Summary of the Conference Call on the Comic Drama Industry Industry Overview - The comic drama market is rapidly expanding, with an expected market size of 20 billion RMB in 2024, although it represents a small portion of the total revenue from live-action short dramas. The daily revenue has surged from tens of thousands to 20-30 million RMB, indicating explosive growth, surpassing the film market size [1][6][8]. Key Points and Arguments - **Platform Support**: Major platforms like Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili have introduced traffic support policies, significantly enhancing the exposure and growth rate of comic dramas. ByteDance has updated its revenue-sharing and traffic distribution plans to standardize industry development [1][8]. - **Cost Efficiency through AI**: AI technology has drastically reduced production costs and cycles, with current costs per minute ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 RMB. The total cost for a drama is between 100,000 to 300,000 RMB, with production cycles shortened to 10-13 days and personnel requirements reduced to under 10 [1][9][10]. - **Higher ROI**: Comic dramas have a higher return on investment (ROI) compared to live-action dramas, with the average ROI for live-action at approximately 1.1, while leading comic drama companies report ROIs between 1.2 and 1.5. This is attributed to cost reductions and platform support [1][9]. - **Diverse Content Creation**: AI has expanded the range of creative themes for comic dramas, allowing complex genres like fantasy to be produced at lower costs. Notable web IPs such as "凡人修仙传" and "斗罗大陆" have utilized AI tools for storyboard design and asset generation [1][10]. Additional Important Insights - **Market Growth**: The comic drama market is projected to reach 20 billion RMB this year, while the total revenue for live-action short dramas is expected to exceed 60 billion RMB, indicating a combined market nearing 100 billion RMB, surpassing the film market [6][12]. - **Production Capacity**: Most companies entered the comic drama sector in Q2 of this year, with leading companies like 酱油文化 producing about 30 dramas monthly, significantly lower than the 100 dramas produced by top live-action companies. This indicates substantial room for capacity expansion [7]. - **Future Trends**: The comic drama industry is anticipated to explode by 2025, driven by platform support and advancements in AI technology, which will further lower production costs and enhance efficiency [8][11]. - **User Demographics**: The current user base is predominantly male, accounting for 70%-90% of users, primarily due to the male-oriented IPs being adapted. As production capacity increases and more diverse content is created, the user demographic is expected to shift closer to that of live-action dramas, which have a more balanced gender representation [14]. - **Monetization Models**: The current monetization strategy combines IAA (advertising) and IAP (in-app purchases), with 30% of revenue from initial paid views and 70% from advertising revenue. Some companies also re-edit content for other platforms to maximize profits [17]. - **Benefiting Companies**: Companies with rich IP resources, such as 阅文集团, 中文在线, and 掌阅科技, are positioned to benefit significantly from current trends, leveraging their extensive resources to support high turnover models and new game developments [18].