Big Entertainment 2024: Short dramas bring new employment opportunities, the education and training industry recovers, and the game industry temporarily suspends layoffs | Year-end Review of Workplace Benefits ①
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
In China's large-scale cultural and entertainment market, it gives the impression that it can always move forward despite the ups and downs. This may come from a certain love and tenacity within cultural and artistic workers.
The domestic micro-drama market has bid farewell to its wild growth, and the growth rate has slowed down. Refinement has become the next development direction for the short drama industry, and the demand for industry talents remains strong. Short drama companies are increasing their investment in domestic high-quality content, AI short drama creation, and the establishment of overseas distribution channels, resulting in a significant increase in job opportunities in related fields.
In the case of the relatively "loosened" education and training industry, a large number of talents are returning, and high salaries have become a new trend. The business focus of the education and training industry has also changed. From focusing on the K12 sector before the "Double Reduction" policy to gradually moving away from the K9 academic training business, quality education, overseas study education, vocational education, and AI education have become the new focus of the industry, bringing new employment opportunities.
In the game field, the pain of the layoff wave still persists, and the pace of layoffs and recruitment has slowed down. At the end of the year, there have been a concentrated number of anti-corruption incidents in major companies. In terms of recruitment, it has become more difficult to enter the industry, and the proportion of outsourcing has increased significantly. In the case where AI replaces some basic design positions, the market demand for positions such as art experts will continue to rise. Mini-program games, female-oriented games, and functional games have a broad market prospect, presenting a new recruitment trend.
Short Drama: Bidding Farewell to Wild Growth, with an Increase in Jobs and Salaries for Practitioners ╱ 01
Education and Training: Talent Return after Policy Relaxation, with High Salaries and Many Jobs ╱ 02
Games: Slowdown in Both Layoffs and Recruitment, with AI Replacing Some Positions and an Increase in Outsourcing ╱ 03
Short Drama: Bidding Farewell to Wild Growth, with an Increase in Jobs and Salaries for Practitioners
According to data from the China Netcasting Services Association [1], as of June 2024, the number of micro-drama users in China has reached 576 million, accounting for 52.4% of the total netizens. At the same time, the number of registered micro-drama-related enterprises continues to rise, with the number of enterprises exceeding 83,000.
The short drama industry has passed the stage of disorderly development and has officially entered the "2.0" era of refined content.
In 2024, the short drama market has evolved from being dominated by a single type of "sweet and spoiled" short drama to a diversified market with various themes, vertical audiences, and acceptable quality. Large companies and celebrities have joined in, and domestic short dramas have presented diverse business models, and overseas short dramas have also maintained growth.
The content diversification of short dramas is reflected in the differentiated strategies of various themes such as comedy, suspense, and family. "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf," as Stephen Chow's first short drama, has brought a new look to the short drama market with comedy elements such as talk shows and Northeastern dialect. Short dramas with suspense elements such as "Heart Examination" and "Silent Moment" have performed well in the first half of the year.
In the second half of the year, short drama companies began to focus on the middle-aged and elderly market. The brand Tinghua Island [2] produced the short drama "Flash Marriage with a Wealthy Partner," which became a phenomenal hit, achieving an ultra-high viewership of 1.6 billion in September. Then, "Flash Marriage at Fifty" and "The Old Cannon and His Son in Battle" were produced to target different middle-aged and elderly groups with different needs and genders.
These contents have concentrated on meeting the emotional needs of the audience. Young people can make use of their fragmented time to watch "cool dramas" and relieve stress through short dramas with small volume, short duration, and fast pace. Middle-aged and elderly people feel needed in them, and their underestimated family contributions, neglected emotional needs, and unfulfilled ideals are all fulfilled in the virtual world.
With the diversification of content production, the short drama market requires more talents in the production and operation ends. Data from the Big Data Research Institute of Liepin shows that from January to mid-March 2024, the employment market in the short drama industry is continuously expanding. The number of newly released positions has shown an upward trend compared to the same period last year, and the average annual recruitment salary is 170,600 yuan, which has also slightly increased compared to the same period last year. Among them, the demand for operation, actors (anchors), and editing ranks in the top three. The average annual recruitment salaries for content operation and e-commerce operation are the highest, at 209,800 yuan and 207,000 yuan respectively. However, a high salary also means a high-intensity job.
Excellent screenwriters and directors from the traditional film and television industry also have new career-changing opportunities. It is generally believed in the industry that the emergence of horizontal-screen short dramas has improved the quality of short dramas. The producers of horizontal-screen short dramas are usually from traditional film and television dramas or online movies, and they have more experience and advantages in scene scheduling and visual presentation.
It is worth noting that AI short drama works have appeared in China this year. On March 22, the AI channel of CCTV Video was launched, and the first AI full-process micro-drama "Chinese Mythology" was released. On July 12, Kuaishou's first AIGC original fantasy micro-drama "The Wonders of Mountains and Seas: Breaking Waves" held an offline screening. Technological innovation drives the development of the industry, and AI talents have also become a scarce resource in the short drama industry.
On the business side, long-video platforms are accelerating their layout in the short drama industry. "iQIYI, Youku, Tencent Video, and Mango TV" are constantly updating the platform's revenue-sharing rules to encourage horizontal-screen short drama suppliers to provide more excellent works. Youku has added a post-broadcast rating cooperation model, Tencent's micro-drama partners can obtain a maximum 80% share of the revenue, and iQIYI has extended the revenue-sharing period, etc.
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
The business model of short dramas has become more diverse this year, with the emergence of free short dramas and customized short dramas.
In the C-end, free short drama apps are catching up and seizing the short drama market. Data from QuestMobile shows that the monthly active users of Hongguo Short Drama, which takes free drama viewing as its core competitiveness, have exceeded 50 million, and the average daily usage duration per person per month has reached approximately 1.38 hours, even surpassing "iQIYI, Youku, Tencent Video, and Mango TV".
In the B-end, customized short dramas have become the best choice for merchants. In the first half of 2024, @Jiang Shiqi released 11 customized short dramas, with the highest one achieving a playback volume of 680 million.
After the completion of the domestic channel layout, short drama companies have chosen to go overseas one after another. As of the end of February 2024, more than 40 short drama applications have tested the overseas market, with a cumulative download volume of nearly 55 million times and an in-app purchase income of 170 million US dollars. The success of short dramas going overseas has brought more employment opportunities for Chinese international students with film and television production experience.
[1] Data source: "White Paper on the Development of China's Micro-Drama Industry (2024)", released by the China Netcasting Services Association.
[2] Tinghua Island: Tinghua Island is a Chinese short drama production team. Its main works include "I'm a Stepmother in the 1980s", "President Pei Wants to be a Father with His Son", "I Open a Supermarket on the Long March", "The Night is About to End", "Flash Marriage with a Wealthy Partner", etc.
Education and Training: Talent Return after Policy Relaxation, with High Salaries and Many Jobs
2024 is known as the "Year of Relaxation" in the education and training industry.
Since the "Double Reduction" policy was released on July 24, 2021, Internet education and training companies have finally seen the light. In February this year, the draft of the "Regulations on Off-Campus Training" was released, and the country's positioning of "making off-campus training a useful supplement to school education" has become increasingly clear. The regulations allow legal, reasonable, and compliant off-campus training institutions to operate, stabilizing the long-term development expectations of the industry and promoting the recovery and restoration of the sector's valuation.
The policy changes have led to changes in employment. According to the data from the "Quick Report on the Talent Market Hotspots in the First Quarter of 2024", in the first quarter of this year, the education and training industry has returned to the TOP 10 list of talent shortages. After the policy change, the employment in the education and training industry shows a dual trend: more jobs and higher salaries. Taking New Oriental as an example, at the end of 2022, Yu Minhong once revealed in his personal WeChat public account "Old Yu's Chitchat" that New Oriental still had approximately 50,000 employees. However, in August this year, the number of New Oriental employees has increased to approximately 75,000.
At the same time, New Oriental has launched the Early Batch - Top Talent Special Project, and its recruitment targets are graduates from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025. The positions include management trainee positions, teaching positions, competition positions, and product research and development positions, with the minimum salary of 280,000 yuan and the highest salary range of 500,000 - 600,000 yuan.
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
After the recovery of the education and training industry, we have found that K12 is still not the first choice. Job seekers who hope to work in the education and training industry can consider other trending directions in the education and training field. The new trending directions can be seen from the active changes of education and training companies after the "Double Reduction" policy. Taking TAL Education Group as an example, it has abandoned the K9 business and retained overseas study counseling and high school counseling, while actively embracing the AI + education approach.
Accordingly, according to the recruitment data in the first and second quarters of 2024, the recruitment growth rate of overseas study counseling and language training positions has ranked among the top 20. Among them, the recruitment growth rate of overseas study counseling in the education and training industry ranked fourth in the first quarter, reaching 52.5%, and although it slightly declined in the second quarter, it still had a growth rate of 31%.
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
After the transformation of training content, academic training has come to an end - Quality education is expected to fill the gap left by K9 academic training in education and training institutions. New Oriental has launched a "Humanities + Technology" dual-track business model. In the humanities field, courses including eloquence, handwriting, and art have been launched, focusing on cultivating students' humanistic literacy and artistic accomplishment, with a cumulative enrollment of over 200,000. In the technology field, courses such as programming, robotics, and scientific experiments have been offered, with 150,000 active learners in the quarter.
The recruitment positions for these quality education courses are concentrated in first-tier cities and economically developed areas. Taking the position of children's programming teacher for quality education as an example, in the first quarter of 2024, there were 452 positions based in Beijing and 338 positions based in Guangzhou. The recruitment positions are actually mainly in super-first-tier and first-tier cities, with new first-tier cities as a supplement.
The vocational and lifelong education market is showing an expansion trend. In 2024, the prosperity of the public examination continues to rise, and the number of applicants for the national and provincial examinations continues to increase, with the competition intensifying. Fenbi achieved an income of over 1.645 billion yuan in 24H1, with a year-on-year decrease of 3%; it achieved a net profit of 278 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 222%, and an adjusted net profit of 349 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 21%. In the third-quarter financial report released at the end of the year, the financial reports of the first three quarters of Huatuv Education, Fenbi, and Offcn were announced, all showing growth compared to the past.
Technology empowers educational innovation, and AI + education has become a new growth point. The "Xueersi" brand under TAL Education Group achieved a market share of 21.7% in the third-quarter learning machine market, with a year-on-year growth of 68.9%. It is particularly worth noting that high-end products priced above 4,000 yuan account for 90% of its sales.
AI learning machines not only have a high market share in China but also have seized a certain market overseas. Many Chinese AI education products represented by "Question.AI" of Zuoyebang and "Gauth" of ByteDance have achieved excellent results overseas with almost "dominant" download numbers and user scales. According to Qimai Data, the comprehensive learning product "Answer.AI" has been at the top of the US education free list since February this year.
We have noticed that the AI Self-Study Room, which is also popular in the same period, has emerged. Most self-study rooms are derived from large education and training institutions, either with top educational resources or offline classroom resources. Individuals who join the AI self-study room of an established education institution need to pay a franchise fee of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. Although the AI self-study room has expanded to county towns, it is still in