Venture capitalists and startups convened at the Conrad Beijing hotel in mid-December, looking to exploit the newest phenomenon in Chinese media: the mini soap opera.
Unlike traditional TikTok clips, which often revolve around goofy challenges or lip-syncing dances, mini dramas are professionally produced series for the web, with clear storylines and big cliffhangers. Clips run just 60 to 90 seconds and a series can span more than 50 episodes.
The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband, one of the industry’s biggest hits of 2023, takes all of 100 seconds to tell the story of a woman who was forced into a marriage with a “loser and an ex-con” in order to pay her mother’s medical bill.
Spurred by advertising sales and spending by viewers, revenue in the mini-drama industry surged 35% to 50.44 billion yuan ($6.91 billion) last year, surpassing China’s box office, according to a government-backed industry association. Half of China’s billion-plus internet users are watching mini dramas, and more than a third of them scroll through short dramas every day.
“I see mini dramas becoming a dominant form of entertainment, potentially even outpacing the traditional film market in a few years,” said Joey Jia, chief executive officer of ReelShort, which released The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband.
Mini dramas first popped up in China in 2018, not long after the debut of TikTok. Companies such as Kuaishou Technology and Tencent Holdings Ltd. attracted tens of millions of younger viewers who habitually scroll screens for new stories and trending videos.
The growth of these platforms has forced China’s biggest players in streaming film and TV to embrace short-form programming. iQiyi Inc. and Tencent, the Chinese equivalents of Netflix and Hulu, are now starting to the license short-form dramas for their local customers as well as for their viewers overseas.
“China has a strong supply chain for mini dramas — nowhere else in the world can compete,” said Reeves Deng, a former venture investor from Shenzhen who started the short-drama company Luckyshort. “What we are essentially doing is to bring people pleasure — at lower costs and higher frequencies.”
Producers in China now churn out 5,000 to 8,000 new mini-drama series a year, 10 times the tally for the rest of the world, according to Deng. Thousands of new companies registered as short-drama businesses in 2024, according to the industry report.
Because of intensifying competition, production costs are soaring. But these dramas still cost just tens of thousands of dollars to make — far less than the average TV show. They can generate millions of dollars in sales through a mix of advertising and by charging users to finish the story. After binge-watching the first few episodes of a show, users have to spend money to unlock the rest of the show or watch ads in between episodes.
Many of the biggest players in short-form dramas are now looking to expand abroad to grow their business and sidestep domestic censorship. In November, Beijing issued new guidelines aimed at discouraging content creators from producing stories that glorify materialism or promote the idea of marrying into wealth, which could force platform operators to find other viral storylines.
ShortMax, one of the most-downloaded mini-drama apps globally, is expanding in Asia with localized content in multiple languages, while US-listed Mega Matrix’s platform eyes to enter the Middle East. South Korea’s Tving, India’s JioCinema and Indonesia’s largest local video service Vidio are also preparing to release short-form content. Industry executives estimate the overseas short-drama industry grew to around $2 billion last year.
An increasing number of players from China have set up production bases in the US, hoping to replicate the success of TikTok. They’re working with talent who can speak both English and Chinese.
These mini-drama streaming services bait people on popular social platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, X and TikTok with minute-long episodes and then direct viewers to their own platforms.
With extensive teams of engineers and scriptwriters based in mainland China, the platforms have maintained low production costs and utilize Chinese expertise in their content. To capture the attention of Western audiences, they bring in a small production team in the U.S. or partner with local studios, leveraging Hollywood’s resources.
ReelShort, operated by Crazy Maple Studio in Sunnyvale, California, has signed up more than 10 million monthly active users since its 2022 debut, and is trying to expand in Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific with offerings of 16 languages.
By adapting licensed Chinese stories to the US market, with American actors playing romantic or sometimes cheesy and fantasy roles, ReelShort has attracted female viewers who want to watch short soap operas.
Foreign-owned short-drama platforms could face significant challenges in the U.S., where the government has shown a greater willingness to punish or ban Chinese companies. Due to growing concerns that TikTok is both a data security risk and a propaganda tool of the Chinese state, the social app was ordered to find a buyer or face a shutdown under the U.S. law.
China’s tech and online industry is also well-known for its intense but shortlived fads—money tends to pile into the newest hot thing before moving elsewhere. Already some industry executives worry about the phenomenon’s longer-term outlook.
For now, though, executives are undeterred. People “want to consume this anytime, not like spending hours watching a film at the theater,” said Nan Yapeng, vice president at Crazy Maple Studio. “This mini drama provides users the flexibility to consume the content in a very short time.”