Tencent Video’s Legend of Magic Jade mini-drama integrates interactive elements as short-video segment wins eyeballs
- Viewer can collect props and complete missions, with the wrong choices leading to ‘game over’
- Mini-dramas have been boosted amid a surge in the consumption of short video content on platforms such as Douyin
Chinese online mini-dramas are becoming more interactive with a new series from tech giant Tencent Holdings integrating video-gaming features, as industry players try to win viewers in the fast-growing segment.
Tencent Video in November launched an interactive version of Legend of Magic Jade, a drama known as Mo Yu Xuan Qi in Chinese, for season two of the drama, which allows the audience to choose the storyline for the protagonist in the show.
The mini-drama features 27 episodes with each one lasting only a few minutes.
In the show viewers are tasked with helping Zhao Ruoqi, the lead female character who started as a low-ranking maid in an imperial palace, to make different life choices in her fight for survival and attempts to seek revenge for the wrongs done to her family.
Like in a video game, the viewer can collect items and complete missions, with the wrong choices leading to a “game over” message.
The development comes as the online short-drama market in China is expected to reach 37.4 billion yuan (US$5.3 billion) by the end of 2023, a 268 per cent rise compared to the previous year, according to a recent report by consultancy firm iiMedia Research.