, most of the film and television works that portrayed the middle-aged and elderly groups were "period dramas", such as "Golden Wedding", "Parents' Love", "The World", etc., which reflected the changes of the times with "typical characters in typical environments". In other words, the film and television works targeting this group mostly take a realistic route, and romantic idol dramas and counterattack "cool dramas" are defined as belonging to young people. Micro-short dramas can fill the gap in traditional film and television works in this regard, directly focusing the lens on the middle-aged and elderly, and giving a unique "emotional value".

Qiu Qiu's mother is a loyal viewer of "Flash Marriage at 50". Qiu Qiu told Haike Finance that the first criterion for her to choose a short drama is the appearance of the protagonist, so she "can't watch" dramas like "Flash Marriage at 50", but she can understand why her mother likes it - the male and female protagonists look decent and have a sense of age, which is the appearance that people of that generation would like. Qiu Qiu's mother said that the heroine is gentle and kind, and the plot is also very touching.

03

Payment based on information gap

The key to increasing the exposure of micro-short dramas lies in traffic investment, and the core of traffic investment in increasing the payment rate lies in the "hook", that is, the short video delivery material edited from the plot.

This is why most short dramas have "face-slapping" plots - this type of plot first "maximizes" the tragic and abusive points, mobilizes the audience's emotions, and creates an emotional gap for the subsequent plot, first suppressing and then uplifting. For example, in the wedding dress trial plot of "Flash Marriage at 50", the clerk and the manager accused the male and female protagonists of being "unworthy", and the heroine's classmates formed a contrast as the wives of executives, and then the higher-level manager stood up to "slap the face" of these "villains" on behalf of the male protagonist. This plot has also become an important "hook" for "Flash Marriage at 50" to attract traffic, and can be seen on Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu.

Young people will be attracted by the "hook", and middle-aged and elderly people even more so.

Qiu Qiu told Haike Finance that he and his mother were attracted to watching short dramas because of these videos, and if they wanted to continue watching, they had to pay. His mother was not familiar with the relevant operations and was afraid of spending too much money, so she asked Qiu Qiu to pay. When Qiu Qiu watched the dramas himself, he did not pay for every episode.

Qiu Qiu's experience is that some short dramas contain a lot of plots in the "hook". If you just want to know the ending, you will watch the last episode directly. Some mini programs can unlock a single episode by watching an advertisement, which means that you can watch the ending by watching an advertisement once; if not, buying a single episode usually costs only a few cents or one or two yuan. Some short dramas have different materials on different platforms, and you can watch the whole drama by piecing together. Some plots that are not in the editing may also be "spoiled" by comments.

Based on this operational "information gap", micro-short dramas regard the middle-aged and elderly groups as high-quality audiences.

Compared to Qiu Qiu's mother who relies on push notifications, Chen Meng's grandmother is more proactive. In her spare time, she will search for short dramas that interest her, and often spend an entire afternoon watching them. In order to facilitate watching dramas, grandma also learned to use WeChat payment and linked her bank card to WeChat. Chen Meng said that grandma likes to watch a wide range of themes, including family, martial arts, time travel, rebirth, etc., and most of the dramas she chooses are 9.9 yuan or more than ten yuan. In the circle of friends, Chen Meng joked that grandma "has a place to spend her retirement money."

The chaos of "precision harvesting" by some businesses also emerged.

Searching various social platforms with the keywords "middle-aged and elderly" and "short dramas" reveals a large number of "complaints" and rights protection posts from young people. For example, Xiaohongshu user Maybe said that her mother was not very good at using a smartphone, and she was deducted several thousand yuan by various mini-programs when she was watching dramas on WeChat. The note posted by Maybe received more than 4,000 likes, and many users shared similar experiences in the comment area. Some users also instructed Maybe to set their parents' phones to youth mode to limit spending.

Many media have previously reported that mini programs induce and deceive middle-aged and elderly people to pay: for example, they attract users to pay at low prices, and when they pay, they check the renewal option by default, so that users automatically renew their subscriptions when watching, and all subsequent episodes are charged at the original price; another example is setting up multiple payment options, confusing the concepts of single episodes, full series, and platforms, so that users cannot clearly calculate the amount they have spent on watching the series. If a user realizes the problem and tries to refund, these mini programs may change their names or "cancel their account and run away", leaving users with no way to complain.

Even on regular platforms, there is a possibility of inconsistent prices. When helping his mother pay for the full episode of "Flash Marriage at 50", Qiu Qiu found that the "youth short drama" on the top of the platform cost 39.6 yuan to buy the full episode, while another "Qianyi Theater" only cost 9.9 yuan.

The middle-aged and elderly groups have long been not ignored on the Internet.

Data from research firm QuestMobile shows that in June 2024, the domestic mobile Internet MAU (monthly active users) reached 1.235 billion, of which users aged 41 and above accounted for 45.8%, or 565 million; users aged 51 and above accounted for 26.5%, or 327 million.

The huge user base will inevitably give rise to corresponding emotional needs, and the stimulation of short dramas can only satisfy a tiny part. Whenever a short drama becomes popular, a large number of dramas with similar content will quickly emerge in the market. Qiu Qiu's mother said that after watching "Flash Marriage at 50", the platform pushed a lot of dramas that were "same old dramas" and she felt "tired" of it, so she turned to watching martial arts and suspense works.

The core of short dramas is to provide emotional value to the audience, especially for the middle-aged and elderly groups, but emotional value will not remain unchanged forever. Now that more players are pouring into the track, the blue ocean is gradually becoming a red ocean. How to make the emotional value deeper and longer-term is a pressing issue.