Who said this top flow is crazy! This top flow is awesome!

Chapter 378 In-depth Discussion Within the Industry (Entering the Main Hall)
One week after the launch of the Coconut short drama.

The eight dramas have garnered a total of over 30 billion views across the internet. That same evening, the newly registered verified account of Yeguo announced this news, instantly igniting a trending topic.

Because it's not just people in the industry; people outside the industry have also been attracted by the short dramas that are being promoted by short videos recently, and there are quite a few viewers like the person in charge's daughter.

While short dramas have caused a stir in the past, they lacked strong financial backing and were clearly insufficient in terms of influence and publicity.

Ikeno's entry completely changed this situation.

With strong capital and increased publicity and brand awareness, Chi Ye himself is the biggest influencer in the Chinese entertainment industry, bringing high levels of buzz.

Other short drama projects might require spending a fortune to achieve the same level of popularity, but Chi Ye only needs to post a short article on Weibo to achieve the same result.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Ikeno was not a "creator"; he was an investor who stumbled upon the industry and thought it was worth a try.

The initial support and promotion from Douyin was basically an additional condition for cooperating with Chi Ye, but unexpectedly, this additional condition could unleash such surprising "energy" and influence.

Of the eight works, the first one, "The Eighteen-Year-Old Great-Grandma Arrives and Restores the Family's Glory!", has recently gone viral on major streaming platforms. Surprisingly, the proportion of older users, such as grandpas and grandmas, who were not previously on the Douyin short video user profile list has been rising sharply.

This infuriated Kuaishou, which has long held a firm grip on the lower-tier market. It is said that two days ago, Kuaishou had already held an internal meeting and decided to vigorously invest in short dramas, support other companies, and compete with Yeguo.

—The first shot in the impact of coconut on the domestic entertainment and film industry has already been quietly fired.

The major capital firms and platforms in the industry that were watching all of this, as well as the uncle who had just refused to cooperate with Yeguo, and even ordinary celebrities, were all stunned.

"Have you heard? The short drama platform that Chi Ye started has 30 billion views in a week."

"I've heard about it, but it must have been filled with water, right?"

"I don't think so. Recently, several young people on my team have been watching short dramas on their phones whenever they have free time. Each episode is only a few minutes long, so they finish watching it in no time."

"Short drama? You mean those incredibly low-quality short videos with ridiculously bad acting and shoddy production?"

"Someone of Ikeno's stature shouldn't be doing this; it's beneath him."

"Who says it's not..."

July, at a gala.

Many popular celebrities and award-winning actors backstage inevitably started talking about the Coconut short drama and Chi Ye, which were trending on social media that night.

To be honest, Ikeno has always been a major topic of discussion in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Young internet celebrities regard him as an "idol," and the more popular ones make voodoo dolls every night, wishing they could replace him.

The young actresses all dream of collaborating with "Ziwei Star," believing that as long as they work with Chi Ye, they will definitely rise to the top tier of stardom.

The top actresses used to look down on Chi Ye, thinking he was just a lucky guy who benefited from popularity, but now they don't think that way anymore.

The main reason is that times have changed. Ikeno's achievements in the film industry have indeed surpassed 99% of the top actors and actresses. Now, only a few middle-aged actors can consistently outshine him, and they won't—because it's really unnecessary, as Ikeno's current status provides a strong advantage.

The Chinese entertainment industry is a place where people are easily bullied and promoted, and people can become famous overnight.

Previously, Ikeno was known as the "most popular" celebrity, but this time, it seems that Ikeno is starting a business in a new field, and... it seems that she has achieved great success.

With over 30 billion views on the platform in a week, and in collaboration with Douyin and Kiwi, the platform Coconut Short Drama has become an instant hit, even reaching the two major platforms. It has been dominating the trending topics list.

This……

"Sister Bingbing, has your spy drama wrapped up filming yet? Haven't you been in touch with Chi Ye lately?"

A second-tier actress who doesn't act in TV dramas but frequently mingles in the film industry and takes pride in it, sat on the sofa and walked over with a smile after seeing Ling Bingbing finish exchanging pleasantries with others.

"Not yet, we still have a few scenes to film here, but it'll be done soon."

Although Qingyi is only a second-tier actress, she used to be classmates with Ling Bingbing. Although Ling Bingbing later rose to prominence in the industry and became one of the top female artists in the food chain, her relationship with Qingyi is still quite good.

"You too, after resting for so long, you come back and film a TV series."

Qingyi joked, "It's only because of Chi Ye. If anyone else were the male lead, everyone would think you were doing charity work."

"It's not bad."

Ling Bingbing didn't mind, and just smiled and said, "We had a very pleasant time working together."

"...Have you heard of that short drama platform?"

Suddenly, the woman in green asked.

Ling Bingbing was taken aback before nodding, "Yes, I just heard others say it."

"What was Chi Ye thinking? He's such a big star, doing this, and even hanging out with that chicken feet thing... Didn't you try to talk him out of it?"

Ling Bingbing chuckled, speechless. "What I do to advise others is none of my business."

"Hey, I just feel like this wasn't handled well."

Qingyi curled her lip: "No matter how good short dramas are, they're just a low-end, niche market. Movie stars can make money doing these, but they lose their market value."

"He didn't act in it himself; he's a boss, so it's quite normal."

Ling Bingbing felt that Qingyi was talking too much. Mainly, she knew that she wasn't the only one in the entertainment industry who thought this way. Don't think that people in the entertainment industry don't gossip; in fact, these are the people who love to eat melons the most.

The woman in green in front of us was their classmate back then, but she was the only one in our dorm who didn't become famous. Now, she can only subtly market herself as the number one beauty in the history of adult films.

The school of X-Drama hasn't even been established for a hundred years, it's really a bit of a hell.

However, she never liked to talk about such things; she just needed to earn a living.

To reiterate, the reason Qingyi is Qingyi isn't because she prefers obscurity or is content to play a supporting role, but rather...

She could only play the role of a female impersonator.

"Anyway, I think you should be careful when acting with him. Don't let him brainwash you into filming short dramas."

Qingyi felt that her reminder was for her best friend's own good.

"Don't worry, I'm too old to play a young girl."

Ling Bingbing gestured for her to calm down.

Meanwhile, on the other side...

"Who understands this? The screenwriter of this short drama is a genius, absolutely insane!"

"The quality of 'Taming the Wild' really blows away those garbage modern games on the market right now; it's like a game of subversion."

"+1. I only started paying attention to these short dramas because of Ikeno's concert. I had heard of short dramas before, but judging from the names and descriptions, I wasn't very interested. I thought that Ikeno was just like everyone else, trying to fleece viewers. But I never expected... who knows the satisfaction of binge-watching 50 episodes in one night!"

"Please release mini-series based on 'Goblin' and 'My Love from the Star' soon! I'm really looking forward to them, and I hope they have the same quality as 'The Taming of the Wild'!"

"Hilarious! The title 'Taming the Wild' is definitely meaningful. Does the screenwriter have a death wish?"

"Don't even think about it. It's impossible for someone of Ikeno's status to act in a short drama, but we can look forward to the second male and female leads and the supporting characters' side stories."

"It's going to be great! It was officially announced yesterday that the first short drama spin-off of 'My Love from the Star' and 'Goblin' has been approved. Fans of Professor Ji and Uncle Zhao are in for a treat."

"..."

Snapped.

In the conference room.

The head of Tencent Video turned off the comments section, turned to the others, and said with a grim expression, "Speak up, everyone."

The people below looked at each other, wondering what their leader meant.

"Ahem... I saw this trending topic too, and I even called an acquaintance to confirm. Their 30 billion+ views are inflated; it's not the real number."

An executive wearing glasses said twice, "So I think we don't need to... make too much of a fuss, right?"

"To make a big fuss?"

The person in charge looked at the other party: "Don't you understand yet? Is the question of whether the data is inflated or not the point? The point is that Yeguo has attracted traffic with these short dramas. They were only released on their own platform a week ago. Even if they have connected with Kiwi to drive traffic through internal secondary pages, isn't this download traffic a bit too high?"

"Kuaishou was caught off guard and started investing heavily. Don't tell me you're still worried about inflated data."

The executive in charge of glasses paused for a moment, then gave an awkward smile: "Uh... I think... if they can do it, we can do it too."

"Correct."

The person in charge nodded and looked at the others: "That's what I wanted to say. Short dramas have been around for a while now. Chi Ye is not the first to try this, nor will he be the last."

“Our resources are far superior to his. I have already suggested to headquarters that we focus on operating the short drama section for the second half of this year and the first half of next year, for a year, to attract more traffic to the platform.”

"I have no objection to that."

Another senior executive nodded, but then frowned: "But one thing, have we already chosen the content provider? Which company?"

"Ikeno's greatest strength lies in content. If we don't meet the standards in this area, we can't compete with them. After all, Douyin and Kiwi are now his partners. Unless we can get headquarters to invest heavily in this area... but I don't think that's very realistic."

Penguin Video has been operating at a loss year after year, and the profitability of all of Penguin's entertainment divisions in this area is extremely poor.

The reason for investing even when there is no profit is for the overall layout of the ecosystem industry, just like Alibaba's Digital Media and Entertainment. The three giants have different development strategies and details in this area, but the purpose is the same.

So fundamentally, in their eyes, movies and short dramas are not considered lucrative, let alone a red ocean; they are just occupying a spot.

This positioning directly means that Tencent Video is unlikely to receive huge support for such a trivial matter. At most, they might offer some traffic-driving opportunities through their sister products or create some synergy, and that's about it.

Of course, a giant is a giant after all. At least in the eyes of the person in charge at this moment, there are so many short drama companies now, but in his eyes, very few can be considered respectable.

With so many resources and connections in the Chinese entertainment industry, Tencent Video has no shortage of money, people, or teams.

Isn't quality what we all care about?
They can totally do it themselves!
"I've thought this through."

He looked around and said, "We will personally control the quality! We will use the team and support from the film and television industry to produce short dramas. Chi Ye is far behind in this aspect. Douyin can't help him much. He can't beat us with just one kiwi."

Kiwifruit is only collaborating with Ikeno, and Coconut Drama is also a company controlled by Ikeno. It's impossible for them to go all out to fight against Tencent just because they are collaborating with him.

So the person in charge is now very confident. He believes that he reacted quickly enough and has found Ikeno's "lifeline".

Yes, while those popular celebrities and artists in the industry are still arguing that short dramas are low-brow and Chi Ye has lowered his own value and "willingly fallen into depravity," giants like Tencent and Kuaishou have already decided to enter the market.

This is perhaps the difference between an artist being an artist and a boss being a boss.

Ikeno didn't care much about any of this. If he knew about Penguin's decision, he would most likely still admire their vision, and then... then regretfully tell them: "You're going in the wrong direction."

In another world, after the rise of short dramas, the giants did indeed want to enter the market directly and simply, just like they do now, and they didn't think much of those who specialized in short dramas.

But as it turns out, the professionals are indeed professionals in this area.

Short dramas are not actually as lucrative as people imagine.

It's more about rapidly gathering traffic, squeezing out long-running dramas and pushing them into a second film and television winter, with major video platforms seeing their investment scale and direct reductions.

That's what makes it "terrifying".

You can't make short dramas with a condescending attitude and a superior perspective, because this is a product for the lower-tier market, a product that's down-to-earth. Without professionalism and the willingness to humble yourself, you'll suffer a great loss.

I wonder when Penguin will understand this, but Ikeno's schedule and plans are still proceeding in an orderly manner.

The concert promotion is just the beginning. In fact, Ikeno's focus will still be on the concerts, and she will probably promote Coconut at each concert as well.

The impact of short dramas on the market still needs time to develop and will not be apparent overnight.

In addition, as time went on, by early August, several long-running drama projects that Coconut Culture, Kiwi, and Mango TV had joined forces with had been successfully launched.

Some major dramas with large casts and complex plots are still in the filming stage.

The results of the three-party cooperation are expected to be seen by the end of this year at the earliest.

Short dramas impact the market, while long dramas enhance a company's influence and cooperation with platforms. They are like two wheels of a carriage, neither can be missing.

After several years of training and improvement, Ikeno has finally "entered the inner sanctum" and stepped into a new stage.

In mid-August, Ikeno's Shanghai concert took place for the first time.

(End of this chapter)