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Douyin, China’s TikTok, tests short drama subscriptions, trailing Tencent and Kauishou in paid content race

  • ByteDance is testing paid dramas on Douyin, allowing users to pay for individual episodes that are a few minutes long or for the whole show
  • The move comes after rivals introduced their own short dramas in the search for new growth opportunities amid fierce competition for user attention

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A man holding a phone walks past a sign with the logo of Douyin and TikTok at the International Artificial Products Expo in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on October 18, 2019. ByteDance, the owner of the platforms, has been testing paid short dramas on Douyin as it searches for new sources of revenue. Photo: Reuters
Coco Feng
Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, is testing a new business model involving paid short dramas, a departure from the free, user-produced content that has made the short video platform the premier app of owner ByteDance.

Each episode runs just a few minutes, and users can choose to purchase individual videos or the entire show, according to a Xinhua News Agency report on Monday. Once purchased, the videos can be watched repeatedly without time limits. Episodes can be as cheap as 1 yuan (15 US cents), technology news site 36kr reported.

A representative from Douyin said that the company is still exploring the short drama business, through which it “hopes to encourage more quality content creation”.

ByteDance has been focusing on adapting genre fiction published on web novel platforms, mostly targeting young audiences with romance or imperial dramas. Many of the adaptations are from Tomato Novel, a rival to similar platforms operated by Tencent Holdings’ China Literature, which ByteDance spun out of the novel channel of its news aggregation platform Jinri Toutiao in 2020. The company also invested in at least five smaller players in the industry last year.

The short video giant has been considering producing its own dramas since at least last year, when its subsidiary Beijing Zhending Technology added several related sectors to its registered scope of business. These include drama production, planning for films and television shows, and movie distribution, according to company registry tracker Tianyancha.

The move trails similar steps taken by major rivals Kuaishou Technology and Tencent, which both launched paid short dramas on their own apps earlier this year.

Kuaishou currently offers more than 2,300 paid dramas on its eponymous app. Yu Ke, the operations director of Kuaishou’s short drama business, said in October that daily active users for this content reached 230 million, both paid and free, and creators have earned more than 1 billion yuan.

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