When it comes to vertical screen short plays, everyone is familiar with them.
Since last year, short dramas have begun to fully invade short video platforms, with "three reversals in one minute, rebirth and abuse of scumbags, and bloody stories of wealthy families". All kinds of short, frequent and fast content are wrapped in the hidden desires of human beings. Under the stimulation of the excitement, they quickly occupy the minds of users and become a money-making tool that users are willing to pay for. It has even set off a wave of spiritual opium overseas.
This year, users who have had enough of the love and hatred stories among wealthy families have transformed themselves into supporting roles. "Aunt Wang" and "Butler Li" have become popular again. The short drama industry has also moved away from its wild growth and towards formalization and refinement under the improvement of rules.
And just recently, the trend of short dramas seems to have finally reached Web3.
01. Multiple short dramas were launched, and Web3 set off a short drama trend
Recently, a short drama information on the X platform was frequently forwarded. It was reported that the first Web3 native short drama "Reborn as a Big Boss in the Crypto" invested by IBGTGVC and produced by TShow2008 will be officially launched on the Huobi Live platform on May 22. Prior to this, the drama became a small hit in the industry because of the Satoshi Nakamoto joke "Chinese people are inherently smart" at the opening ceremony.
Rebirth: I am a big shot in the crypto poster, source: X platform
Although it has not been released yet and is only in the discussion stage, in fact, this is not the first short play of Web3. As early as April 26, "Back to the Future: I am the King of Bitcoin" released by the BitRealms platform was already aired, and on May 7, this 50-episode Web3-themed short play was completed. But perhaps due to publicity issues, it was not until the popularity of "Reborn as a Big Boss in the Crypto" increased that the short play really stood in front of Web3. Due to the similarity of the names, the two were even once thought to be the same play, which also brought some traffic to "The King of Bitcoin".
Back to the Future: I am the King of Bitcoin poster, source: public information
Judging from the two dramas, both dramas have inherited the "cool text" tradition of short dramas, and have coincidentally chosen the form of rebirth and counterattack. "Rebirth of I'm a Big Boss in the Crypto" focuses on Xia Bencong's entrepreneurship after his rebirth due to a margin call, while "The King of Bitcoin" focuses on Mason's revenge and abuse of the scum after being betrayed by his wife and best friend and reborn. Both of them present the history of blockchain in the past 15 years in a humorous way, focusing on important events and important figures in the Web3 field.
In terms of specific techniques, both dramas mainly use celebrity memes and real-life stand-in actors. To be honest, from a sensory point of view, regardless of the big names that have not been released, the narrative logic of "Back to the Future: I'm the King of Bitcoin" that has been aired can be described as bloody, and the exaggerated expression of character characteristics is not much different from general short dramas. At the same time, there are some marginal details, but from the feedback of users, there are still many people who appreciate it, which may also be the charm of short dramas.
He Yi's joke about casting, source: X platform
02. How will Web3 skits develop? Business model is the key
Back to Web3 itself, in fact, in terms of subject matter, it is highly feasible to present the ups and downs of the crypto field in the past fifteen years in the form of a drama. Whether it is the English teacher's sudden wealth, the counterattack of the beef boss, or the foreign boy's cold wind in Shanghai, they are all popular classic stories in the crypto, and the ups and downs of miners, the Hundred Regiments War of exchanges and the competition of public chains all have good narrative and reversal.
But why did the short play start to become popular with Web3 as the theme only now? On the one hand, it is naturally a niche feature of the encryption field, but on the other hand, the profit model has become the key.
In traditional short dramas, except for a small amount of advertising revenue and e-commerce channel revenue, most of the revenue comes from membership subscriptions, that is, users pay in the form of episodes or packages. From the cost side, in addition to the daily costs of actors, shooting, editing, etc., 80-90% of the costs need to be spent on the investment and flow of short video platforms. Depending on the sophistication of the production, the production cost of a short drama is about 200,000 to 500,000 yuan, and the ROI is basically higher than 1.2 to achieve hematopoietic profitability.
However, this gameplay is considered very crypto, because most of the profits are obtained by the centralized platform, and the distribution channel is not the wallet, but WeChat or Alipay. It can be considered that this is a pure Web2 scenario. But it is true that a large part of the target group of Web3 skits is precisely the crypto people. Therefore, the combination of the existing architecture and the special mechanism of Web3 naturally became the main consideration of the issuer.
From BitRealms' point of view, in "Back to the Future: I'm the King of Bitcoin", the "Watch to Earn" NFT-like airdrop model that is very consistent with the characteristics of encryption is adopted. After linking the wallet on its official platform to watch the short drama, the token IBOSS will be dropped 100% randomly, and if you hold the Popcorn Pass airdropped by the platform, the drop rate will increase to 15-30 times. In short, Popcorn Pass is similar to the acceleration chip of the mining machine, which can accelerate the computing efficiency of mining through Watch on the platform. According to official disclosure, the drama has been viewed more than 1.5 million times on the entire network.
Judging from the above description alone, the producer's profit model seems to be limited to two ways: listing project tokens on the secondary market or selling Popcorn Pass. From the perspective of currency performance, IBOSS is currently listed on Solana, with a total supply limit of 1 billion. The price trend after listing is similar to other MEMEs. After being pulled up to $0.0088578 on May 7, it has now fallen back to $0.0007007, slightly higher than the opening price on May 7.
IBOSS price trend, source: Geckoterminal
In order to continue to operate the token, the platform has reached a strategic cooperation with the Web3 short video social application Whistle. At the same time, it is expected to reach a secondary distribution with traditional short drama platforms such as Dianzhong Technology and Qimao, exploring the return of profits from Web2 user groups to the community. So far, the project has made a profit of $2,000 on Whistle, and the platform has announced that it will be used for token repurchase. However, this amount is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket for a MEME pull.
Although the profit model of a one-round tour is quite normal in the crypto, in order to continue to develop, the issuer must improve its hematopoietic ability and maintain the liquidity of the token. BitRealms also admitted in the interview that Popcorn Pass did not play any role in revenue because it was not listed on the secondary market. The current main profit model focuses on undertaking project advertising and earning income by providing customized content and scene services to project parties.
In this context, the start-up capital has become the absolute majority of the short drama production, and the investment of investors is particularly important. In this regard, another drama "Rebirth: I am a Big Boss in the Crypto" also caused a misunderstanding. The crew issued a notice that the filming was suspended on April 15 due to the collapse of the crew's financial contract and the arrears of actors' wages, which became a joke with the characteristics of the crypto.
The news released by the producer Li Er Chai Si, source: X platform
Of course, some people questioned whether this behavior was manipulation, after all, as the producer, Li Erchaisi had a criminal record. Although people may not be familiar with him now, Li Erchaisi was once a famous Internet promoter in my country. Guo Meimei was promoted by him. He planned and hyped up false events such as "Monk Boat Sex Scandal" and "Godfather Takes Me to the Olympics". Due to excessive use of public opinion, he was sentenced to four years in prison for illegal business operations and fined 150,000 yuan.
Today, Li Er Chai Si has become a producer of short dramas. In a positive direction, the means of hype must be better than other short dramas. In the crypto where traffic determines everything, this will be an important advantage. This is indeed the case. Although "Back to the Future: I am the King of Bitcoin" was released first, the most well-known short drama in the industry is still "Reborn as a Big Boss in the Crypto".
From the perspective of profit model, "Reborn as a Big Boss in the Crypto" has not yet revealed any information, but from the perspective of its main investors, AP Capital and cooperation platform Huobi, project advertising and platform traffic diversion are still the core purpose. From a certain perspective, short dramas and exchanges have a certain degree of fit. Exchanges are in great need of traffic and are the absolute capital holders in the industry. Short dramas are precisely the direct channel for traffic diversion and have a certain breaking circle effect. The cooperation between the two is also a win-win model. Based on this analysis, if the trial is successful, this cooperation model will become the main way, and short dramas mainly funded by exchanges and large project parties are also expected to usher in development.
In summary, the current Web3 skit productions all use advertising as the main profit model. This model is not unfeasible, and some traditional skits also use this as their main income, but this model is inherently highly fragile and depends on the project's advertising budget and the actual effectiveness of attracting traffic. In addition, with the additional costs brought by tokens, it is difficult for skits to maintain long-term operations. Under the limited scale and complex threshold operations of Web3, it is difficult to form the flywheel effect of traditional skits. In the long run, the development of Web3 skits will either return to the traffic of Web2 or form a closed ecosystem with token appreciation as the core.
From the perspective of the producers, the producers of the two short dramas are using short dramas as a starting point to enter the ecological development. BitRealms revealed that it will use short dramas and games as a starting point to form a fair launch platform based on the assetization of entertainment content. The other producer, TShow, plans to release platform coins online after the number of fans reaches 21 million, in order to realize its model of paying U to watch dramas, holding coins to share U, and burning participation.
03. Everyone Earns, Web3 Short Videos Will Not Last Long
In fact, from the perspective of the industry, it is not the first time that the video scene of Web2 has been replicated in Web3. Looking at the development of video platforms in the Web3 field, adhering to the belief that everything in Web2 can be rebuilt in Web3, short video platforms similar to TikTok have appeared briefly in Web3 many times. Huoniu and MiLe are typical representatives.
In 2018, the short video platform "Huoniu" with the "blockchain + TikTok" model was very popular. Watching, posting videos, attracting new users, and giving rewards on Huoniu can get points called "fire diamonds", and all users holding fire diamonds can share 80% of the platform's revenue. In addition to the more difficult video posting, Huoniu has opened a recharge platform. As long as you recharge, you can get fire diamonds, and you can directly enjoy cash dividends by recharging money, which is quite like "everyone holds shares and gets dividends every day."
The dividend content of Huoniu Video’s white paper, source: public information
Although it claims to apply blockchain technology, this platform actually has no blockchain features. There is no wallet or withdrawal, no content on the chain, and dividends are also in the form of RMB. However, with this model, when it was the most popular, Huoniu Video had more than 14 million users, with an annualized rate of return of up to 3000%. With high returns, users invested and recharged one after another, and it was rumored that the founder made 800 million yuan in 2 months. However, the Ponzi game of passing the parcel by beating the drum has always been difficult to sustain. In just three days, the dividend ratio of Huoniu dropped to one thousandth of the previous level. Users' investments eventually lost all their money, and Huoniu Video also came to nothing.
Similar operations include the short video app Mi Le, which was launched in 2020. It once topped the free download list of Apple App Store in China, with an MAU of 20 million in half a year and a total number of users exceeding 50 million. It is very popular in the sinking market. Mi Le is of the same origin as Huoniu. Although it claims that you can get platform points, Mi Beans, by watching short videos without any effort, you still need to top up and recruit people to get higher returns. Unlike Huo Diamond, Mi Beans can also be traded in the secondary market. The market once speculated that the worthless Mi Beans were sold for more than 20 yuan each. In the end, the company collected hundreds of millions of harvesting fees, leaving users in a mess.
Mentioning Huoniu and Mi Le here does not mean to criticize Web3 skits. After all, Web3's skit platform is clearly different from the above. First of all, Huoniu and Mi Le are both selling dog meat under the guise of "blockchain". In fact, both are just RMB funding games that borrow the concept of mining; secondly, as video platforms, the content of both platforms is low-quality, mostly replica videos sliced from other platforms, lacking content stickiness; finally, the traffic entrances of both are obviously much larger than Web3, covering a wider range of people. On the other hand, the biggest difference in Web3 skits is the output of valuable content and the involvement of on-chain assets. But no matter how it is explained, history does have similarities. The pure "Watch to Earn" model is difficult to sustain. After all, everyone Earns, and in the end, someone needs to pay the bill, and the payer can only be the later receiver.
In the final analysis, in the field of Web3, due to the cumbersome wallet operations and scattered traffic entrances, the cost of acquiring effective traffic and the cost of building on-chain APPs are naturally higher than Web2. In order to obtain a positive ROI, the project party needs to obtain higher returns than Web2 and harvest from other directions. The final goal is also to issue coins. In fact, this model is obviously inefficient. If it appears in the traditional Internet, the high-cost business model is not competitive. In Web3, the core of achieving this is to evaluate whether the on-chain service is worth using trust in exchange for efficiency. It can be said that many Web3 projects do not have commercial feasibility from the beginning, and the reality is exactly the same. Looking at the Web3 projects, there are very few projects that can achieve self-sustaining capabilities.
Of course, as an industry insider, it is a good thing that the trend of short dramas has spread to Web3. With this, although it is slightly distorted, outsiders can also understand the world of blockchain better through dramas. In the end, the audience gained emotional value, the project side gained traffic, and the publisher gained themes and income. Why not do it?
