Micro dramas are weird, cheap, soap operas for your phone. And they're booming.
Micro dramas, which are low-budget, one-minute soap operas, are emerging as a significant $14 billion global entertainment market. While the trend originated in China, US-based companies and mainstream platforms are increasingly adopting the format to capture mobile-first audiences.
Why it matters
This represents a shift in consumer media consumption habits toward hyper-short, mobile-optimized content that challenges traditional streaming models.
CandyJar; Getty Images; BI Micro dramas should be easy to ignore: How big could the market be for low-budget soap operas, designed to be consumed in one-minute chunks? Pretty big, it turns out: Possibly $14 billion a year. Much of that comes from China, where micro dramas started. But US apps like CandyJar say they're seeing real growth. And TikTok is looming … What if you could watch short videos on your phone? What if you could pay people to watch those videos? I know, I know: I'm describing Quibi , the infamous app that flopped in 2020. But: I'm also describing micro dramas — low-budget movies cut into one-minute chunks. And those do seem to be working: Consumers may be spending as much as $14 billion on them this year. Most of that spending is happening in China, where the genre took off.
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