Micro dramas boom as many turn to short videos

The crew of a micro drama interact with the audience during an event in Linfen, Shanxi province, on Monday. ZHU XINGXIN/CHINA DAILY

Chinese creatives foresee huge potential in micro dramas, the new trend in the country's entertainment industry, experts said at an event in Linfen, Shanxi province, on Monday.

"Through the event held in partnership with CCTV.com, the online media outlet affiliated to China Media Group, we want to build Linfen into a national platform for the micro drama industry," Yan Jianguo, director of the Linfen publicity department, said in his speech at the Light and Shadows of Linfen: China's Premium Micro Short Drama Night.

Micro dramas are low-budget productions mostly shot in vertical format, with each episode a few minutes long, that are shown on short-video streaming platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. In this genre, viewers can enjoy dramatic plot twists and fast-paced narratives that revolve around revenge or betrayal.

According to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center, the total number of internet users in the country had reached 1.1 billion by June, with 52.4 percent of them viewing micro dramas.

A recent industrial report by market consultancy iiMedia Research, the market value of the country's micro dramas last year was nearly 37.4 billion yuan ($5.25 billion), a year-on-year increase of about 268 percent. It is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan this year and surpass 100 billion yuan in 2027.

"Since 2022, micro dramas, with their fast pace and short duration, have been increasingly enjoyed by more users on Douyin, with more than 400 such dramas garnering over 1 billion views as of early this year," said Lang Fengwei, deputy editor-in-chief of Douyin, adding that the platform has launched a program in micro-drama creation and promotion to explore a new market model.

Wang Xingyi, vice-president of short-video app Kuaishou, said micro dramas have not only enriched people's cultural lives, but have also injected vitality into the entertainment sector. Under the app's micro-drama program, there have been nearly 1,000 such series produced as of early this year.

Micro dramas are not only popular in China, but are also spreading to the overseas market. According to data provider Sensor Tower, Reel-Short, a micro-drama app created by Chinese publishing company COL Group, landed on the eighth spot on the "Top Free" chart and ninth on the free entertainment chart in the Google Play Store.

To meet the market demand, scriptwriters, authors and actors have expressed their anticipation in the new genre.

"When the TV adaptation of my novel A Lifelong Journey aired on China Central Television, I watched it every night alongside viewers across the country," said author Liang Xiaosheng.

"Now I wonder whether it can be adapted into a micro drama. I look forward to possibly experiencing that with audiences again," he added.

In August, Tencent and the Linfen government built a premium microdrama base to attract key players to shoot their dramas.

Meanwhile, the local government has issued a policy to support the industry development with a 50-million-yuan fund established to boost production and foster talent.