Last week, Google TV gathered about 50 global executives in Playa Vista to discuss short dramas. According to Reelshort’s analyst Hernan Lopez, Joey Jia was among those present.
The Chinese trained by the University of Utah is the CEO of, the studio that entered the list of the most influential companies of the 2024 Time100, and was responsible for developing the application.
Time published a 11 -minute reading about him last November. And Jia’s trajectory helps to understand why he became a reference in this format.
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Reelshort’s biggest success so far is, which has arrived close to 500 million views. Just to contextualize: the first season of Round 6 From Netflix had 265 million views by the end of 2024.
Jia founded Crazy Maple Studio eight years ago. It started as an intellectual property monetization platform (PI), focused on visual, webnovelas. In 2022, however, he realized that something big was rolling at Tiktok and Douyin in China.
“People post short videos. It’s a different version of Youtube. And some creators started filming short stories, short drama … and the audience loved it.”
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As well pointed out the analyst Hernan Lopez, when Google calls executives from around the world to discuss a format, it is because it has already surpassed the territory of passing fashion. And Jia has known this for three years: vertical videos, in minutes, point to the future of entertainment.
How microdramas work
Lopez defines short dramas as 60 to 90 minutes vertical series, divided into episodes of 1 to 2 minutes. After 10 episodes, the user finds a barrier: watch ads, pay with coins or sign to continue.
The style combines the visual speed of soap operas, the aesthetics of Tiktok and the logic of reality TV. The production model is lean: $ 100,000 to $ 150,000 per series, about 1/40 of the cost of a traditional US drama. Only recently the main apps raised the budget to $ 250,000 to $ 350,000.
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While Google debated the future in California, SBT and Globo put the shape on the map of Brazil.
SBT launched six days ago, a fictitious reality with six actors of children’s soap operas, in partnership with the Iris Abravanel nucleus. The series is multiplatform: 90 seconds on Instagram, 10 minutes on YouTube, without open TV display.
Globo answered announcing 100% vertical pilot with Jade Picon, directed by Adriano Melo. The distribution will be by Tiktok and its own platforms. The influencer accumulates 10.7 million followers on the video platform.
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From marginality to mainstream
Although the short format exists a century ago, Lopez recalls that its history was marked by marginalization. Oscars have rewarded short since 1932. In the past decade, Emmys added the category from 2011.
Until recently, the format was seen as “second echelon”: it did not attract cinema, TV or streamers.
YouTube has created a system to monetize short content without prioritizing scripted narratives. Tutorials, unboxings, comedy, and even elaborate videos like Mr. Beast’s prospered. But short dramas had no sustainable UX and economy. Now it has changed.
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Lopez Question: If finally there is a system to finance short -format scripts, will this trigger a golden age?
Analyst projections show that short dramas apps should earn $ 3 billion by 2025 (outside China). Almost triple 2024. The two largest players are Reelshort and DramaBox.
There are still about 200 other apps in the world, and the first 20 concentrate 90% of revenue.
Together they reach 250 million active users per month. It is not the size of Netflix, but it is already relevant even in the United States, where 10% of smartphone users use any of these apps.
Outside China, the US is the largest market. Then come Asia Pacific (without China), Europe and Latin America.
Funnel’s economy and the copied model of games
The media analyst ADI TIWARY has broken down the economy behind this phenomenon. The reason why short dramas became financially viable, and what makes them profitable is that they basically copied the Mobile Games monetization model.
It all revolves around a cliffhangers funnel (when the story ends abruptly) and virtual pennies, a strategy that transforms those who only consume content in those who pay for it. In practice, it works like this:
- First Dose Free: 8 to 10 episodes in Tiktok or Youtube leave the hooked viewer
- Progressive paywall: From episode 11, currency to currency, minute by minute
- Trade in the middle of the plot: clothes, cosmetics or props appear in history and are sold in the app
Reelshort has also sought a coupon system that encourages the app’s daily use and allows the user to watch more episodes before hitting Paywall.
To understand the potential of this format, just look at the podcast trajectory.
In 2016, when Wonder was founded, Lopez recalls that the sector’s annual advertising revenue was $ 100 million. Only 20% of Americans listened to podcasts monthly.
Short dramas, in turn, are already starting at a more robust level. Although only 10% of US smartphone users have accessed one of the main 20 apps of its kind in the last month, this number tripled in a year. In the US country alone it moves $ 1.3 billion.
To reach this level of revenue, the podcasts took until 2021, when they finally won 40% of monthly listeners in the country, according to Edison Research. That is: short dramas generate more money, with less audience, in much less time.
While the podcasts, mostly free and financed by ads, have always fought to convince the public to pay for content, the short dramas were born under a freemium model, and can already monetize aggressively.
Generation Z and Clipping
In the same week of the Google TV meeting in Playa Vista, journalist Matthew Frank highlighted in his bulletin: Generation Z only watches TV through social clips. And Hollywood is in trouble.
Frank detailed how clips became key pieces in the digital ecosystem. Studios and streamers now distribute short scenes, both to official channels and obscure profiles. They even pay specialized groups, such as the clip, to saturate networks with edited content. Independent breeders profit on someone else’s pi, gaining followers and monetizing what is not yours.
And this works: 71% of young people discover series and movies from Tiktok cuts, according to QuickPlay.
This behavior strengthens the appeal of microdramas: fast consumption, mobile-first and distributed on social surfaces
In Lopez’s words, Tiktok dominated the art of “Come for an hour, stay for an hour.” Then, Instagram, Youtube and Facebook copied the model. In August alone, these four apps totaled 200 billion hours of mobile display. A number that equates to what Netflix generates in an entire year on all platforms.
From romance to sport
So far, dominant genres are romance and suspense. But the mechanics-rapid pace, mobile-first design and AI-supported production-can overflow to the sport.
The observation is by Carlo de Marchis, who was already warning in June: this format can create new categories of media rights that the leagues have not even considered. Currently, rights are restricted to live broadcasts, best moments and file images.
The discussion comes back after the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, last week:
“This is a sports very highlighted.”
The statement, on the eve of the debut of the new $ 77 billion media contract in the league, annoyed part of the superfan, who interpreted it as a little timeless to the full game.
Despite the negative repercussion, the speech was distorted in different contexts. Dan Shanoff of The Athletic believes that Silver would have said something like “A sport much based on better moments” (which is true) and not “Only the best moments matter”. In his view, the commissioner only recognized the variety of input points for the NBA fandom.
Two months ago, Chris Eyerman showed how two viral moves of Job Morant last season totaled 286 million views. Brands pay $ 10 to $ 18 cpm for this type of content, double the normal. This generated between $ 2.9 mi and $ 5.1 million in paid media, and up to $ 16 million with organic included.
That is: sports highlights are all about the logic of microdramas. They are short, addictive and perfect narratives for the cell phone
What is at stake
The phenomenon of microdramas points to something beyond a passing format: it is a consumer reconfiguration.
As you observed from marchis, the central advantage of these contents is to create daily consumption habits, not to hold the viewer to a fixed time. This logic of engagement is opposite to traditional media and requires completely new thinking about frequency and content structure.
Jia had already told Time: Traditional media takes too much time to create. Data is missing to guide optimization as it invests heavily at the beginning, without public feedback during the process.
For Broadcasters and Streamers, it is necessary to understand that the mobile-first requires more agile OTT services, designed for social logic.
Despite the growing appeal, there are caveats. As a warning TIWARY: Microdramas will not build the next Marvel.
In the end, the Chinese model prioritizes “sticky” ecosystems, which retain, while the West focuses on sharp conversion funnels. The two print money, but in radically different ways.
The difference is that now, the short format is no longer supporting to dispute the center of entertainment.
