① “ReelShort”, an overseas short drama app owned by Chinese Online, ranked in the top 50 of the US iOS bestsellers list, but the social media reaction was “hot” at home and “deserted” overseas. ② According to industry insiders, ReelShort has problems such as a difficult business model to profit and low content volume. ③ ChineseOnline is optimistic about the skit market, saying that the company will continue to increase its investment in the skit business.
Financial News Agency, November 14 (Reporter Cui Ming)“The hostess who brought water to the door inadvertently bothered others. She was slapped in the face, and the water bottle in her hand was shattered to the ground. After a series of insulting remarks, the heroine crouched on the ground crying and praying for more strength from heaven.” The story came to an abrupt end, and the prompt “If you want to know what happens later, please pay to unlock it” pops up on the screen.
This is a part of the short drama app “ReelShort,” which has recently become popular in the US. Catalyzed by the short drama concept, the Chinese online (300364.SZ) behind ReelShort has increased more than 100% since this month.
A financial news agency reporter noticed that ReelShort yesterday “airdropped” second on the US App Store free list and topped the free entertainment list. As of today's press release, the ranking has not changed. Also, according to third party data, ReelShort has continued to rise in the US iOS bestseller list for the past two weeks, ranking in the top 50 yesterday.
ReelShort locks in the year's top money ahead of schedule? Do you want to use the short drama “Soar Through the Sky” online in Chinese? Judging from feedback from industry insiders, analysts, and investment institutions to reporters, ReelShort has problems such as a difficult business model to make a profit, low content volume, etc., and the social media reaction is also “hot” at home and “deserted” overseas. Behind this phenomenon, there are still doubts about whether it is a “real” fire or a “false” fire.
Is the social media collective “dumb”?
Recently, some investors reported that the rise in ReelShort's overall ranking seems to be booming, but there was no discussion on the X platform, and the number of YouTube trailer views did not increase, thus questioning ReelShort's “buying the game.”
In response to this, the reporter sought indirect evidence today and learned that ReelShort's X platform account has only 80 followers, and has posted a total of 13 posts. There are almost no comments, retweets, or likes under the posts. Searching for ReelShort related content on the X platform, there have been only a dozen tweets in the past 24 hours. A significant portion of them still used Chinese to discuss “Chinese online” and “short dramas going overseas” in Chinese, with no comments, retweets, or likes.
ReelShort's YouTube account currently has 256,000 subscribers and posted 201 videos. The low one had 2005 views, the high one had 500,000 views, and the highest had 4.44 million views. The reporter noticed that some of the most played videos are a collection of short dramas on ReelShort. Searching for ReelShort related content on YouTube, there are almost no posts from other users other than officially posted videos.
In contrast, ReelShort has a high number of followers on TikTok (369,000 followers) and Instagram (453,000 followers). On these two platforms, ReelShort also publishes short drama collections or trailers, but whether you search for ReelShort or the names and topics of several featured dramas, the content that comes up is sporadic.
On TikTok, the “main location” for short dramas to go overseas, the discussion level of several featured dramas was far different from the number of broadcasts on ReelShort. Search for episode titles, and content appeared, but it has not reached the level of “going viral,” “swiping the screen,” and “trending.”
(The left is the number of views of ReelShort TikTok content, and the right is the main drama search content)
According to third party data, ReelShort was downloaded 2.25 million times in October, with a turnover of about 3.5 million US dollars. If you look at the daily activity data, you will find that since the daily activity reached 860,000 in September, there has been a downward trend. The average daily activity in October was around 550,000.
In contrast to this, the Huiliang Technology Data Research Center told reporters that from a comprehensive perspective, there is a certain positive correlation between daily activity growth and launch volume, but it is more correlated with the content quality of the short drama itself. Looking at the advertising data and user activity data of the Reelshort Android terminal in the US, every peak in daily activity usually lags behind the peak in the amount of advertising creativity, reflecting to a certain extent the correlative impact of advertising volume and user activity.
“The quality of short drama content is the core of promotion. Only by continuously iterating and launching high-quality content can we stimulate user activity and prolong the user life cycle.” Huiliang Technology Data Research Center said.
“Overlord's Love” $1 for 2 minutes
Judging from the content, ReelShort was launched as a live-action skit app for overseas markets (mainly North America) in August last year.
Open ReelShort, and the homepage shows that there are 21 short dramas. Among them, the themes of “Marry First, Love Later,” “Werewolf,” “Revenge,” and “Overlord Fell in Love with Me” were specially highlighted. A short drama industry insider told the reporter that these are also currently popular topics for short dramas going overseas.
According to the reporter's observation, short dramas on ReelShort are generally within 3 minutes, mostly 1-2 minutes long. Just start a few episodes for free, then pay to unlock, or watch ads to unlock.
Take the main drama “Fated to My Forbidden Alpha” as an example. The drama has a total of 60 episodes, and only the first episode is free. Starting with the second episode, each episode costs 66 coins to unlock.
Another new drama, “The Double Life of My Billionaire,” is free for the first 6 episodes, then 59 coins for each episode, for a total of 49 episodes.
Currently, users can get 500 coins by depositing $4.99 on ReelShort. Conversely, it costs 0.7 US dollars (about RMB 5) to unlock an episode of “Fated to My Forbidden Alpha” and 0.6 US dollars (about RMB 4) to unlock an episode of “The Double Life of My Billionaire”.
Although it is also possible to unlock stories “for free” by watching ads, ReelShort requires users to watch up to 20 ads a day. There are also daily quests on ReelShort. Users will be rewarded with a corresponding amount of coins for completing the tasks, such as logging in continuously for a week, capped at 165 coins.
A brokerage media analyst told reporters that although there is a payment system, ReelShort currently still mainly uses a free model. The bottlenecks in commercialization are obvious, so it may be difficult to achieve significant profits.
More “cool dramas” on the way?
ReelShort is a product owned by Crazy Maple (Maple Leaf Interactive), which was founded by Chinese Online Investment, and Chinese Online indirectly holds 49.16% of its shares. In April of this year, it was announced online in Chinese that Crazy Maple will no longer be included in the scope of the company's consolidated reports.
According to the above announcement, after Crazy Maple is no longer included in the scope of the company's merger (meaning Chinese online), as the company's shareholding company, it will use the equity method for accounting. This matter will have an important impact on the company's financial indicators and operating results. The impact on the company's net profit is estimated to be about RMB 50 million, which is an extraordinary profit or loss.
According to ChineseOnline's recent agency survey, in terms of medium- to long-term planning, the company is optimistic about the short drama market and predicts that the market size will continue to grow rapidly. The company will continue to increase its investment in the skit business while focusing on content and ROI.
An insider in the short drama industry told the reporterShort dramas are very content-intensive. Enough attention-grabbing content will accelerate consumption and consumption. Consumption determines how much money a short drama makes in the end, and how much profit is shared by the screenwriter, producer, and platform。 Currently, several leading domestic short drama companies have a basic reserve of thousands of pieces of content, and at the same time they are continuously collecting scripts to supply content to the market.
ChineseOnline said a few days ago that one of its strengths in skits is that it has a large number of IPs. “Currently, short drama scripts mainly come from online novel adaptations. The company has 5.5 million IPs, which can continuously provide high-quality short drama IP adaptations, and its ability to compete for a long time is outstanding.”
The IP mentioned here mainly refers to the Internet text. According to the 2022 annual report of Chinese Online, the company has original platforms such as the original website 17K Novel Network, April Day Novel Network, Whimsical Universe Science Fiction Station, and Mystery Project Suspense Station. It has accumulated more than 5.5 million types of digital content resources and 4.5 million resident authors; cooperated with more than 600 copyright agencies, and signed more than 2,000 well-known writers and best-selling authors.
The reporter noticed,Up to now, there are only three short dramas to be broadcast on ReelShort, which will go live on November 18, November 25, and December 2, respectively.