Short essay 2 - ZHU Can (1155217214)

Reelshort's Success and Dilemma: Oversea Short Drama with Blue Ocean Theory

The popularity of short dramas in China has been undisputed, with mature works and markets targeting various segments of users such as Generation Z, office workers or silver-haired groups. This fragmented and fast-paced content consumption model has not only achieved great commercial benefits in China, but also gained popularity in North America, and overseas short dramas have become a blue ocean.

Reelshort is one of the most popular short drama apps in the world, with more downloads than Tiktok in the U.S. Reelshort's homepage features vampires, werewolves, and a domineering president, and its localised strategy of filming in North America and broadcasting in North America has successfully captured the eyeballs of young and middle-aged white-collar women. In addition to Reelshort, Crazy Maple Studio has also launched the novel app Kiss and the game app Chapters; when an online article performs well on Kiss, it will be turned into an interactive novel game on Chapters, and then filmed as a short drama and broadcast on Reelshort after accumulating popularity. This model provides Reelshort with a rich source of IP to produce a steady stream of quality scripts for short play adaptations.

Applying the Blue Ocean Theory, the short dramas broadcast on Reelshort don't care about the depth of the plot or the fame of the actors, they are finely localised on the basis of guaranteeing the foundamental graphic effect, and they are close to the classic characters in North American culture, so as to give play to the advantages of short dramas with fast pacing and many reversals. In this way, Reelshort provides a new entertainment option for users who are used to traditional long episodes or short videos. Such an overseas mode avoids the status quo of increasingly fierce competition and serious homogenisation of works in the domestic short drama market, and turns its attention to the overseas market, adjusts the positioning of the target audience, adapts to its consumption habits, and opens up a new blue ocean market.

Eliminate	Reduce
Plot depth Actor Fame	Plot depth Actor Fame
Raise	Create
Typical characters Simple story Fast-paced	Fragmented viewing Reversal and Drama Localisation Pay-as-you-go

While the momentum of development is promising, Reelshort, as a representative of short dramas abroad, is also facing some challenges that can't be circumvented. Firstly, North America does not have mature viewing and placement scenes like mini programs in China, so it is necessary to download apps to watch dramas, and the conversion effect is greatly affected by the fact that it is not possible to realise one-click jump in the process of placing ads on Instagram and Tiktok to guide the downloads. Secondly, the North American audience has higher requirements for the quality of episodes, even for short dramas with scripts that cannot be examined in detail, the audience has requirements for the delicacy of their images, colours, lighting, etc., so the production cost is much higher compared to the domestic market. Overseas short drama market is still mostly funded by domestic platforms and produced by overseas Chinese. In the face of the mature film and television industry in North America, the attention of local capital and practitioners may still be indispensable for the sustainable growth and development of the film and television industry.