00:00I only owe my success to that secret CEO of Kings Corp.
00:03You will be groveling at my feet for forgiveness when you realize who I really am.
00:08Spoiler alert, that man earning a meager wage does in fact turn out to be the secret CEO of Kings
00:13Corp.
00:14This is one of the microdramas featured on Real Short, a Chinese-backed short video app.
00:19I'm willing to wager my entire reputation that this man is a useless loser.
00:24Welcome to the world of microdramas.
00:27Over the top storylines.
00:28Could he be someone dangerous?
00:30Jaw-dropping twists.
00:31He helped save my company.
00:33All packed into snack site vertical video clips.
00:35Fast, addictive, and ready to take over your feed.
00:39In the States, you have soap opera, you know, Bowling the Beautiful.
00:42And it's Bowling the Beautiful on steroid, basically.
00:45You've got to have a cliffhanger on every minute versus every hour.
00:51So everything is sweet, short, and sharp.
00:54They're tapping into the behavior of instant gratification.
00:57The way that you immediately are satisfied by seeing this story is what is the hook.
01:03It's a little over the top, but it's over the top that it's still entertaining, right?
01:07China's microdrama market exceeded 50 billion yuan, or approximately 6.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2024,
01:14outpacing China's own box office.
01:16And it now has its sights set on the U.S. market.
01:19Many microdrama producers believe because America produced Hollywood and it's probably the world's largest cultural export.
01:25If you can sell it to and make it appealing to the American public, you can then sell it and
01:30make it appealing to the rest of the world.
01:32So what is behind the popularity of China's microdramas?
01:35And can the nearly $7 billion industry become China's next big cultural export to disrupt the U.S. entertainment industry?
01:45Microdramas started in China, I believe, in around 2018.
01:49And they were sort of an offshoot and a way to capitalize on the trend and the popularity of short
01:56-form video,
01:56which was made popular by TikTok.
01:58The format itself has become increasingly popular amongst users.
02:03It's where their time is spent, which is why you saw Meta introduce reels to Facebook and Instagram,
02:10and why YouTube introduced shorts to capitalize on this short-form video content.
02:15In China, even though they have like IG and Tencent, they don't have Netflix.
02:19They don't have a lot of the Western apps they don't have.
02:22So they have to create their own.
02:24It all started with Douyin and also Kuaishou, as they started pushing these vertical short dramas on their platforms.
02:31Especially 2020, 2021, during the pandemic, dramas grew rapidly.
02:36Low-cost production, fast-paced nature, about 90 seconds to 120 seconds long.
02:43So whatever you have fragmented time you watch.
02:44It's not really about the quality, the cast, the story.
02:49It's really about how effective you are to grasp the audience within that second.
02:54And that's what gets people engaged, because it almost goes right into the crux of the story, wherever the drama
03:00is.
03:01Does it require any effort on the part of the user to just jump in and start to watch?
03:05These are like your telenovela, basically.
03:08When you look at the genres, a lot of romantic comedy, they have the vampire stories, they have like the
03:13tycoon stories.
03:15Unlike traditional big-budget TV series, microdramas offer producers a low-cost, high-reward format that's fast to make and
03:22easy to scale.
03:23The streaming companies, a huge cost center for them is content creation.
03:28For a short-form drama, you can get intriguing content at a much lower cost with a shorter production time,
03:34so you can have more volume.
03:36The leading apps can churn 8 to 10 shows a month.
03:40You're looking at like producing 100 original microdrama a year.
03:44They are usually taking unknown actors to play these parts.
03:49You're looking at anything from top to finish within two months versus a year and a half.
03:55China's microdrama market surpassed the film industry's annual box office revenue for the first time ever in 2024.
04:01Part of microdrama's growth is also attributed to the marketing strategies geared towards their intended audience, typically women between the
04:09ages of 25 to 35.
04:10They are able to produce it precisely, but also actually direct the marketing to the audience.
04:18Everything is on data.
04:19It's not just about content.
04:21It's the precision in production and marketing, which is, I think, is genius, actually.
04:29Major players actually wanted to go beyond China.
04:33The first place they looked at is U.S.
04:35Downloads of microdrama apps in the U.S. reached 10 million in April of 2025, an increase of 150%
04:42year-over-year, while monthly active users surged over 300% over the same period.
04:48Real Short, Drama Box, and Good Short were the top downloaded apps in the U.S. for microdramas.
04:55They accounted for about 50% of the downloads in year-to-date 2025.
05:00Real Short, Drama Box, and Good Short were unavailable to accommodate CNBC's requests to participate in the story.
05:07The U.S. is the world's largest revenue-generating market for microdrama apps, contributing 60% of global mobile revenue
05:14in 2024.
05:15In addition, the three short drama apps rank among the top 20 media and entertainment apps in the U.S.
05:21by mobile revenue so far this year.
05:23So the U.S. is very important to microdrama apps because it is a higher ARPU, average revenue per user
05:29market.
05:30So that means that they can charge more per user.
05:33The cost of the app when they monetize it is higher in the U.S.
05:38With the popularity of microdramas steadily rising in the U.S., the question becomes whether the nascent format can make
05:45a dent in the U.S. entertainment industry and pose a challenge to existing players in the space.
05:49In my view, microdramas do not pose direct threat to a platform such as Netflix or traditional TV, at least
05:57not yet.
05:58They kind of serve different purposes.
06:00You watch a program on a streamer for the plot, the set, the acting, whereas this, I think, is just
06:07like a quick bit of entertainment.
06:10But I wouldn't say that, oh, is it going to take away the movies?
06:13Is it going to take away Netflix?
06:14I wouldn't say that, but I think definitely something to watch out for.
06:19Microdramas are not aiming to become those big budget shows of films.
06:24Instead, they are looking to carve out that unique space by targeting, you know, casual, short attention span viewers.
06:33Microdramas will pose more threat to social media companies because at this stage they are competing for the eyeballs.
06:40And I can either choose watching dog videos on TikTok or I can watch microdrama.
06:45Typically not both.
06:46Some have compared the rise of microdramas to that of Quibi.
06:50Short for Quick Bytes, featuring content under 10 minutes designed for viewing only on your phone.
06:56A similar short form mobile streaming service that shut down in just six months after it launched in 2020.
07:02During COVID, everybody was at home.
07:04We've had a lot more time.
07:05And it was just really, really bad timing for them.
07:09Hollywood-styled content is something that they tried to replicate, but in a very short, kind of fast-paced environment.
07:16You know, vertical is popular.
07:18Attention is becoming shorter.
07:19They saw it.
07:20But when it comes to execution, a lot of things went wrong for them.
07:23Experts say it's more likely these short form dramas will coexist alongside other media and entertainment companies.
07:29Would I be worried as a social media platform?
07:31Yes, because somebody's taking away my eyeballs.
07:34Would I be worried as Hollywood, Netflix, and other platforms?
07:37Yes.
07:38But not because they are the threat.
07:40It's because the behavior and the market that they are creating is a threat.
07:44You cannot compare street food to Michelin.
07:47Is Michelin food going to take over street food?
07:49No, not a chance.
07:50But there is an appetite for street food.
07:52There is an appetite for Michelin dishes.
07:54So that's all I can sort of compare between microdrama and long-form drama.
08:01The rise of microdramas could force existing media companies to rethink their content strategies going forward.
08:07Given the strength of the short-form video format, I think that this will continue to grow.
08:13Similar to the way short-form video took off and it forced Meta and Google to add shorts and reels.
08:20What I think will be very interesting is for the streamers to really pay more attention to the vertical audience
08:26and then perhaps to produce more, to cater to them.
08:30So that when they actually don't have time to watch five to six hours, then they can still engage the
08:37audience.
08:37They also become more attractive partners to these other players to do partnership deals.
08:42A lot of great IPs from the studios can be repurposed.
08:46You will adapt into microdrama.
08:48It becomes like a pretty interesting ecosystem.
08:51There are examples in China where collaboration with, you know, social commerce or e-commerce are very successful.
08:56Or collaboration with a more traditional long-term video creator are successful.
09:01It can be a very exciting medium to play together with the long form.
09:05People keep saying, you know, TV is dying.
09:07It's not dying.
09:08It's just moving to the verticals, moving to the fragmented viewing.
09:13So if people move, so you have to move with them.
09:17Otherwise, you'll be eliminated.
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