Let's dip into the professionally produced short-video side of
business -- again -- to find new money: advertising, subscription and otherwise.
How about "Micro Dramas" -- one to three minutes of scripted video? It’s like a regular TV show -- in length,
setup, story arc, conflict/cliffhanger and conclusion.
New-style apps have started up here just for this, including ShortMax, DramaBox, FlickReels, GoodShort, Reel Short, FlareFlow, Shot
Short, and NetShort.
Earlier this year, popular apps ReelShort, DramaBox and DramaWave were downloaded 34 million times in one particular month, grossing $78 million in revenue for Apple and Google, according to reports.
Originally, much of the growing
micro-drama content had gained steam and usage in China.
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This may sound similar to something called Quibi --the short-lived, short-form video (see what I did there?). Quibi, short for Quick
Bites, started up in 2020 and shut down just six months later.
It provided short-form teases/versions of premium video of just four to six minutes in length -- by comparison much longer than
current micro-drama content, generally with a max duration of three minutes.
Quibi said its service was originally designed for those waiting at a doctor’s appointment or waiting on a
line on a busy afternoon at a bank.
Now, the likes of Netflix and/or Disney+ could be seriously considering micro-drama programming.
Laurent Yoon, media analyst for Bernstein Research,
believes this is a natural direction that Netflix in particular could go into.
While it is still a strong premium streaming platform, Netflix has seen its marketplace share slip to 15% share
(as of the second quarter of 2025) from 19% (in the second quarter of 2023), according to Nielsen.
Add into all this the broader view of short-form video.
Netflix and Disney+
have seen growing competition from YouTube. The Google-owned streamer has seen strong results from its YouTube Shorts in recent periods.
That said, generally, the content is much wider than
micro-dramas -- instructional, unscripted, funny and other AI-generated clips -- less than three minutes long. YouTube Shorts started up globally in July 2021.
Not only are micro-dramas a
growing key element of what is mostly young demographic video consumers' portfolio of choices, but Yoon believes it could expand to a broad audience.
Yoon believes a slower-growing premium
streaming/CTV marketplace can make major benefits here.
How big can this go? In China revenue from micro-dramas is expected to exceed theatrical box office revenues in 2025.
This alone
could open streaming executives' eyes -- and short-form production expense wallets.