The Next Generation of Video Streaming Is Vertical: Short Film Creators Monetizing the Dopamine Addict in Us All

We are, all of us, addicted to it. To something that makes us feel good. Something that offers a quick escape from reality, from the everyday grind, or something else.

Why do we binge-watch shows on Netflix or scroll through social media when we have so many other more important things to do? Because, my fellow doom-scrolling humans, it makes us feel good.

We are all just pleasure-seeking animals at our core, us homo sapiens; and when we kick back and settle into that fifth season and the 30-somethingth episode of Money Heist, the dopamine in our brains starts a-flowing. When our brains produce dopamine, our bodies experience a drug-like high, and they start to crave that high.

Many of us today get a quick dopamine fix from scrolling through Instagram or TikTok, or any of the many other vertical options at our fingertips. That funny video clip of the "singing" dog. Or that cute video clip of the baby hearing its mother's voice for the first time. It's the dopamine that gets us. It's the instant gratification.

But for those of us who crave something in between that quick dopamine hit from a scroll through TikTok and a good Netflix series binge without spending Netflix time to get it, there's now something else - the short film, or the mini-drama.

Two-Minute-Long Soap Operas

Described as "TikTok-style short soap operas" with scripts adapted from web novels, short films are optimized for vertical viewing on mobile devices and to get viewers hooked fast. Free for the first few episodes, just enough for you to get a taste - and a dopamine rush - and boom, you're hooked. Now you'll pay to see the rest of the storyline unfold, and every time you need another fix after that.

And at these points is where the short film industry makes its money: where the dopamine hits - where the viewer gets their fix - and what they'll pay for to the tune of $20 to $60 a month to keep that dopamine flowing.

With each episode of a 20 to 100-episode series lasting under two minutes, these short films are high on drama, low on glam, full of plot twists, and designed to hit that "reward center" part of your brain real quick and just right.

China's film and TV industry is leading the multibillion-dollar, burgeoning short film charge with short video platforms including ReelShort, DramaBox, ShortTV, GoodShort and FlexTV emerging as key players. With series' titles like President's Sexy Wife, The Bride of the Wolf King, Boss Behind the Scenes Is My Husband, or The New Rich Family Grudge," the fast-moving, plot-twisting, heavy-handed mini-dramas are akin to a watching a multicar pileup unfold in the form of successive interpersonal scandals and betrayals.

Oscar nominees these are not. The actors are not A-listers (or B-listers), and the production quality is not winning (or trying to win) any awards any time soon. But like a car accident, it's pretty hard to look away once you've set eyes on it, and that's what the Chinese short video sector has so far bet on correctly. By pairing a data analysis of viewer habits and reactions to their script-writing process, mini-drama developers can gauge what will best invoke a viewer's emotional response and implant narrative hooks at those plot points.

Take My Money and Give Me Another Hit

While streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV, and Prime Video might spend upwards of $60 million per episode on hits like Stranger Things or The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, it costs between 300,000 and 500,000 yuan ($41,000-$69,000) and $150,000 for an entire season of a mini-drama's production.

With viewers paying app top-up fees of $2 million a week to watch some series like FlexTV's hit Mr. Williams! Madame Is Dying which can be produced from start to finish in just seven to 10 days, the profit margins for mini-dramas are significant.

On January 21, 2024, FlexTV's streaming platform trailed Netflix by only four spots in the top ten of the Apple App Store Entertainment Top Charts (Free Apps, U.S.). And by the end of February 2024, the total viewer top-up fees for Mr. Williams! Madame Is Dying had reached $3.5 million.

At an Investor Day event last week at the New York Stock Exchange, FlexTV's Chief Strategy Officer Songtao Jia explained the method behind the success of the vertical short video genre. The short films are created with the "needs of the ordinary users" in mind, Jia said. Amidst the spectacle of each scandal-packed, steamy, or heart-wrenching scene, the actors playing the roles are extraordinarily and intentionally, well, ordinary. The sets and wardrobe choices are likewise ordinary, intended for viewers to better see themselves and their own lives in the melodrama.

Real Profit

But the emotions these mini-dramas evoke in their primarily female audience are quite real, along with the funds viewers are paying to keep the episodes and the dopamine flowing. With content now being distributed to over 100 countries in six languages including English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Arabic, and with a plan to spend up to $100 million over the next three years to produce more short dramas, FlexTV is betting on its continued growth and popularity.

The era of vertical short video streaming is here, and the competition for global "she-conomy"-centric and dopamine-chasing viewers is heating up.

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