Youku Tudou tries to grab late-night audiences

At the end of last year, China's largest domestic video on demand service, Youku Tudou, announced that it was going to invest 300 million yuan ($48.1 million) into producing original programming, showing its determination to lead the self-produced content movement among online streaming video sites.

As part of this investment, on June 12, when attending the Shanghai TV Festival, Youku Tudou announced a new project aimed at releasing a series of programs and dramas to meet rising demand for late-night programming. The project includes purchasing the streaming rights to well received overseas late-night dramas such as Shinya Shokudo (Late-night Restaurant - a Japanese late-night drama first produced in 2009), producing their own dramas such as Midnight Taxi and cooperating with media companies to promote the company's block of middle-of-the-night programming.

The highlights of this announcement come down to the shows Shinya Shokudo and Midnight Taxi. Not only has the company's move to import the former captured the attention of the media, but its decision to work with the drama's Japanese production team to co-produce the latter has also raised interest in the drama. Broadcast rights to the latter have already been sold to the China's Travel Channel, and the show is scheduled to be shown on satellite TV stations and released online starting July 12.

"Tudou is targeting a young and fashionable audience. We want to cooperate with international teams to produce good dramas of high quality," said Chen Dairong, the general manager of Tudou's in-house production center.

Late-night demand

Chen told the Global Times that the company predicts a growing demand for late-night programming among Chinese audiences.

"There are an increasing number of people going to bed very late in modern cities, and they have a habit of watching dramas and shows at night. TV has also shown that prime time is getting later as many popular shows are now broadcast after 10:30 pm.

"This demand is not just related to time but also emotion. Our surveys show that at night people want to watch something that is warm and goes straight to heart. This is still a blank area in China's video market," said Chen.

To test the waters of late-night audience reaction, Youku Tudou has already begun putting the two seasons of Shinya Shokudo on tudou.com. The show takes place in a small restaurant only open between midnight and 7 am and focuses on the stories of the various customers who frequent the restaurant.

In less than a month, the 10-episode first season has already received over 4 million views online, while the first half of the second season received over 1 million views.

Hitoshi Endo, the producer of Shinya Shokudo, told the Global Times in an e-mail that he never predicted that his drama would gain so much popularity in China and South Korea, as they tried to express a totally "Japanese style" in the show. "But the emotions and humanity that exist among ordinary people are the same no matter what country you're from. The little details shown on screen are hard to describe with words. I think that's why what we've presented has been able to overcome the boundaries of different nationalities and languages," he wrote.

According to Chen, even before the show was formally imported into China, it had already accumulated a high number of fans, mostly among people working in the media and white-collar viewers with a high educational background.

The drama currently has a 9.3/10 on media review site douban.com, a rare high score, and numerous favorable reviews written by Chinese viewers.

"We imported it officially for those late-night fans, who used to watch it through illegal means, so they could enjoy this drama in high quality. We hope they will help us promote the concept of late-night shows," said Chen.

Local stories

Importing dramas doesn't seen to be enough for Youku Tudou. Through cooperation with Amuse Inc, the production company behind Shinya Shokudo, Chen wants to produce shows that are more suitable for Chinese audiences. To this end, Youku Tudou has invited Shinya Shokudo's original creative team, including Endo, to create the localized late-night drama Midnight Taxi.

A late-night setting, a mysterious man and a focus on the stories of strangers are some of the things Midnight Taxi and Shinya Shokudo have in common.

The new 10-episode Chinese show focuses on a night-time taxi driver played by Chinese actor Cheng Taishen, who listens to the stories of the customers that ride in his cab. However, unlike Shinya Shokudo, which was adapted from the award-winning manga of the same name, the stories in Midnight Taxi are all original creations.

"We wanted to keep the original tiny bit of warmth of daily life from Shinya Shokudo. We wanted to tell the stories of ordinary people so audiences could easily relate to the similar experiences, feelings and dreams of the characters in the show," said Chen.

Both finding the right place and setting the right atmosphere were key to the creation of the show. Like its counterpart in Japan, it had to take place in a public space where it would be easy for people to relax and let down their guard with a stranger. Somewhere people could get together and share the stories they've heard or experienced.

"We had ideas such as a midnight café or midnight flower shop, but we finally chose a taxi. I think most people in cities have taken taxies late at night. It's a public space but can be very private and is familiar to everyone," said Chen.

Coming from Japan

The current tense political relationship between China and Japan may not seem like the perfect time for cooperation between Chinese and Japanese entertainment companies, but in reality Chinese fans have never given up their passion for their Japanese idols.

Manabu Yamauchi from Amuse Inc was positive about future cooperation. "I hope to develop more business in China and I am looking forward to opportunities to cooperate with [Chinese] companies that are interested," Yamauchi wrote in an e-mail to the Global Times.

Amuse has encouraged its stars to attend Chinese events in recent years. A decision which seems to be working. After attending the Shanghai TV Festival in 2012, Japanese actor Masaharu Fukuyama gained over 2.3 million followers on Sina Weibo.