This all happens in a minute and a half. This is the entire first episode of Chinese-backed short video app ReelShort’s new series “Snatched a Billionaire to Be My Husband,” joining dozens of shows similarly focused on character development and packed with curveballs. It is designed to be watched all at once. In a few minutes. It’s part soap opera, part TikTok, all heavy-handed drama.
ReelShort is the latest app to follow TikTok and aims to bring China’s favorite entertainment model to a global audience. Despite the cheesy plots, unknown actors, and lame dialogue, not to mention the real-life drama surrounding the popularity of Chinese apps like TikTok, Shein, and Temu, Americans are flocking to the service.
Joey Gia, CEO of Crazy Maple Studios, which runs the Reel Shorts app, said the target audience is busy middle-aged American women looking for romance and fantasy.
Crazy Maple Studio was founded by Chinese technology industry veteran Jia and Beijing-based digital content company COL to bring these ultra-short dramas to the international market.
The Chinese-backed app knocked TikTok out of the top spot in the entertainment section of Apple’s app store several times in November, but has since fallen within the top 10, according to data from mobile data analytics firm Sensor Tower. It’s staying. ReelShort has exceeded 30 million downloads worldwide, he said, with 40% of them coming from the United States.
While some people scoffed at the clichéd story, Jia said many of the stories were taken directly from popular romance stories on Crazy Maple Studio’s other platforms, such as the interactive story game Chapters and the web novel reader Kiss. So I bet it would be a hit.
In the age of prestige TV, Netflix spends more than $14 million per episode on hits like The Crown, while short-form shows on ReelShort and other Chinese apps like GoodShort and DramaBox cut production costs. It’s kept to a minimum. According to Gia, it costs him less than $300,000 to create an entire ReelShort show from start to finish. There are no expensive sets or quietly luxurious wardrobes, just romantic tension, scandal and betrayal.
“Instead of focusing on the character’s arc, you need to show the conflict up front to simplify the character,” Jia says. “We make vertical videos so people don’t care about the background.”
Other attempts to popularize ad-break television have failed in the United States, most notably the high-profile blowout of short video platform Quibi. 2020 — Bite-sized dramas made for streaming on smartphones have become a multibillion-dollar industry in China. The concept took off during the coronavirus pandemic, when movie theaters were closed, and was especially popular among workers who only had a few minutes of downtime between jobs such as delivery driving.
The short drama trend is already redefining China’s film and television business, said Oscar Chow, an academic at the University of Kent in the UK who studies the industry. One screenwriter he interviewed was told that for every minute he was on screen he incorporated three plots. “It’s not about the storyline; it’s about redefining the process of telling a story,” he says.
In Hengdian, the center of China’s film industry, many production studios are focusing on mass producing short dramas. Up to 300 different crew members could be filming a short drama in the Hengdian area in southern Shanghai in a single day, said Fu Yicon, the short drama’s director and screenwriter.
Hu said Hengdian’s film staff skips much of the intensive production that goes into traditional film and television. Instead, they emphasize volume, and in one week he shoots a series of 100 episodes.
“If you put aside your artistic pride and embrace streamlining, there’s a good chance you can make a lot of money,” Hu says.
There is another factor. The Chinese government’s continued scrutiny of the technology industry has led many of these companies to look overseas.
China’s biggest tech companies are trying to popularize China’s new internet trends in other markets, from live streaming to discounted bulk purchases, but this is growing in a domestic market the government has repeatedly said it intends to eradicate. It is also part of hedging against risks. Erasing billions of dollars from the valuations of domestic technology companies and curbing their influence.
China’s short-form drama market has grown rapidly to more than $5 billion last year, according to Chinese analysis firm iiMedia Research, but short-form drama companies are worried they could become the next target.
Chinese production company Xi’an Fengxing Culture Company produced eight series. The drama, released a few months before he won gold last February with “The Knockout,” is an all-new drama about an underdog banker who travels back in time to stop his mother’s murder and take revenge on his cheating girlfriend. It’s a 108 episode drama. In the year since then, Fengxing has produced 17 more hit shows. That includes the costume drama “Unrealed,” which brought in her $16 million in just eight days in August.
However, after the Fuko thriller series was censored for being too erotic, CEO Li Tao decided to look for an audience outside of China.
They are currently filming a show in Egypt for the local market and are in talks to produce a show for Reel Shorts, where the actors must speak “perfect American English,” Lee said.
But producing programming for the American market comes with its own challenges. While we may not have to worry about censorship like China, we do have to think about stricter protection of copyright and intellectual property rights. It also needs to consider the vocal concerns of lawmakers about how Chinese tech companies handle U.S. users’ data.
Mr. Zia was already accustomed to that level of scrutiny. Years before starting Crazy Maple Studio, he was part of the U.S.-based team at Chinese telecom giant ZTE, which in 2017 accused him of violating U.S. bans on selling equipment to North Korea and Iran. was punished by.
Jia said he’s not worried about ReelShort being put under the same microscope. Crazy Maple Studios is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, but emphasizes that it has no audience in China. However, the company maintains an office in Shenzhen and remains 49% owned by Beijing-based COL. (The rest is owned by his Jia.)
At the very least, Jia expects the company’s growth to have fewer ups and downs than the “billionaire kidnapped” story arc. In her next 10 minutes on the show, her starring mother wakes up from a coma and her ex-lover’s handsome uncle hands her $50,000. Insults, accusations, and multiple punches are thrown.
“When some people first saw the app, they said, ‘I can’t believe people would pay for something like this,'” Zia said. “Our answer is: Do you think you understand the entire entertainment market? You don’t.”