Online-video sites in China, unlike their equivalents in the West, do not heavily rely on content generated by users. Rather, they produce or commission shows and programmes themselves.
Overall, Chinese internet users appear to have less passion in producing online videos, though once in a while there might be one or two videos that are genuinely creative and can go viral. Tight regulation on content is one of the factors that repress their creativity. The authorities have various reasons to censor content. Another negative factor is that the monetisation schemes provided by the homegrown online-video sites are not quite luring and the rules about monetisation are murky.
Meanwhile, Chinese people are increasingly dropping their remote controls and picking up digital devices to watch TV shows. As it is hard for young people to buy their own house and most of them live in a shared space, a television is not as cost-effective as a laptop. The change of viewing behaviours in China is further accelerated by the monotonous propaganda on the state-owned media. This shift is taking place in this country much faster than that in the West. Now even though the television stations have come up with creative shows, like singing competitions and dating shows, in a hope to keep the viewers stay, they have to migrate their new shows onto the internet as well, because the majority of the younger generations watch shows on the computer rather than the tele. A typical young Chinese viewer watch variety shows on online-video sites while having his or her lunch, from time to time stopping to post a comment over the ongoing video.
If we take a look at the online self-made shows since 2009, we will find that melodramas and comedies account for over 70% of all the shows. These two genres are those sites’ strengths as well as the first option for entry-level producers. Yet online-video sites cannot solely rely on them. Self-made comedies lack cultural value. They are mostly duplicating and following what is trendy online, rather than leading the popular culture online. The problem is that these comedies will someday be running out of jokes from online popular culture. And they may well become homogenised too.
Many of these shows are vulgar and low in quality. Most self-made comedies are low both in terms of production and taste, which makes some viewers uncomfortable. Under the circumstances of the country, that could cause tight regulation on this industry.
Features of the young viewers
The biggest audience for these shows are the younger generations, post-90 and 2000s. The biggest feature of the post-90s is that they are anti-authoritarian. They have two extreme conditions. One is they can go to extremes to support the celebrities they like. They can get more wildly than the older generations—fans of the post-70 and 80s—do. They are more organised in supporting their idols. Those big fans unions are being led by the post-90s. They show discipline and are organised. The other condition is that they despise authorities. They hate to be lectured. But they like conversations where both sides are equal, and the topic interests them.
The post-90s inherit both the shortcomings and the strengths of the post-80s. They are more outgoing. If they like it, they would express that directly and explicitly. If they don’t like it, they would express that without reservation. By contrast, the post-80s tend to be more reserved.
As of the post-2000s, they are even more outgoing than the post-90s. They want the narrative pace to be faster and the information density higher. That has to do with their quicker reaction, a result of the fact that they come in contact with technology at an early age.