King returns to Malaysia after four-day state visit to China; Beijing university honours Sultan Ibrahim with Malay Studies chair in his name
How much would you pay for a ‘Burger Ramly special’? And how much did American live streamer IShowSpeed fork out? “They don't go to the cinema anymore,” said Zhu of his audience, which he described as largely composed of middle-aged workers and pensioners. “It's so convenient to hold a mobile phone and watch something anytime you want.”The short-format videos are an increasingly potent competitor to China's film industry, some experts say, which is second in size only to Hollywood and dominated by state-owned China Film Group.
Kuaishou vice president Chen Yiyi said at a media conference in January that the app featured 68 titles that notched more than 300 million views last year, with four of them watched over a billion times. “China discovered this audience first,” said Layla Cao, a Chinese producer based in Los Angeles. “Hollywood hasn't realised that yet, but all the China-based companies are already feeding the content.”Tales of how circumstances at birth are deterministic and can only be changed by near-miracles have struck a chord with viewers at a time when upward mobility in China is low and youth unemployment high.
In June, the government began requiring some creators to register micro dramas with NRTA. The regulator didn't respond toKey to the commercial success of these films are plot twists that keep people paying as they scroll while commuting or in line at a grocery store. Episodes often end with a hook — such as a boyfriend walking in on his partner with another man — and viewers have to pay for the next episode to find out what happened.
“We'd need to take two to three years to distribute one traditional TV series of film, but we only need three months to distribute a micro drama, saving us a lot of time,” said Zhou Yi, a showrunner at Chinese gaming giant NetEase, which also makes micro dramas.