Last week, at the 12th China Internet Audiovisual Conference held in Chengdu, micro-short dramas became well-deserved "stars". The head companies and platforms of micro-short dramas or long videos, including Hongguo Short Drama, iQiyi, Dianzhong Technology, etc., have held relevant forums, and the scene was full, and many viewers even stood to listen to the whole audience.
近年來，微短劇迎來爆髮式增長，2024年其產業規模就超過電影票房，突破504億 。大會期間發佈的《中國網路視聽發展研究報告(2025)》顯示，截至2024年12月， 微短劇用戶規模高達6.62億，人均單日使用時長達到101分鐘，與即時通訊不相上下。
The micro-short dramas that have been soaring all the way have broken through the single entertainment function and extended to multiple fields such as cultural and tourism integration and industrial upgrading through the "micro-short drama +" model. During the online audiovisual conference, many relevant persons in charge of competent departments, experts, scholars, and creative teams gathered at the "Thousands of Industries into Dramas: Micro-short Drama Industry Ecology and Artistic Innovation Forum" hosted by Hongguo Short Drama to explore how micro-short dramas can leverage the industry with the advantages of "short, flat and fast", empower thousands of industries, and become a new engine for cultural communication and economic development.
Hurricane's micro-short drama has become an important carrier for empowering thousands of industries
According to the definition of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, micro-short dramas, the full name of online micro-short dramas, refer to "episodes with a length of tens of seconds to about 15 minutes, with relatively clear themes, and relatively continuous and complete storylines". With the advantages of strong rhythm and many reversals, micro-short dramas perfectly meet the fragmented viewing needs of the audience, and have also become an important carrier for disseminating mainstream values, empowering the real economy, and promoting culture to go overseas by virtue of "short, flat and fast".
2024年1月，廣電總局啟動“跟著微短劇去旅行”創作計畫，通過“微短劇+文旅” 的融合，營造跟著微短劇去全國各地“打卡”的新風尚。今年1月，廣電總局又實 施“微短劇+”行動計劃賦能，將微短劇與其他領域或行業相結合，形成新的應用場景、商業模式、經濟業態，帶動微短劇內容提質升級並賦能千行百業。
可以看到的是，“微而精、短而美”的微短劇，已不單單是一部100多分鐘的劇集，隨著行業變革和商業模式的更迭，微短劇逐漸成為帶動各行各業的新引擎，通過微短劇+，融合新業態，賦能文旅文博、電商產業、鄉村振興、公益服務等各個領域，實現從內容傳播到價值轉換的閉環。比如全程在成都、眉山等地拍攝的《家裡家外》，在紅果短劇上線3天播放量就破10億，劇中的雙流老工廠、青龍老街等地吸引不少遊客打卡 。
The content is the core to build a micro-short drama + innovation ecology
Professor Zhao Hui, a researcher of micro-short dramas and director of the Audiovisual Art Research Center of Communication University of China, believes that the current development of micro-short dramas is rapid, and from the perspective of industrial ecology, the cross-border linkage between platforms, producers and brands is becoming increasingly close, deriving innovative models such as "micro-short dramas + e-commerce" and "micro-short dramas + cultural tourism".
Le Li, editor-in-chief of Hongguo short drama, took the recent popular micro-short drama "At Home and Outside" as an example, saying that this is a very typical representative work that uses micro-short dramas to reflect the cultural highlights of Chengdu. At the beginning of filming, it was decided to combine the drama series with Chengdu cultural tourism, such as filming in Chengdu and the surrounding Meishan and other places, and the dialogues were all in Chengdu dialect: "Through this work, the short story of the Sichuan husband and wife, and the changes in the entire economy and culture in the nineties of the last century, are well presented in the time of a drama." ”
In addition to cultural tourism, Hongguo Short Drama also cooperates with the National Library, China Space Administration, Legal Publishing House and other institutions to develop content around themes such as law popularization and popular science. Leli believes that high-quality is the core direction of the development of micro-short dramas, and it is necessary to take into account the topic selection of "truth, goodness and beauty", the aesthetic presentation of vertical screens and the level of professional production, explore the diversified ecology of "micro-short dramas +", and promote industrial upgrading.
Jia Yiqun, general manager of Shaanxi Wentou Yida Film and Television, believes that the successful "cultural tourism" micro-short drama should not only show local cultural characteristics, but also have a national vision and expand the communication effect through emotional resonance. Zheng Ming, director of the Film and Television Center of Zhongke Digital Innovation, shared his experience in the creation of popular science micro-short dramas, advocating the use of genre narrative techniques, integrating knowledge transfer into the storyline, and avoiding blunt preaching.
Professor Yang Chenghu, deputy dean of the School of Arts and Media of Beijing Normal University, believes that "thousands of industries into the drama" is to hope that the micro-short drama can carry more of our broad social life and thousands of industries, and to do this, the micro-short drama needs to be related to our life experience at the content level: "The micro-short drama talks about so many emotions and so many life discussions, all of which point to the various crises and challenges faced by people in society and how people overcome themselves and grow, which are all life experiences." ”
In the view of Zhang Fuping, vice president and editor-in-chief of Douyin Group, high-quality is the only way for the micro-short drama industry to upgrade and change, to avoid the homogenization of the same, but also to put an end to the phenomenon of bad money driving out good money, and to create a healthy and orderly creative ecology: "Uphold ingenuity, take root in creation, and meticulously craft each work, so that micro-short dramas can become a new engine for the high-quality development of the online audio-visual industry, and create new momentum that empowers thousands of industries." ”
Intergenerational Dance: The Ecological Resonance of Traditional Film and Television Forces and the New Generation of Creators
發展短短兩三年，微短劇成為當下最具活力的文化現象，華策、檸萌、閱文、完美世界等傳統影視公司紛紛下場，眾多傳統影視演員也積極擁抱這一新興產業，倪虹潔、李若彤、舒暢、劉曉慶等眾多傳統影視演員紛紛加入，推動行業精品化和多元化發展。以倪虹潔為例，2025年春節期間，她監製及主演的《夫妻的春節》在抖音播出後成為2025年首部觀看使用者破億的微短劇，李若彤主演的《午後玫瑰》登陸東方衛視後，收視力壓大部分傳統影視劇。
It should be noted that micro-short dramas can attract many capital and traditional film and television people to enter the game, and the most important thing is that there are many unknown young creators working silently before this. Most of the early practitioners of these micro-short dramas are information streams, MCN agency practitioners, models, and Internet celebrities. In an interview with a Red Star News reporter, both the director and the actor mentioned that the micro-short drama gave them a chance to be reborn. One director said that as a rookie director, there are almost no opportunities to shoot long-form dramas, but with micro-short dramas, they have more such opportunities to be seen. For example, Peng Chen, the director of the popular traditional drama "Hometown, Don't Come to Harm", once directed the popular micro-short drama "Auntie's World", and the director of the dark horse long drama "Ink Rain Clouds" and "Nine Purples" also had the opportunity to direct a long drama because of the micro-short drama.
中國網路視聽協會發佈的《2024微短劇行業生態洞察報告》顯示，2024年，微短劇行業直接、間接帶動64.7萬個就業機會，2025年就業人數將隨市場規模繼續增長 。短劇製作方代表、北京好有本領文化CEO鄭安迪回憶，過去一年，微短劇市場的高速增長為影視行業創造了大量工作機會，就去年全年來說，微短劇至少提供了60 萬人次的就業機會，而大量年輕創作者的加入，在創新、故事內容、豎屏美學等方面有了更多的想像空間。
In the dialogue session of the day, many guests also mentioned that the performance of micro-short dramas should be fast, but they must not be routine. Liu Tianchi, a teacher at the Central Academy of Drama, believes that actors need more accurate emotional expression in order to create vivid characters in a limited space. She put forward the "scull theory" at the scene: actors need to grasp the character's material survival appeal and spiritual and ideological pursuit at the same time, in order to create a three-dimensional character in a short period of time. She also especially suggested that young actors can temper their basic skills through high-concentration performances in micro-short dramas, accumulate lens experience, and establish audience awareness.
Zhu Shimao, a well-known actor who has decided to enter the micro-short drama, said frankly that the actors may not have time to collect wind and observe life before the filming of the micro-short drama, but the actors can learn to observe and accumulate materials in ordinary life: "Your careful observation may be greater than the benefits of your experience of life, because there are many things in life every day, and when you encounter creation, these things will be remembered at any time." ”
Whole-chain symbiosis: the ecological construction of the industry driven by technology
From script creation, filming and production, to platform distribution, IP derivative development, to the integration and linkage of cross-cultural tourism, games and other fields, micro-short dramas are accelerating towards a mature ecology of full-chain symbiosis, and all links are interlocking like gears to jointly drive the operation of the industry.
Zeng Yingxue, Senior Vice President and Head of Film and Television of Perfect World, shared the company's practice in IP development: relying on more than 300 traditional film and television dramas for more than ten years, selecting well-known IP and micro-short dramas for linkage development, and is focusing on opening up all links of the industrial chain and promoting the transformation of micro-short dramas from a phenomenal outlet to a sustainable track.
Shen Zhiyuan, the person in charge of the production of Hongguo short dramas, shared the platform's practical experience in IP adaptation and creative support. He said that Hongguo Short Drama has formed a set of data-based IP development methodology. The core value of the platform is to understand the characteristics of creators and content, accurately match the IP that fits the style with the creator, and be a "service provider" rather than an "intervener", "the audience is the ultimate judge of a good story, and the platform needs to maintain the inclusiveness of content aesthetics".
The development of film and television is inseparable from the blessing of technology, and at present, AI technology has played a more important role in the content production industry. Yu Ke, head of Baidu Baijiahao's content operation, said that relying on the advantages of artificial intelligence technology, the platform can quickly deconstruct the core elements of IP and innovate them in combination with modern scenarios. He pointed out that the combination of content and technology will promote the upgrading of micro-short dramas from a traffic business to a content innovation platform.
Zhou Qiu, head of Mango TV's Damang Project Studio, added that in addition to the production level, technological innovation in distribution is equally important. In addition, he hopes that the industry will strengthen exchanges and cooperation, and at present, Mango TV is exploring a synergy mechanism with Hongguo Short Drama, and building an industry ecology of "beauty and beauty" through cooperation models such as IP derivative development.
At the commercial level, the content of Hongguo short drama is free + advertising distribution model to reshape business logic. Zhang Fuping, vice president and editor-in-chief of Douyin Group, believes that driven by this model, it has enhanced the attractiveness of the industry, expanded the user base, and reduced the cost of streaming, which has brought confidence and considerable benefits to the majority of partners, and also extended the life cycle of micro-short dramas, helping micro-short dramas to enter a new era of content from fighting traffic.
Jin Wenle, head of content marketing of Giant Engine, shared the new trend of brand marketing. "Micro-short drama is a large traffic pool, so that brands have a lot of ways to play, and compared with traditional advertising, it will be more closely integrated with IP." He said that through innovative forms such as plot implantation, the conversion efficiency of brand short dramas has surpassed the traditional advertising model, helping brands to achieve product and effect synergy, and has broad development prospects.
It can be seen that the current micro-short drama industry has entered a period of intensive cultivation, and under the joint efforts of policy guidance, industry collaboration and innovation drive, micro-short dramas are moving from the "traffic outlet" to the "value highland", presenting a trend of "content enhancement and positive market response", through "micro-short drama +", good stories have the possibility of creating greater value, from content incubation to filming and production to the transformation of business models, all of which have built a healthier and more prosperous new content ecology for the development of micro-short dramas.
Red Star News reporter Qiu Junfeng