Mango TV aims to create a short drama based on the popular IP "My Fair Princess".

No long-video platform can ignore the fierce power of short dramas.

So a significant trend change that emerged in 2024 is that long-video platforms have collectively turned to attack short dramas, especially Mango, which has made frequent moves in short dramas this year.

Recently, in the 2025 Mango Ecology Expansion Conference, the new six Mango platforms consisting of Hunan Satellite TV, Mango TV, Golden Eagle Cartoon, Xiaomang, Shan Hai, and Feng Mang made their first collective appearance. In addition to releasing more than 100 dramas, 100 variety shows, more than 100 large-scale events, evenings and concerts, etc., in the hot field of micro short dramas, Mango has also brought more than 120 micro-drama and micro-variety works.

Going back to an earlier time, since January this year, Hunan Satellite TV has launched the first micro short drama theater "Daman Theater" in the evening time slot. At the end of August, it officially announced the planning of creating the "730 Daman Theater" and other plans, pushing micro short dramas to prime time. During this year's National Day Golden Week, a special "730 Daman Short Drama Special Exhibition Belt" was also specially opened, testing a new model of gathering 6 works and launching one every day.

At the same time, this year, a Micro Innovation Center has been specially established to create a "concentration training camp" for a new content direction and a new business model, strengthen the Mango TV Daman Project, upgrade "Feng Mang", and vigorously promote the Mango Short Drama "Spark Project", etc.

Among them, the positioning of the Micro Innovation Center in the Mango ecosystem is to contribute "micro power" to create a Mango super platform that integrates "long, medium and short", and become a new bright spot for the growth of radio and television business. It covers all dimensions from specific content production to brand marketing, interactive game development, and commercial monetization.

The Daman Project is an institution that deeply cultivates the micro short drama track under the overall layout of the Micro Innovation Center. Feng Mang is a short-video platform with "micro short dramas as the core" newly laid out by Hunan Radio and Television Group.

With the development of micro short dramas being elevated to the group strategic level by Hunan Radio and Television, Mango's thinking on the content and commercialization of micro short dramas has become increasingly clear. Taking this opportunity, we talked to Zhou Qiu, General Manager of the Mango TV Daman Project Studio, and Chen Yafei, the person in charge of the Feng Mang app, about more stories about Mango micro short dramas.

Abundance, Quality and Big IPs

For Mango micro short dramas, 2024 is the beginning of an initial harvest.

According to Zhou Qiu, Mango has always adhered to a diversified content ecosystem, covering various themes such as sweet love, counterattack, family, ancient style, suspense, etc., to meet the viewing needs of different users. Among them, the high-quality micro short dramas such as "Hard to Find" and "Folding Eyebrows" have reached a high production level in terms of picture, sound effect, and editing, enhancing the viewing experience of users.

Secondly, Mango TV has launched more than 10 micro short dramas related to cultural tourism, and 7 of them have been included in the recommended list of the General Administration. At the same time, through IP derivation and linkage, IP-derived micro short dramas such as "Can't Hide the True Identity of Going Through Thorns and Breaking Brambles" and "Flowers Blooming and Restarting Life" have further expanded the market space of micro short dramas.

As a platform with the most top variety show IPs in the market, Mango's variety show-derived micro dramas are one of the explorations to maximize the value of IP. Zhou Qiu revealed that the derivative micro drama of "Going Through Thorns and Breaking Brambles" is actually a cross-border linkage between the operation planning team and the variety show team. The planning team customizes the script according to the characteristics of the guests, and the variety show team completes the artist communication, shooting and post-production in a very short time, and conducts a linked publicity and distribution during the update period. "This can show the advantages of the content production and operation system that we have accumulated over the years."

In the future, Mango TV has a layout plan for derivative content in the mystery variety show, music variety show and reality show tracks, and will be launched in combination with the needs of users and customers. On the one hand, it will insight into the needs of users and the market response of the programs, and plan the derivative content in advance with the production team. On the other hand, it will also be closely linked with the B-end market, explore the connection between customer demands and variety show IPs, and explore the way for the renewal of IP while running through the diversified monetization of IP.

After in-depth investment and preparation in all aspects, Mango's micro short dramas in 2025 will continue to sow seeds in a diversified content ecosystem and layout more themes.

Zhou Qiu said that they have also noticed that in micro short dramas, reality, ancient costume, and fantasy are themes that account for a relatively high proportion in both quantity and C-end payment. Therefore, next year, they have arranged multiple high-quality ancient costume-themed short dramas to drive C-end payment, covering popular tracks such as ancient idol dramas, revenge, and time travel. They will also boldly innovate and integrate styles in themes.

In addition, in realistic dramas, they will focus on topics with high topic degree and social attention such as native families, emotions, workplaces, parenting, and adolescent education. These are content reserves created for Mango's core female user group.

"At the same time, we will also join hands with top science fiction writers such as Liu Cixin and some top TV drama producers to test the water for some high-quality micro short drama series of emerging themes, hoping to expand the male user group and the 'silver-haired' group through the short drama track."

With the intensification of China's aging society, the elderly group has more leisure time and has a high viewing demand for micro short dramas with rich content. The consumption potential of the silver-haired group in the micro short drama market is gradually emerging.

In fact, Mango TV has already launched micro short dramas that focus on the "silver-haired group" at the beginning of the year. For example, "The World of Aunties New Year Special" jointly launched with Douyin has exceeded 500 million views of the main topic on Douyin within 5 days of its launch, and 23 related videos have received more than 10,000 likes. It ranked top 3 on the Maoyan Short Drama Weekly List within three days of its launch; the vertical screen short drama "Middle-aged Flash Marriage President Loves Me Fiercely" focuses on the emotional needs of the "silver-haired group".

In the future, Mango TV will also link with the large-screen end and Happigo, which mainly targets the "silver-haired" user group, to continue to explore the depth and breadth of the silver-haired theme, and launch more novel and creative micro short drama works. Gradually increase the proportion of micro short dramas with silver-haired themes to meet the viewing needs of the elderly group.

In the past, in terms of micro short dramas, Mango TV has pioneered many firsts. For example, last year, it promoted the first micro short drama to be broadcast on satellite TV in China; next year, it will once again "dare to be the first" in terms of content volume, and invest similar to long dramas to create 3 to 5 "super top" industry-top micro short dramas; carry out the adaptation of top IPs. Now it has cooperated with Qiong Yao on the high-concept adaptation version of "Return of the Pearl Princess", Ma Boyong's first supervised short drama "Young Hero's Counterattack Strategy", and Rao Xueman's first short drama "Actually Not the First Love", Liu Cixin and Chen Qiufan's first short drama "Monster Class Reunion", etc.

At the same time, it combines "culture + technology" with short dramas to produce the first VP virtual shooting micro short drama "Safe Evacuation of Cyber Century" and the interactive micro short drama "I'm Definitely the CEO!".

It is not difficult to see that multiple types, high-quality short dramas, and super top can be regarded as the core of Mango TV in micro short dramas in the next year, and perhaps it will bring some changes to the monotonous short drama content.

Pain Points and Solutions for Commercialization

In the past two years, the micro short drama industry has experienced wild growth and shown an unstoppable trend. At the same time, the existing problems are also obvious. The themes are filled with "counterattack", "dominant CEO", and "rebirth", and the production is relatively rough. Many works simply piece together some popular elements, lacking depth and innovation.

In order to improve the quality of micro short dramas and vigorously cultivate the content creation ecosystem, Mango TV has launched a talent support program such as the "Spark Project" to cultivate micro short content production and operation talents, and wants to optimize the script innovation and ensure the content quality through top screenwriters and director talents.

In 2024, micro short dramas that are paid by episode have become member content, which can be regarded as one of the major changes in the industry.

In terms of commercialization, the high-quality micro short dramas of Daman mainly adopt the "B + C" dual-end recovery model. For example, on the C-end, it is planned to drive member income by creating a category theater with a batch of top-quality medium dramas that have a strong driving force for user payment.

For brands, short dramas are gradually becoming an important carrier for marketing promotion, but they are nothing more than advertising implantation and customization. Mango TV attempts to change some traditional advertising sales models and bring an industry-unique "three-dimensional commercial resource matrix" such as theater naming rights + customized implantation + hard advertising + social media placement. In addition, it includes collaborating with local cultural and tourism institutions to make Daman's high-quality short dramas a business card for cultural and tourism publicity. At the same time, it collaborates with multiple e-commerce, social media, short-video platforms and terminal channels to improve the commercial closed loop in customized content and distribution.

At present, how to carry out retention and conversion is a common concern for brands. According to Chen Yafei, the person in charge of the Feng Mang app, Feng Mang will classify user groups for precise positioning; cooperate with industry leaders, and use the global channels to screen user tags for targeted placement for the brand, and return precise big data.

In addition, Mango TV has also released a partner recruitment plan externally, including content marketing partners, with the concept of "Seeing Brands through Micro Short Content", to tailor brand content. Amplify brand value through the serialization of IP; revenue-sharing partners, including cooperation methods such as content co-creation, talent co-cultivation, and revenue sharing. The former has been approved for the project "The Elderly Interesting Travel Agency" invested by Wuyou, and in the latter mode, "My Treasure Life", a life-experiment immersive reality show, has been jointly created with Xiaohongshu.

Chen Yafei said straightforwardly that they hope to redefine the relationship with the brand. The brand will be a partner of the hit micro short drama project. In addition to exposure and user coverage, the brand should also have a continuous positive return; the brand is also a co-producer, continuously enjoying the content revenue.

In terms of content distribution, Mango TV will also use the main station resources and user base to provide strong traffic support and promotion channels for micro short dramas. For example, it will build a Mango global ecological system, deeply integrate and link micro short dramas with other content forms (such as movies, TV series, variety shows, etc.). Through multi-platform and multi-terminal content distribution and operation, to product consumption on the Xiaomang e-commerce platform, the full-channel coverage and seamless connection of Mango TV content is realized.

"We want to truly integrate brand effect and performance, and let micro content break through large traffic. Activate all Mango's Blue V content accounts, pan-entertainment accounts, and talent accounts, together with social media matrices such as Video Accounts, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu. Not only to earn exposure and effect, but also to earn longer and farther post-link returns." Zhou Qiu said.