🎥 Will Chinese Microdramas Come to the West in 2025?

In 2024, the Chinese microdrama market reached $7 Billion, a 35% YoY increase. These are minute-long multi-episode drama series that debut on social media platforms and have episode paywalls to finish the entire story.

This is lower cost production than regular film & TV and more Western brands like McDonalds and KFC are using this format to tell stories in the Chinese market.

In September, Starbucks launched a micro-drama called “I Opened A Starbucks in Ancient Times,” a story about time traveler who goes back in time to open up a Starbucks in medieval China. This functioned as marketing for Starbucks as a specific “buy one get one free offer mentioned in the series was available in real life Starbucks locations across China.

From The Business Times,

“A survey of nearly 1,000 viewers conducted by iResearch Consulting Group in May showed that 26.5 per cent of them would be willing to purchase products featured in short dramas, and 41.6 per cent would consider buying them.

In March last year, Chinese cosmetics brand Kans teamed up with a Douyin influencer for a miniseries.

The drama follows one woman’s journey from self-doubting rookie to successful brand manager, incorporating themes such as professional success, love and workplace justice.

The drama brought millions of new followers to Kans’ Douyin store and the company’s gross merchandise value on the platform jumped 374 per cent year-on-year to 3.44 billion yuan in 2023, according to its parent, Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Chicmax Cosmetic.”

With lower barriers to entry in terms of cost and distribution, microdramas could be the middle ground to bridge short-form content and premium production. This could work for brands, creators, and even traditional production companies.

Apps like ReelShort and DramaBox are currently producing microdramas for the US market. These apps have already reached tens of millions in user downloads and tens of millions in revenue from in-app purchases.

For years, we saw livestreaming take over e-commerce in China, but it feels like that user behavior only hit the US in 2024 with TikTok Live.

2024 was the year that Western brands started taking live social commerce more seriously. Maybe 2025 is the year that Western brands start to embrace the microdrama content format.

Originally published at https://venndiagrams.substack.com on January 5, 2025.