Taipei, Taiwan – A hockey player of small towns that has become a national superstar, a high school girlfriend who is scrubbing bathrooms and a secret that will change everything:
“You can never discover a daughter!“
The series of the series for “Breaking The Ice” has all the distinctive characteristics of a dramatic and cheesy saga, of deception and betrayal, all in 132 seconds, the perfect length for the generation of Tiktok and Reels (the many mini “ice” episodes have generated 272.9 million visits).
“Breaking The Ice” is one of the micro dramas that can be found in the Reelshort application. Fan of rapid successes can generally unlock new episodes seeing ads, paying by clip or registering for unlimited visualization.
(Rachel Bencosme / Reelshort)
“I thought, 'Oh, my God, I have to know how this ends,'” said Shannon Swicegood, a 31 -year -old mother in Columbia, SC, moving to see the next two episodes in the Reelshort application.
The shows, known as micro dramas or vertical dramas, remember soap operas or soap operas, but are generally divided into 50-100 small chapters. Users can unlock new episodes seeing ads, paying by clip or registering for unlimited visualization. SwicEgood, for example, pays an annual rate of $ 200 to stagger for continuous access to romantic novels: windfolded hair, burning looks, bright mills and adorable children who can ask: “Are you really my dad?”
Her husband likes to make fun of her to see her “little dirty shows”, with her extravagant and cheesy plot lines. But SwicEgood believes that they are filling a vacuum between transmission networks. “I don't feel that [the streamers] They are dating anything that attracts the demographic group in which I am, ”said Swicegood. “Instead of sitting and trying another show about someone who solves a crime, I can lift the drums and simply see two people fall in love.”
The micro dramas emerged in China as well as watching short vertical videos on smartphones became a cornerstone of everyday life. According to Dataye, a digital research firm based in Shenzhen, micro dramas revenues reached $ 6.9 billion in China last year, exceeding national box office sales for the first time. Tower sensor, a market intelligence firm that tracks mobile application data, reports that short drama applications outside China earned $ 1.2 billion in 2024, with 60% of that from the United States
In comparison, the income of the United States box office was approximately $ 8.75 billion in 2024.
For now, the American micro drama market is dominated by Reelshort, based in Silicon Valley, which has surpassed more than 40 rival international applications in mobile downloads and income, according to a report last year by Tower sensor.
Five years ago, another American company, Quibi, launched by Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenburg, tried to rebuild the video business shortly, but the effort closed less than seven months after its launch. Investors were told that the service could not attract viewers willing to pay to see their programs. Can this wave of new platforms reconfigure the global entertainment industry while fighting with the transmission wars, the increase in production costs and a slow return to cinemas?
A funeral for a young woman who was destined to marry a divorced pig breeder, a horrified crowd that observes her arising from the dead and a terrifying understanding.
“I have traveled over time!”
The first episode of “I became a stepmother in the 1980s” hooked to Selina Huang in micro dramas. His popularity increased during the pandemic, and Huang, a 20 -year -old university student in Xi'an, China, became obsessed with the brief mobile shows during a vacation with his family. “The way they could quickly cause emotions we were so excited that we couldn't stop,” he said. “It was like a completely new world for us.”
“Baby Trapped by The Billonario” is a program of the size of a bite with 49 episdoes in the Reelshort application.
(Rachel Bencosme / Reelshort)
His brevity also meant that he could fit in a show during the time of the food or among the classes once he returned to school, although, sometimes, starting a series before the bed would lead to an involuntary night.
She said she spends around $ 1.40 to $ 2.75 to access a complete show when she is too impatient to wait through ads and estimates that she has seen more than 100 titles.
Joyce Yen, a producer and former screenwriter in China, moved to the micro drama industry in 2022. Compared to a traditional television or transmission program, vertical dramas are significantly cheaper to produce, he said. A series of approximately 20 or 30 episodes, each of approximately half an hour, could cost more than $ 8 million. A series of micro drama could be shot for only $ 14,000, although he said that the average is closer to $ 110,000.
Cassandra Yang, founder of a Chinese distribution company and micro drama content license called Risingjoy, points out that micro dramas can obtain profits in one or two months, compared to films made for the big screen.
“It is a very exciting sign for us compared to the traditional film and the traditional television series, because it has more flexibility and more imagination,” said Yang, who was the chief of content in Turner's transmission system in China before he closed in 2019.
For now, most micro dramas that Risingjoy distributes are made in China, where the nascent industry is the most mature. But eventually, Crete Yang, the production of location will be necessary to expand better in promising markets, including Japan, Korea and Singapore.
Meanwhile, the United States is one of the fastest growing markets for micro dramas, along with Indonesia, Brazil, India and Mexico.
“I think each region has great potential,” said Yang. “But I have to say that everyone wants to enter the US market, because the ROI is better.”
The CEO of Reelshort, Joey Jia, says that the greatest advantage of micro dramas is the ability to constantly adapt based on how the public responds to the content of the platform. He founded the study seven years ago, but it took time to discover what worked. The company turned from mobile games to interactive stories to mini dramas. At that time, he said that the application retention rate was close to a single digit, and 80% of the dramas failed to obtain a audience.
The production of many variations of similar stories structures to see which ones they managed to take the company to a content library that is full of titles such as “the double life of my multimillionaire husband” (451.2 million views), “playing with the multimillionaire rules” (26 million opinions) and “baby trapped by the Billonario” (32.9 million opinions).
“We know what story you can earn more money and what history has problems,” said Jia. “That is the missing portion for traditional Hollywood. They do not have a feedback cycle. “
Jia estimates that Reelshort launched almost 200 titles last year, and aims to double that this year. In September, the company opened a study in Los Angeles. He said that while he believes that some content, such as franchises that depend largely on a fictional world or characters like Star Wars or James Bond, has no micro dramas suit, hopes to expand to other genres such as science fiction or reality television.
“The most important question is: 'How fast can the micro drama evolve?'” He asked. “I still see the short drama like a baby who grew very fast.”
According to Dataye, a digital research firm based in Shenzhen, micro dramas revenues reached $ 6.9 billion in China last year.
(Rachel Bencosme / Reelshort)
Katherine Ford, a 47 -year -old primary school teacher in Kernersville, North Carolina, would eventually like to see Reelshorts expand its content as well.
After she ran out of English, she began to see Asian micro dramas, which she generally has better values of action, writing and production. She hopes that in the next six months you can diversify more, to period dramas or old westerns or stories with large women.
For now, he is paying $ 5 per week to reproduce his favorites dozens of times, including “play for the multimillionaire rules”, “The double life of my multimillionaire husband” and “baby trapped by the billionaire.”
Ford's family is also subscribed to Netflix, Disney Plus and Peacock. But if it was about choosing one, Ford does not know if he could give up Reelshort. “I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's my guilty pleasure clock and I enjoy it, even though it is really cheesy.”
Times Special correspondent Xin-Yun Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.
