EGN NEWS DESK
The first episode of “The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband” pans out like a daytime TV melodrama: a feminine protagonist asks her father and evil stepmother for $50,000 to pay for her mom’s kidney dialysis therapy. Cue an evil stepsister, who snarkily says that the cost is assured—if the lead marries the illegitimate son of a distinguished household, who’s supposedly a grade-A loser. Unsurprisingly, our hero relents.
All of this occurs in simply over 90 seconds. But whereas its brevity looks like an affordable trick, “The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband”—a present produced and distributed on the ReelShort app developed by Silicon Valley-based Crazy Maple Studio (one of many TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2024)—has raked in additional than 419 million views. As some extent of comparability: the primary season of Netflix’s mega-popular Squid Game has 265 million views as of November 4. And Billionaire Husband isn’t Crazy Maple’s solely present racking up a whole lot of tens of millions of views.
ReelShort owes its large viewership to the enchantment of those “micro-dramas” within the Chinese home market. But the nascent success of its reveals are only the start of a worldwide consumption shift, says Crazy Maple Studio’s CEO Joey Jia, who believes that seconds-long, vertical video dramas would be the way forward for leisure.
TIME spoke to Jia earlier this 12 months about how ReelShort reaches audiences, what he’s realized from Disney, and the place he sees the enterprise going.
This interview has been condensed and edited for readability.
How did ReelShort come about?
Seven years in the past, I based an organization known as the Crazy Maple Studio. We dedicate our work on the IP monetization platform. So our first product known as Chapters, this visible novel story platform. Since then, we’re at all times in search of new methods to monetize IP or monetize our content material.
Two years in the past, in 2022, I seen there was a giant pattern in China. Tiktok and Douyin will get an increasing number of widespread in China and likewise globally. People add their quick movies. It’s like a unique model of YouTube. And I seen that a number of the influencers begin to shoot quick tales, quick dramas, and other people actually take pleasure in watching it. In the meantime, the Chinese model of Netflix, iQIYI, for instance, retains investing within the 10-minute lengthy movies, which is admittedly low-cost in contrast with a multi-hundreds of tens of millions of {dollars} funding. So they solely make investments like $5 million or one thing to start out [the] content material creation course of. I see there’s the center level. So folks actually take pleasure in quick content material, however with a narrative idea, in order that’s initially a excessive discipline. This is a superb alternative.
So after doing my analysis, I made a decision to leverage Chapters’ IP, and convey this new type of content material to the States in order to assist develop the enterprise.
Then I carry this concept to Hollywood. And I advised the U.S. guys, “Crazy Maple has a whole lot of good tales. Is there any [possibility] we are able to produce at low value and ship that rapidly?” But sadly, not one of the current distribution channels help it. So persons are scared about, “Oh, your funding is that small, so there is not any means we’ll distribute.” So that is why I made a decision to construct our personal distribution app known as ReelShort, to give attention to these sorts of content material.
When I have a look at the choice of dramas which can be out there on ReelShort, they have an inclination to fall into sure genres like werewolves, revenge plots, brides, billionaires. They all kind of observe this components, however what is the scientific foundation for that components? Was it intentional?
If you solely have a look at the genres, folks say, “Oh, this can be a werewolf and the billionaire story.” Frankly talking, there’s tens of millions of several types of the werewolf and the billionaire story available in the market. So the actual query is how ReelShort could make this particular story distinctive, and why folks pay the cash, and why it turns into so financially profitable on this mannequin.
We’re creating a really totally different kind of format of tales. We see so many good tales, however there’s zero means to draw site visitors, no one is . So now we have to construct a narrative with a really sturdy functionality to draw site visitors, folks. More exactly as soon as we put this clip on Facebook, folks watch it. In no time they obtain, determine to make a paid buy. So that known as “impulse purchases content material.” We name them new media tales.
You mentioned that there is a comparatively low value to producing a present on ReelShort. How do you make it possible for the prices are low? And how a lot on common does a present value?
The quick reply is our manufacturing value is beneath $300,000. There is a motive why folks shoot costlier tales. There is a buffer. If you actually have a look at the manufacturing value, it’s so much.
Our manufacturing value is comparable, even equivalent to the opposite movie productions. However, in movie manufacturing, they need to pay a premium, or additional to rent a star. They depend on celebrities to carry extra site visitors. Most of their price range goes to celebrities. But we do not rent celebrities. We spend virtually each single penny on our story. We’re utilizing the story to drive site visitors. They’re utilizing celebrities to drive site visitors.
Who writes the content material on ReelShort? There are experiences that say a number of the content material appears like they have been written by AI.
If AI may write content material and generate profits instantly, I’d do all the pieces with AI. Oh, no. It’s our in-house editors. We have an in-house editor, an in-house screenwriting staff, they’re managing the whole content material creation course of. And some folks say, “Oh, your content material is admittedly sort of [like] AI.” I disagree. We constructed our personal content material base, our personal technique. We have to verify all people understands it. Even the folks that will not have taken greater training, they cannot perceive content material instantly. So for us the benchmark is how straightforward your story could be understood by different folks.
There have been talks of micro-dramas being the way forward for streaming. We’re seeing short-form video truly taking on. TV was thought of legacy media, and now Netflix may develop into legacy media due to apps like ReelShort. Is your app and plenty of others prefer it the way forward for leisure?
I consider it 100%. I consider vertical video content material will develop into a major leisure content material absorption channel and it’ll have a serious content material distribution platform centered on vertical. I [hope] that content material distributor platform might be ReelShort. And here is the explanation why: for the standard legacy [media], their content material creation course of is just too lengthy. And they do not have sufficient knowledge to help tips on how to optimize and evolve content material as a result of they make investments an excessive amount of up entrance. There’s no linked content material viewers knowledge to provide you suggestions to inform you tips on how to enhance your content material.
Our content material creation course of, we attempt to management inside three months. So from day zero, when folks begin on the concepts [until] the final day, [when] we put it on-line, is three months. After three months, now we have full knowledge… what number of [people] pay for this content material, and why do you pay for that content material, and what is the retention knowledge. And we all know precisely the place folks drop [off]. So that offers us the possibility to repair it if we needed. [If] now we have a narrative that failed and we do not perceive what was happening, and after three months, we determine it out, guess what, we reinvest cash and rebuild the identical story with totally different characters and it turns into a success story. So that content material manufacturing pipeline and the flexibleness offers us an enormous benefit once we’re evolving tales.
Is there house for different types of tales that may then not fall within the genres that folks watch, or is it purely a views-based metric that ReelShort is banking on?
That’s why I consider within the vertical content material trade. This proper now could be only the start. So we’re specializing in the feminine cohort. We supply romantic tales, we provide high-drama tales. Later on, we’ll construct thriller, thriller, motion, much more sorts of content material for various cohorts of customers. The greatest a part of that is frequency. High frequency utilization of content material. They do not need to have one hour [to] return residence to take a seat on the couch to observe Netflix. Anytime they will decide up a cellphone in the event that they solely have 5 minutes, they will take pleasure in their content material, and so they can cease at any time. So we attempt to develop our genres, like a thriller, utilizing permitted story buildings. I consider we’ll see several types of genres present up within the subsequent few months.
How do you make it possible for audiences do not get uninterested in the tales?
That’s an excellent query. There are restricted story buildings on this world. Disney is utilizing the most well-liked story buildings, at all times bringing new parts. So our job is to stay with permitted strategies, and at all times carry a contemporary, eye-opening second and a contemporary idea. And to verify there’s a worth for our customers. Nobody [wants] to consistently repeat watching the identical sorts of tropes. Nobody. The market would abandon us if we solely adopted one mannequin. We need to preserve evolving. And at all times bringing new ideas, a watch opening second, magical second, so folks can look [at] contemporary [content and] at all times have their curiosity. That’s the problem for the content material creators each single day. Every day now we have a brainstorming room, and speak about a brand new idea, new concepts. I’ll kill a lot of the concepts and that’s how we preserve bringing a brand new idea to the platform.
ReelShort made information for surpassing TikTok at one level when it got here to downloads. How did you are feeling about that?
Nervous.
Why?
Well, it is surprising. We’re a really small staff. Nobody anticipated we’d obtain [those] large downloads very quickly. We’re not prepared but. It took our staff a whole lot of effort to construct the infrastructure to satisfy these greater necessities from the viewers. I really feel we’re virtually there, however we’re not prepared but. We’re nonetheless rising.
Where do you see ReelShort in a 12 months, or two, and even 5?
I [hope] ReelShort can develop into an actual platform that may host an increasing number of PUGC, “skilled user-generated content material”—content material creators’ tales. And Netflix is a superb platform. I name it “tremendous PUGC.” They solely work with the very best of the very best content material creators. TikTok, they solely work with influencers, “UGC.” There are tons of the 90% of content material creators, the professionals, however there’s actually no distribution channel. They have an excellent idea, however there is not any distribution channel for them. So ReelShort, the aim is to construct a distribution channel. We can supply publicity for these folks. For these PUGC content material creators, so long as you may have a narrative, this generally is a platform for you. Low-cost, and we’ll be certain we are able to put your content material proper in entrance of an viewers. So in [the] subsequent 5 years, ReelShort will hopefully develop into an actual true distribution platform [that] can host an increasing number of skilled content material creators’ work, can discover an excellent fanbase for them, and pays again and earn them cash, and proceed to construct extra tales for the trade.
I’m asking that as a result of once we have a look at disruptive firms, it is not like short-form video and short-form dramas are new. We have Quibi which mainly shut down in lower than a 12 months. How do you make it possible for ReelShort stays on the high of its sport and continues to ship?
It’s a really sophisticated query. Number one, now we have to verify all content material at all times has the suitable viewers. The market is fast-changing, and the viewers is fast-changing. And now we have to at all times preserve sharp and ensure we perceive the market modifications, to reply to modifications. It’s not straightforward. Number two is content material technique. And we’ll put extra sources into constructing essentially the most secure platform to catch up. But on the finish of the day, this can be a story platform. It’s a fiction platform. We need to ship the very best of fantasy that is a narrative for our viewers and make investments at a quick tempo, in a really extremely environment friendly means.
