1.3.2 The Key to Microdramas is Getting Users to Pay------Evolving User Profiles and Priority of Needs

Evolving User Profiles: Expansion from Male to Female Audiences

So, the earliest profile was thought to be these men’s fantasies—son-in-law, divorce, Dragon King, face-slapping—all those tropes, and this type of drama was the most common. But later, everyone realized, “Hey, there’s a lot for women too!” Tragic romance, sweet romance—lots of those, and many people pay for them. Urban settings, fantasy, cheat skills, time travel, rebirth—all have their market.

So, from our perspective, don’t be too quick to profile users in such a large market. If it’s going to be a 100-billion or even several-hundred-billion market in the future, its user base will eventually cover almost all profiles. But these users share a common need—that’s what we need to capture. Different groups need different ways to decompress.

In the past six months, female top-ups have almost caught up with male. For girls, it’s mostly love-related—that’s normal, right? Women have needs around romance. So, don’t define the user; define the user’s need.

Comparison with Long-Form Drama: Reversed Priority of Needs

Here, to strengthen your understanding of this product—vertical microdramas—let’s compare them again with long-form dramas.

Let’s assume an audiovisual product, whether short or long, has three functions. The first is the traditionally recognized story. We often say a drama has to tell a story, right? There’s a story demand.

Additionally, when producing a film or drama, we often pursue production quality. We need good-looking actors, nice settings, beautiful costumes, makeup, and props, right? So besides story, there’s an aesthetic demand.

Now, through our analysis of microdrama users, we know there’s also a stress-relief demand.

Let’s rank these three. For traditional long-form content—movies, TV series, online dramas—the order is story first, aesthetics second, stress relief third, right? You need a good story first; if the story isn’t good, everything else is wasted.

After the story is solid, then I look at whether the settings are refined, whether the actors are attractive, whether the costumes and props are accurate—that’s the aesthetic demand.

Finally, there might be a stress-relief demand, though many long-form dramas don’t even have it. Especially movies—some leave you more upset after watching. Like that film She’s Missing starring Zhu Yilong—didn’t it make you angry? No stress relief at all; it just irritated you, right? So, for long-form, the first demand is story, the second is aesthetics.

Microdrama Priorities: Stress Relief First, Story Third

But for our mini-program microdramas, our first demand is stress relief, then aesthetics, and finally story.

We need to get that satisfaction point first. Why does the user watch this? Users don’t know microdramas are expensive. If you’re just giving me a story, I won’t watch. I’ve heard many people say, “Teacher, these mini-program microdramas are too low-quality, the story isn’t clear—I want to make one that tells a good story!”

Students, if users wanted a story, couldn’t they top up ¥200 on Youku and watch 100,000 film and drama stories for a year? I’m not saying story isn’t important, but it’s not as important as stress relief, or even aesthetics. Think about it: a mini-program microdrama gives me a mental massage, lets me indulge and feel good through the plot—that’s my first demand.

After satisfying that, if I’m still in the mood, then I might check if your actors are good-looking, right? Whether the costumes are nice, whether the actors are attractive—that’s the second demand. Only then, the third demand is story. The story is actually okay too, right? Various twists, designs—it still meets my standards.

This must be clear. Long-form: story first, aesthetics second, stress relief third. Microdramas: stress relief first, aesthetics second, story third. You must understand this.

That’s why I’ve warned those in traditional film—be careful. If you enter this industry, you might put all your effort into the story. I emphasize again, I’ve been teaching storytelling online for years. I have the most students in this industry; we’re the top IP in screenwriting courses, the largest screenwriting database, a screenwriting alliance. Do you think I don’t want to focus on story? Do you think I believe story isn’t important? Saying this hurts me more than it hurts you.

So, you must correct this mindset with me. Story isn’t bad, but in this product, it’s not the most important. In this product, story ranks third. If you can perfect both stress relief and aesthetics, and then make the story good, of course that’s ideal. Just like when I teach long-form screenwriting, I say secure the story first, make it perfect, then polish the aesthetics until they’re perfect too. If there’s also a satisfaction point, then your work is a blockbuster.

This is about the importance of order. Of course, I hope to do everything perfectly. If in the future, a vertical microdrama emerges that’s great at stress relief, has excellent production, superb aesthetics, and the story is surprisingly captivating and perfect, that would be fantastic, right? But we must be clear about the order—the top priority is solving the stress-relief need.

Why Address Stress Relief First? To Drive Top-ups

Why address stress relief first? To drive top-ups. You can understand that the most important thing for mini-program microdramas is actually user payment. There’s a conversion—after placement, it needs to convert, to get top-ups. To get top-ups, you clearly need to provide stress relief, even a bit of an addictive thrill, right? That rush—revenge feels so good, slapping faces feels so satisfying—it’s addictive. But let me emphasize: there are many ways to hook viewers; avoid illegal or borderline methods. Non-compliant methods are not allowed.