Video websites once again break out of the competition and welcome the first year of online dramas

After purchasing genuine copyrights, introducing overseas dramas and implementing the "exclusive broadcast" strategy, major video websites have ushered in a new stage of competition opportunities - the first year of online dramas.

Data shows that by August this year, 11 web dramas had been viewed over 100 million times. Taking iQiyi as an example, iQiyi has made a concentrated breakthrough in the field of self-produced dramas this year. The cumulative number of views of five self-produced dramas, including Soul Ferry, Useless Brothers, High-Tech Girls, Hello Aliens, and School Beauty in White and Long Legs, has exceeded 1 billion. By July this year, the total traffic of iQiyi's 13 self-produced web dramas has exceeded 1.1 billion. According to the forecast of Enlight Consulting, the number of web dramas produced in 2014 will reach about 1,700 episodes, and in 2015 it will reach 3,000 episodes.

With the collective efforts of video websites, traditional film and television giants, well-known screenwriters, famous directors, and cutting-edge actors have all entered the market, and genre-based and diversified themes have been fully liberated. Combined with the advantages of large platforms, large coverage, and big data, online dramas may lead the development direction of film and television content in the next decade and overshadow traditional TV dramas.

Industry competition stimulates the arrival of the first year of online drama

Although the slogan of 2014 being the "first year of online drama" has only just been sung, in fact, video websites have been involved in the self-made content industry for nearly four years. In the initial stage of video websites trying to launch self-made online content with independent copyrights, the main purpose of the industry development was to bypass the threshold of purchasing high-priced copyrights. At present, as the self-made content industry continues to mature, the unique advantages of the industry are also beginning to emerge.

Before the emergence of the self-produced drama content industry, video websites were ultimately just porters of video resources. As a single platform provider, expanding website traffic by purchasing content copyrights and purchasing high-priced copyrights to implement an "exclusive broadcast" strategy were only gradually putting the website in a passive situation. The biggest disadvantage of this passive situation is that there is no obvious differentiation in content between companies, and they may be thrown out of the industry at any time just because of a single step.

On the other hand, the current situation of self-made online dramas in the previous stage is mostly the embarrassing situation of small investment, small returns, and traffic. After Netflix, an American streaming video website, successfully launched the globally popular Internet TV series "House of Cards" by using "big data customized dramas", domestic video websites also began to really invest in this emerging industry. Just yesterday, at the 2014 China First Online Drama Industry Summit hosted by iQiyi and themed "Video Evolution", iQiyi Chief Content Officer Ma Dong said that the investment in the production of online dramas in the future may exceed that of traditional TV dramas, and iQiyi will launch 30 works throughout 2015. At the same time, iQiyi CEO Gong Yu announced that the "iQiyi Excellent Online Drama Script Award Fund" will be established, with an initial investment of 50 million yuan to explore high-quality script resources.

Self-made web dramas improve the entire industry chain of video websites

Video websites are making every effort to develop their own drama content. It can be said that there are both internal and external factors. In the recent document No. 204 issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the regulations restricting foreign films and TV series on the Internet were reiterated; the notice stated that from April 1, 2015, foreign films and TV series that have not obtained a "Film Public Screening Permit" or "TV Series Distribution Permit" shall not be broadcast online. At the same time, the radio and television also restricts the purchase ratio of foreign dramas: the total amount of foreign films and TV series introduced and broadcast by a single website in a year shall not exceed 30% of the total amount of domestic films and TV series purchased and broadcast by the website in the previous year.

For fans of foreign dramas, this critical bad news is even more severe for video websites. At a time when the traditional TV drama market is becoming increasingly sluggish, foreign dramas have almost become the "top brands" of several major video websites, cutting off the content resources of video websites from the source, and the downstream of the industry chain is even more helpless.

Faced with the tightening policy on foreign dramas, the internal factors of video websites have also accelerated their outbreak from another perspective. If video websites want to achieve sustainable development, the only way out is to improve the entire industry chain. With the emergence of demand for self-made online drama content, video websites are expected to build their "platform + content providers" vertical industry chain ecological layout. Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi, once revealed that iQiyi Pictures will invest tens of millions in the creation and production of film and television content in the early stage, and it is expected to produce dozens of original works next year. The development of derivative products such as games and e-commerce around these content intellectual property rights will also be the company's future business focus.

From this point on, it is expected that in the future, original works of video websites will not only become an important tool for enterprises to form content differentiation advantages and implement the "exclusive broadcast" strategy, but will also be the basic base for enterprises to dig deep into commercial value through video platforms in the overall industry chain. In short, video websites entering the film and television industry is both creating a trend and following the trend.

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.