Content resources increased by 150%, revenue surged by 34%. Is Zhangwan & Tinghua Island FlickReels ushering in explosive growth?

The DataEye Research Institute has noticed that FlickReels, the overseas short drama app owned by Zhangwan, is gaining strong momentum recently. Not only has its advertising investment continued to rise, firmly ranking among the top 3 in the overseas short drama app creative ranking, the short dramas it mainly invests in also frequently appear at the top of the list.

In terms of revenue, according to the DataEye September Overseas Short Drama Monthly Report, FlickReels' in-app purchase revenue in September nearly reached 8 million US dollars, a sharp month-on-month increase of 34%.

So why does FlickReels perform so brilliantly? What is the reason behind it?

In this issue, the DataEye Research Institute conducts objective analysis based on data, hoping to provide certain references for practitioners.

I. Performance Data of FlickReels

(1) Download Volume Trend

According to data from Diandian, since mid-September, the number of downloads of FlickReels has continued to rise, from about 46,000 on September 13, gradually rising to the highest point of about 307,000 on October 11, and has declined slightly recently.

(2) Advertising Investment Trend

Data from the ADX Overseas Short Drama Edition shows that since mid-September, the advertising investment of FlickReels has also continued to rise. The daily number of advertising creatives increased from about 7,000 groups on September 13 to the highest point of about 44,000 groups on October 13, and has dropped slightly recently.

(3) Mainly Invested Short Dramas

In terms of the main invested short dramas, data from the ADX Overseas Short Drama Edition shows that among the short dramas launched by FlickReels in the past 30 days, the top 10 are all AI short dramas, among which Fifty Cents to Find My Billionaire Dad and Testing Love: Married to a Crippled Billionaire rank first and second, with more than 15,000 groups of creatives each, significantly higher than other dramas. Even Billionaires Beg to Borrow From Me ranks third, with nearly 10,000 groups of creatives.

On the whole, the 10 dramas that FlickReels mainly invested in the past 30 days have relatively diverse styles. Among the top 3, there are stories of cute kids looking for their biological parents and rich family redemption, as well as the romance category of "domineering CEO pretends to be poor to test true love", and the male-oriented "urban superpower" category, where the protagonist awakens the divine pupil to see through antiques, gambling stones and the stock market, and achieves a counterattack.

Among the top 10, FlickReels' core silver-haired genre also takes 2 seats. Mature types such as revenge and winning back the wife are also involved, and new plots are created. For example, They Forced Me Out, Then Begged Me Back, which ranks 5th, integrates revenge with the workplace, telling the story of a "overworked office worker" who works diligently, but is fired when he is about to get the bonus, and is framed to take the blame for the company's 100 million US dollars debt. In the end, the protagonist fights back with work records and professional knowledge, exposes the truth, sends the fraudulent executives to prison, and completes the workplace counter-kill.

II. Cause Analysis

Combined with the above data, the DataEye Research Institute believes that the main reason for the simultaneous increase in FlickReels' downloads and revenue in September is the combined promotion of elements such as the increase in the number of advertising creatives and hit dramas.

① In terms of the number of creatives, data from the ADX Overseas Short Drama Edition shows that in September this year, FlickReels' number of launched creatives reached 147,000 groups (intelligently deduplicated, the same below), an increase of more than 150% compared with 58,000 groups in August. In the first half of October (October 1 to 15) just passed, the number of FlickReels' launched creatives reached 169,000 groups, exceeding the total number of creatives in the whole month of September.

Therefore, the substantial increase in advertising investment has significantly promoted the growth of FlickReels' data. The trend of FlickReels' downloads in the past 30 days is highly consistent with the trend of advertising investment, both reaching the peak in mid-October, which also indicates that FlickReels' downloads are significantly affected by traffic investment.

② From the perspective of launched dramas, dramas such as Fifty Cents to Find My Billionaire Dad, Testing Love: Married to a Crippled Billionaire and Even Billionaires Beg to Borrow From Me have successively ranked at the top of the overseas short drama hot list and overseas AI drama list.

At the same time, the top 3 short dramas launched by FlickReels in the past 90 days are consistent with those in the past 30 days, all being the above three dramas. In particular, the first two dramas have about 17,000 groups of creatives, which is significantly higher than other dramas, showing an overwhelming leading advantage.

Therefore, on the whole, the reason for this round of explosive growth of FlickReels' data may be driven by the hit dramas and the overall increase in traffic investment.

III. Hit Short Dramas Drive FlickReels' Data Explosion

It is not difficult to find that the core factor of this round of FlickReels' data explosion is the two hit dramas. It is also a normal logic to increase advertising investment with the help of hit dramas to obtain more downloads and revenue.

So what kind of magic do these two hit dramas have?

Let's first look at Fifty Cents to Find My Billionaire Dad. In terms of theme and content, this drama belongs to the type of "cute kid looking for biological parents + rich family redemption". It tells the story that a little girl was illegally adopted by a family, suffered a lot of abuse, and after being driven out of the house, she accidentally found that the characteristics of the girl on a missing child poster were consistent with herself, so she used the only two coins left on her to contact the number on the poster, and finally found her billionaire biological father.

It is not difficult to find that from the beginning of "finding a billionaire father with the last two coins", this drama already has a strong emotional hook, and elements such as identity reversal, family and emotional redemption are well presented in the drama.

Another drama Testing Love: Married to a Crippled Billionaire belongs to the "true love test" theme. It tells that the male protagonist, the richest man in the world, does not want to marry a gold digger, so he pretends to be a disabled person to participate in a blind date for a "true love test". The female protagonist's cousin dislikes him and coaxes the female protagonist to go to the appointment instead of herself. By accident, the two come together. In order to carry out the "true love test", the billionaire male protagonist not only has to maintain the illusion of a poor disabled person, but also constantly hide his real identity.

The whole drama not only has the sweet and loving atmosphere between the male and female protagonists, but also has various funny plots during the "true love test", which perfectly integrates sweet romance, domineering CEO and comedy elements.

In terms of data, thanks to the unique setting and plot of the dramas, these two dramas have successively ranked at the top of the overseas AI drama weekly list before.

Generally speaking, among the short dramas launched by FlickReels in the past 30 days, the number of creatives of the top 3, especially the top 2 short dramas, is significantly higher than that of other dramas, which means that its traffic investment resources are concentrated in a small number of dramas verified by the market, rather than simply relying on the volume of new dramas to expand the scale.

Whether FlickReels can continue its recent strong performance in the future, the core may lie in whether there are new hit dramas to take over. The DataEye Research Institute will continue to pay attention to what adjustments FlickReels will make in its advertising investment strategy and content supply in the next step.