Micro dramas are short-form vertical shows lasting just one-to-two minutes per episode. And they have rapidly become a sensation in Asia. These compact dramas feature fast-paced plots, unexpected twists and cliffhangers, and a limited number of characters, making them easy to digest and enjoy in quick bursts.
In today’s fast-paced and highly stimulated world, short-form content is thriving because it fits seamlessly into people’s busy schedules and caters to their declining attention spans. This is the type of content that viewers can consume quickly during short breaks or on the go.
As of June 2024, viewers for mini-dramas accounted for 52.4% of total internet users (1.1 billion) in China, while the proportion of web users accessing short-form video in all its guises stood at 95.5%.
Major streaming platforms in China, such as Tencent, IQIYI, and Youku, all have dedicated short drama and microdrama sections. And, across other parts of Asia, companies like FlexTV (based in Singapore) are also growing.
According to a report by iiMediaResearch, the Chinese micro-drama market is likely to grow to 37.39 billion yuan (more than $5.2 billion) in 2023, up a staggering 267.65 percent year-on-year — and projected to exceed 100 billion yuan by 2027. In the third quarter of 2023 alone, 150 micro-dramas, nearly double the total for the whole of 2022, were released.
In 2023, Kuaishou (a major Douyin/TikTok competitor) had 270M daily active users for microdramas (70% of Kuaishou’s total DAU), with over 94M being paid users or those watching more than 10 episodes a day, an annual increase of over 52%. There are over 100,000 microdrama channels on Kuaishou alone.
Globally, micro drama apps have experienced rapid growth and, along with it, increased global monthly spending. According to data from analytics provider Appfigures, in the first quarter of 2024 alone, 66 short drama apps achieved a record-breaking $146 million in global consumer spending.
Insights provider Sensor Tower further reported there were 55 million downloads of micro drama apps as of February 2024. Micro drama apps like ReelShort, DramaBox, and ShortMax all regularly rank highly on the Google Play store in the entertainment category, too.
Microdramas and interactive fiction also share the increasingly robust adoption of AI. Apps like ReelShort rely not only on algorithmically generated titles that optimize for the click-through rate (like "Snatched a Billionaire To Be My Husband") but also use AI to write the entire script.
Many globally popular shows are adapted from existing Chinese microdramas, in which case, AI is leveraged not only to translate scripts before reshooting a series with Western-looking actors, but in some cases to “replace Chinese faces with Western ones” to avoid reshooting at all. This strategy has spawned a cottage industry of “AI face-swapping services” for as little as 50,000 RMB ($7.1K) per series. Considering that filming internationally often costs $100,000 to $150,000 (about six times more than filming in China), AI-face swapping can seem a prudent choice, even if the implementation still often falls short as “there is no widely acclaimed model available.”
References to read up:
https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/inside-the-rise-of-micro-dramas--and-the-opportunities-for-marketers/en-gb/6981#:~:text=Micro dramas are short-form,and enjoy in quick bursts.