Micro dramas, known for wild plots and vertical, bite-sized videos, made headlines in China in 2024 as the industry surpassed the country’s box-office revenue for the first time. The micro drama market exceeded 50 billion yuan, or about $6.9 billion, according to the China Netcasting Services Association, a state-controlled group that regulates China’s online audiovisual content.
“In the states, you have the soap opera ‘The Bold and The Beautiful.’ And it’s ‘The Bold and The Beautiful’ on steroids, basically,” said Anne Chan, founder and CEO of AR Asia Production. “You’ve got to have a cliffhanger at every minute versus every hour. So everything is sweet, short and sharp.”
Micro dramas, also known as duanju in Chinese, typically consist of episodes ranging from 90 seconds to two minutes long. They initially gained popularity in China after capitalizing on the short-form video trend from other short-video apps in the country.
“It all started with Douyin and also Kuaishou as they started pushing these vertical short dramas on their platforms,” said Ashley Dudarenok, founder and managing director of Hong Kong-based consultant firm ChoZan. “Especially 2020, 2021, during the pandemic, dramas grew rapidly.”
Experts say micro dramas appeal to consumers with fast-paced, addictive storylines that deliver instant emotional payoff in just minutes. Their short, bingeable format caters to the attention spans of today’s mobile-first audience, making them easy to watch anytime, anywhere.
“They’re tapping into the behavior of instant gratification,” said Seema Shah, vice president of research and insights at market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. “The way that you immediately are satisfied by seeing this story is what is the hook. It’s a little over the top, but it’s over the top that is still entertaining.”
Micro dramas are also gaining popularity in the U.S. ReelShort, DramaBox and GoodShort were the top downloaded micro drama apps in the U.S., accounting for about 50% of downloads year to date in 2025, according to data shared with CNBC by Sensor Tower.
“Many micro drama producers believe because America produced Hollywood and is probably the world’s largest cultural export, if you can sell it to and make it appealing to the American public, you can then sell it and make it appealing to the rest of the world,” said Dudarenok.
Watch the video above to find out what is behind the popularity of China’s micro dramas, and whether the nearly $7 billion industry can become China’s next big cultural export to disrupt the U.S. entertainment industry.
