A new turning point in the online drama industry from Sohu's self-produced drama "The Hypnotist"

The exclusive drama "The Hypnotized Hypnotist", a suspenseful fantasy drama in the Republic of China, was jointly produced by Sohu Video, Wuxi Zhonglian Transmission Film and Television Culture Communication Co., Ltd., Beijing Jiayun Sunshine Culture Communication Co., Ltd., and co-produced by Momo Culture Communication (Beijing) Co., Ltd. It was officially scheduled to be released on April 13. The drama is directed by Tan Jiayan and starred by Yang Jue, Zhu Yanmanzi, Yang Qiming, He Meixuan and others. It tells a suspenseful fantasy story that takes place in the Republic of China period and uses hypnosis to pursue the truth.

Judging from past performance, Sohu Video has always had a keen eye for online drama promotion. Whether it is the same type of "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer" or the industry drama "Forensic Qin Ming", both have received good reputations from both inside and outside the industry and have gained high traffic returns. Therefore, this year's "Hypnotized Hypnotist", which Sohu Video strongly recommends, can undoubtedly also confirm the concept of self-made dramas that put quality first.

The first batch of users of video websites have gone from the stage of "watching whatever is available" to the transition of developing their own viewing habits and preferences following the adjustment of the industry model and the upgrade of the quality of self-made content. In the past, the low-level elements used by video platforms and various means of promotion and diversion have gradually lost their effect on the current mature audience. At a time when short videos are on the rise and Japanese, Korean, British and American dramas are on the same starting line, Sohu Video has announced that it will gradually withdraw from the competition of blindly spending money to buy top dramas and increase its investment in self-made dramas.

Quality determines the future. The popularity of online dramas is due to the awakening of audience awareness.

Since 2012, a web drama called "Diaosi Nanren" starring Sun Li, Liu Yan and others was born, and with over 10 million hits, it was regarded as a "web drama". The fact that web dramas impacted the traditional structure of the film and television industry has gradually been established. The following year, web dramas such as "Never Expected", "Report to the Boss", "Spicy Next Door", "Mao Pian", and "Superb Lady" were launched, making it clearer that web-made dramas will follow the path of high-quality content.

Subsequently, in 2014, which was dubbed the "first year of online dramas", video websites' self-produced online dramas showed an all-round outbreak, including "The Darker Side", "Soul Ferry", "Fleeting Time", "Behind the Halo", "Ghost Files", "Kidnapping an Emperor to the Modern Times" and other types of excellent online dramas.

In 2015, affected by the "one drama, two stars" policy issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television the previous year, the professional producers and teams that originally provided content for TV stations faced severe situations and pressures, and had to turn to video platforms as a new outlet. Then, the online seasonal drama "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" had a single episode broadcast volume of over 100 million in one day. In that year, there were nearly 20 online dramas with an investment of more than 20 million yuan, of which 5 had an investment of 50 million to over 100 million yuan. The investment cost of the first domestic crime online drama "Psychological Crime" was as high as 500 million yuan. And "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer" was praised as a "conscientious online drama". After knocking on the door of the billion-level club with 6 online dramas in 2015, a total of 23 online dramas reached the billion-level in 2016, and even "Old Mystic Nine" appeared. According to the data in the "2016 Online Self-made Drama Industry White Paper", the total investment in Internet self-made content in 2016 was about 27 billion, and the number of episodes produced increased by nearly 42%.

According to statistics, 205 online dramas were launched online in 2014, and a total of 349 online dramas were launched in 2016. The number of self-produced dramas in 2017 will double compared with last year, and is expected to reach 134. In other words, video platforms are still optimistic about the content of self-produced dramas and the future expansion of the self-produced drama industry.

The fierce competition for copyrighted dramas is gradually cooling down. Self-produced dramas with more development advantages have become the first choice for video websites.

In the past few years, the price of a single episode of a TV series has soared from a few thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan to hundreds of thousands, millions of yuan, or even hundreds of millions of yuan. Some popular dramas have even triggered fierce competition among video media before they were even launched. Initially, "The Great Qin Empire" was priced at 25,000 yuan per episode, which was already a sky-high price at the time. Now, whether it is "Ode to Joy" or "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace", it has reached 9 million or tens of millions per episode. Ten million divided by 25,000 is a 400-fold price surge. In Sohu's view, the competitive behavior of video websites that frantically spend money to buy top dramas is itself a relatively unhealthy profit model, and announcing a gradual withdrawal and increasing investment in self-made dramas is also a wise move for Sohu Video. Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi, once asserted in an interview that the era of video websites pinning their core values ​​on popular TV dramas has come to an end.

Reducing copyrights does not mean reducing top content, because it has been proven that high-quality web dramas can also take on the responsibility of top content. With Sohu's current investment and production level in self-produced dramas, it is entirely possible to replace "top TV dramas" with "top web dramas". The reason why self-produced dramas are the future of video websites is that instead of buying copyrighted dramas at high prices but only having the right to broadcast them, it is better to produce and sell them by yourself, and develop more derivative value with high-quality self-produced content, which is undoubtedly more cost-effective. However, if you want to establish the value of an IP, of course, it is necessary to develop high-quality content as a prerequisite.

The production process of online dramas is basically the same as that of traditional film and television dramas. However, in terms of subject matter and content, in addition to the relatively younger audience of online dramas and more relaxed content restrictions, online dramas also focus more on originality and affinity, and the production model of secondary content creation through interaction with netizens is also the most competitive core element.

Audiences who were exposed to online dramas in the early years must still remember the crudeness of online dramas in their early stages in terms of production and presentation. At that time, the themes and content were mostly vulgar spoofs and supernatural. Now, with the participation of more professional traditional film and television companies, online dramas have become more and more sophisticated. Whether in the diversification of plots or in the exploration of themes such as youth idols, urban romances, and suspense science fiction, they have the characteristics that can rival traditional big productions. In addition, many online dramas have also begun to take the high-end route of theaters, including several popular online dramas such as "One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes" and "Never Expected", which have also launched big movies.

After experiencing wild growth, the online drama market has become calmer, but the entry threshold is also increasing. At present, online dramas with big investments, big directors, big screenwriters, and big stars are rolling in, which can be seen from the increasing investment scale year by year. To a certain extent, it has played a great role in promoting the improvement of content production standards. In the field of self-made dramas, Sohu has also gradually increased its capital investment, but it will be more rational. Zhang Chaoyang, Chairman and CEO of Sohu Board of Directors and CEO of Sohu Video, said in an interview: "In 2017, Sohu Video will gradually withdraw from the industry's crazy competition to buy TV stations' top dramas. It is expected that in 2019, it will get out of the vicious circle of continuous losses in the video website industry and achieve profitability." This is actually not the first time that Sohu has focused its strategic layout on "self-made dramas."

As early as three years ago, Sohu started to focus on self-produced dramas. The success of "Diaosi Nanren" allowed Dapeng to get investment in "Jianbing Man", and the film finally earned 1.15 billion yuan at the box office with a cost of 50 million yuan. Subsequently, it also produced high-quality online dramas such as "Fleeting Time" and "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer", and "Forensic Qin Ming" won Sohu a double harvest of traffic and reputation. Sohu Video will also bet heavily on self-produced dramas in the future. In 2017, Sohu still bought a lot of dramas, including "In the Name of People", "Razor's Edge", "Chicken Feathers Flying to the Sky", etc., but Zhang Chaoyang also said that this year's focus will still be on self-invested and produced dramas.

Although Sohu Video's membership model started late, it has also brought a lot of membership growth with dramas such as "My Intimate School Beauty", "My Dear Princess", and the self-produced drama "Fox in the Screen" with a total playback volume of over 330 million. In an interview, Zhang Chaoyang also said that payment is an important direction for Sohu Video at present. In order to keep users in the habit of purchasing memberships, Sohu Video has made a full-year schedule of self-produced dramas, and will launch exclusive self-produced dramas every month to encourage members to renew their subscriptions.

Leveraging internal mechanisms to build a strong base for self-produced dramas, the Mark case may become a turning point in reversing the bottom line of video industry rules

Zhang Chaoyang's attitude towards the self-made drama model of big IP plus stars is neither to despise nor to deliberately pursue it. Starting from "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer", Sohu has never spent huge sums of money to hire big names, but boldly used newcomers, and at the same time worked hard to improve the quality of filming. This approach can greatly save costs in terms of pay; secondly, it can cultivate its own team of artists and create unique IP to enhance the brand effect.

Zhang Chaoyang revealed in the interview that Sohu has established an operating mechanism centered around an excellent producer team, which includes a corresponding reward mechanism and credit system. It is precisely because of this producer mechanism and the operation of the team that Sohu's self-produced works continue to produce excellent works. Under the operation of this internal mechanism, the works that were successful last year will enter the second season of harvest this year. In addition, a large number of new IP works including "Hypnotized Hypnotist" and "Painter of the Heart" have been launched one after another, further promoting Sohu's strategic focus to shift to production and self-production.

As the turning point of the reversal of the major trend of video industry rules, Zhang Chaoyang mentioned the case of Sohu Video's former copyright director Marco suspected of violating the non-competition clause during the new self-produced "The Hypnotist". He expressed the hope to establish a non-competition mechanism through legal procedures and called on the video industry to adhere to the bottom line rules.

Now, major video websites have started to prepare for war with full firepower, because whether they can play the card of self-produced dramas well may be the key to the final victory. Zhang Chaoyang said: "The reason why the entire video industry has reached its current scale can be traced back to the "Anti-Piracy Alliance" initiated by Sohu Video in 2009. On the basis of a barbaric copyright model without rules, it began to respect the rules of intellectual property rights and establish a legitimate operation model. On this basis, funds from various giants began to pour in, and then achieved today's scale."

As far as the entire online drama market is concerned, with the trend of regular formation and complete models, the audience has gradually changed from watching whatever they are given to choosing based on the quality of the content. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to easily create a "phenomenal" self-made drama. Since data cannot be shared between video websites, they can only make strategic trade-offs based on the tastes of users on their respective platforms and the experience of the production team. Therefore, the evaluation of the top content of video websites is polarized, and failure is often inevitable. Sohu Video, on the other hand, adheres to the attitude of not blindly following the trend in content investment, and while walking its own pace, it has also found a new way out for the development of online videos.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.