"grandma recharged thousands of yuan!" the sweet pet short drama is very tricky for the middle-aged and elderly.
2024-09-07
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
this is a middle-aged and elderly boss
sweet petthe beginning of the skit↓
the 45-year-old heroine was beaten and scolded by her son and daughter-in-law at home. her son even tried to make her remarry in exchange for a gift of 88,000 yuan. until the heroine met a middle-aged boss pretending to be a taxi driver on a blind date, her messy middle-aged life began to "reverse"...
seemingly an old-fashioned plot.
recently, on the short video platform,
received 500 million views.
middle-aged and elderly boss sweet pet short drama
behind the popularity is a huge audience.
image source: visual china
recharge thousands of yuan to watch short dramas
recently, liu xi, a post-00s kid living in hainan, discovered that his father, who used to love watching spy movies and family ethics dramas, has become obsessed with short dramas.
every day when he gets home from work and eats dinner at night, my father wears bluetooth headphones.immersed in the bloody plots such as mistresses snatching men and overbearing ceos"i originally thought that short plays were mainly popular among young people, but i didn't expect that fathers in their 50s could also be attracted to them."
the trend of short dramas is blowing strongly towards the silver-haired group.
months ago,grandma xiao from hangzhou, who is over 70 years old, accidentally saw a short drama push on wechat moments, which opened up her "new world"。
“i used to watch more historical dramas or stories about educated youth going to the countryside.”after watching a few short plays, grandma xiao started to get a little addicted.she thinks, "this is in line with the psychological characteristics of our elderly, i still like it very much that it ended successfully in the end. "
before,liu xi's father, who was reluctant to spend money to become a member of the video platform, is now willing to pay for the short drama."i spent money on at least three or four apps, and i made more than 10 recharges for each app, with each recharge costing 20 to 30 yuan. it's the first time i know that short dramas are so expensive." liu xi told chao news reporter that short dramas are usually around 100 episodes, and one has to recharge several times to finish watching them.
there are quite a few middle-aged and elderly people who pay for the short plays.
"i basically put one or two thousand yuan in every time, and it's all spent in about a month."lin susu's grandmother in guangxi is 72 years old this year.i watched short dramas on the tiktok platform before.although the price of a single episode of a short series may not seem high, the amount consumed increases rapidly as multiple episodes accumulate.“they are actually unconscious.”lin susu compared the elderly buying short plays to drawing blind boxes, both of which are impulsive consumption where the more you buy, the more addicted you become.
is it a "utopia" or a trap?
"watching a tv series is like going to a big restaurant, while watching a short drama is like eating fast food."song zhihua, a 53-year-old shanghai aunt, compared watching skits to a "fast food" entertainment experience.unlike traditional long-form tv series, short dramas usually tell a complete story in one or two hours. because of their compact rhythm and "brainless" plot, short dramas are very suitable for her to watch "when she has nothing to do."
lin susu thinks thatwatching skits became my grandmother's only entertainment activity.my grandmother was originally a big fan of romance dramas. after retirement, she took care of her two grandchildren and took care of the housework. with the increase of fragmented time and her lack of understanding of online audio-visual platforms, my grandmother started watching short dramas on tiktok.
"she watches short plays for about one or two hours every day, usually during the children's nap time." because the children are at home, the grandmother can't go out and can only watch short plays to kill time. lin susu believes that the mobile phone only takes up a small space for the grandmother."this is a way for the elderly to enrich their later years and relieve the anxiety of taking care of grandchildren."
"many people who are divorced, raising children, or from vulnerable groups who are bullied or lack love will use skits to make up for this kind of spiritual needs," said kaorou, a 29-year-old skit screenwriter. he found thatthe protagonists of many skits are security guards, cleaners, nannies, delivery boys, etc., and among the middle-aged and elderly men who watch the skits, the main paying group also includes people working in these industries.
while watching the sweet pet short drama,grandma xiao sensed something was wrong. “it seems that money can solve all problems.the protagonist was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and easily got a lot of money without having to struggle much.women solve problems by slapping each other."but in order to see a happy ending, she will endure the plot where the heroine is "tortured" in the middle.
a reporter from chao news searched for "short drama" on the black cat complaint platform.nearly 1,400 complaints were found, including issues such as arbitrary charges, misleading consumption, malicious deductions, false advertising, and difficulty in withdrawing cash.the platforms divert and redirect traffic to each other, and the diverse charging methods have led to frequent chaos in the charging of short dramas.
because he didn't want to pay for the short drama, song zhihua downloaded an app that allows him to watch the short drama for free.although most of these short dramas are free, clicking on the video ads will jump directly to the shopping platform."i bought knee pads, socks, nectarines, etc. i might buy other items i want when i go in."
once, liu xi's father bought a smart watch that can measure heart rate through a short video platform, but the battery swelled in less than a week.
in addition to inducing consumption, liu xi is more worried about his father's addiction to short plays."he has reached the point where he stays up late to watch it. this habit of his is really bad.the work pressure is high, there is no social interaction, and he basically doesn’t go out. when he gets home from get off work, he just watches skits.” she hopes her father can develop other offline hobbies.
"middle-aged and elderly audiences are actually a very large consumer group of short dramas," said shen an, a short drama writer in his 30s.90% of the consumers of short dramas are middle-aged and elderly people, especially those aged 40-60, who prefer to watch emotional and illogical content.kaorou admitted that users outside third-tier cities pay more, "because they have fewer daily entertainment options and don't know where to spend their spare money."
he said that the popularity of short dramas fades quickly. a certain sweet drama about a middle-aged boss that was launched in june was a big hit, and "a lot of people copied it immediately." however, once there are too many imitators, the audience will get tired of it. "recently, short dramas about events are more popular, referring to family matters, such as conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and conflicts between parents and children, focusing on the emotional tug-of-war of family matters."
in order to allow middle-aged and elderly audiences to empathize with the characters' dilemmas and emotional experiences, shen an is trying to "age some of the young people's things"for example, young people's blind dates can be changed to children's blind dates or finding a companion, and young people's comparison of luxury goods or jobs can be changed to middle-aged and elderly people comparing their children or daughters-in-law, so as to enhance the sense of involvement of middle-aged and elderly audiences.
some of the scripts she signed recently directly hit the pain points of some middle-aged and elderly people who are "unhappy in marriage and a little afraid to fall in love again." "what the screenwriter has to do is to make their fears concrete on the one hand, and help them realize certain fantasies on the other hand."
shen an told the chao news reporter that the short dramas in the mini program usually have three recharge levels. episodes 1 to 10 are free, and the prices of other episodes are set by the contractor and are usually more expensive, equivalent to the membership price of a few months on an online video platform."30 yuan to buy points, 99 yuan to watch 60 or 70 episodes, 199 yuan a month to subscribe to watch all platforms for free."
the recharge level in a short drama app. photo provided by the interviewee
she further elaborated on the skit's structure:“the first episode needs to throw out a gimmick or conflict, the first three episodes need to show the plight of all villains and the protagonist, and the first ten episodes need to give the audience something to look forward to while the protagonist is being bullied.”
shen an said frankly,at the heart of the skit is emotional response and intent to pay.in order to attract audiences to pay, skits often use the extreme torture of the protagonist by the villain to arouse the audience's emotional resonance, while the heroine is usually a kind and weak "little white flower" image. "this kind of role is more likely to arouse the sympathy of middle-aged and elderly audiences."
although some middle-aged and elderly audiences are eager to see more positive energy, shen an believes that it is difficult to achieve this in short dramas.because "short plays are ultimately emotional products" that rely on low-level emotional resonance, such as the desire to survive and response to violence, rather than high-level values.in order to convey higher-level values in a short drama, a longer preparation time is needed, which is inconsistent with the fast-paced, straightforward, and "flat" narrative style of the short drama, and it is difficult to stimulate the audience's willingness to pay within a few episodes.
how should short plays develop to be “age-friendly”
the development of "aging-friendly" short dramas is in full swing. shen an believes that "it is inevitable", but it still needs continuous "trial and error" to determine the development direction. she mentioned that according to the "juchacha" mini program short drama hot list, "middle-aged and elderly romantic short dramas are relatively stable on the list, but basically only one or two middle-aged and elderly short dramas will be on the list in one issue."
liu tianyuan pointed out that the "silver economy" may become the focus of platform development. "for many elderly people, retirement life is often accompanied by a shrinking social circle and changes in family relationships, which will increase their loneliness and emotional loss," said zhang lianshan, associate professor at the school of media and communication of shanghai jiaotong university.
zhang lianshan said that in recent years, with the popularization of the internet and mobile media among the middle-aged and elderly groups, the use of the internet by the elderly has increasingly become a channel for them to compensate for the lack of social support. short plays for the middle-aged and elderly, especially those involving family relationships and emotional entanglements,issues such as "mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship", "divorce", "flash marriage" and "recognition of relatives" often resonate with them and provide a kind of emotional compensation."many middle-aged and elderly people may encounter various unpleasant things in reality, which may be idealized in the short play, which will also give them emotional comfort."
however, liu tianyuan also pointed out that the content of short dramas is currently single, and most of the short dramas popular among the elderly are sweet dramas. the plots of these dramas are highly homogeneous, and are even full of relatively old-fashioned plots such as "vicious female supporting roles" and "blind date flash marriages". it is difficult for middle-aged and elderly people to resonate and be satisfied with them. "some short dramas have 'borderline' content and vulgar content, which may increase the psychological burden of middle-aged and elderly people."
zhang lianshan emphasized,the stereotyped presentation of family conflicts in the skit may lead to a deepening of the audience's negative impression of trivial conflicts in real life.for example, in the depiction of conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, the villains in the story are often portrayed as extremely hateful and then receive a dramatic "slap in the face".
are skits sweet hunting or emotional consumption? "in the early days, there were advertisements targeting the elderly to defraud money. after the skits became popular, some people would use the same tricks again to grab the interests of the public and rack their brains to make them pay," said deng youxi, a postdoctoral fellow at the department of cultural relics and museology at fudan university. he found that some skits would unlock the entire series for 9.9 yuan to stimulate the audience to watch more and buy more. "the actual problem is not the skits,first, how should the short play as a content product be reviewed? second, how should the platform check and take responsibility? how to solve the problem of client-induced recharge, etc.
zhang lianshan suggested that content producers need to pay more attention to the quality and depth of short dramas in their creation, ensuring that they are close to the real life of the elderly, while avoiding negative stereotypes and dramatizations, and avoiding falling into a vicious circle of low-level repetition. "it is also necessary to strengthen the cultivation and improvement of digital literacy for the elderly, and policymakers and industry regulators should also strengthen the supervision and guidance of the content of short dramas suitable for the elderly, so as to promote the healthy development of the short drama industry."
(at the request of the interviewees, liu xi, grandma xiao, lin susu, song zhihua, kaorou, and shen an are pseudonyms in this article)
chao news written by pan lu, intern dai ying and wang qixin
editor-in-charge: yuan ying
