The ongoing original series made by LeTV, had been watched some 1.5 billion times as of Tuesday, ushering a new era for original programming by online video companies

The ongoing original series made by LeTV, had been watched some 1.5 billion times as of Tuesday, ushering a new era for original programming by online video companies

Adapted from an online novel, the 35-episode series is a comedy about how a modern playboy accidentally time-travels to a fictional dynasty and unexpectedly turns into a crown princess and then an Empress Dowager

The series, which broadcasts one episode a day, has yet to conclude. The final episode will be released online on Saturday

The series has been described as "addictive" by netizens because once viewers see an episode－about 20 to 30 minutes in length－they invariably start following the series.The settings, props and costumes are so different from TV costume dramas that they have become hot topics for discussion on social media

Data on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, shows that as of Tuesday, discussions on the series had attracted more than 2 billion clicks

The series is so popular that many of its viewers, who are college students, complain online that it distracts them from their studies

The rating of Go Princess Go on the film-review website Douban is much higher than another popular series, Legend of Miyue, which features well-known directors and popular stars

But despite its huge popularity online, Jin Bo, a commentator, says on his WeChat account that it is a "lousy drama series because of its weak plot"

He says that the series is trying its best to cater to the "low-brow tastes" of its young audience, a common phenomenon in film and TV circles

He says that high-quality films and TV dramas in China get little attention and earn poorly, as compared with such offerings which often earn big bucks

"It’s a series targeting those born in the 1990s and later. We did a lot of research and wove fresh and fashionable elements into it to appeal to the youth," says Gan Wei, executive producer of Go Princess Go. The actors and actresses are also young. The lead actor is 24, and the actress is 26

Gan says that the huge popularity of the show among teenagers, college students and even office workers is beyond her expectation.For a series where all the cast, from the director to the lead actors and actresses, are new faces, it is really hard to believe that it has won so many fans in such a short span of time

Gan says the total investment in the series is about 20 million yuan ($3 million). It isn’t a big budget when compared with its rivals

The popularity of original series made by streaming companies did not happen overnight. Instead, it’s a trend with roots in the growing years of the Internet as evident from the fan base of such programs. The majority of such fans were born in the Internet era and are used to doing everything online

For them, the line between reality and virtual life is blurred. They love to chat online and share views with others, also online, explaining why fans of Go Princess Go love it so much