What's behind the boom of mini-dramas in China?

In the world of mini-dramas, there is no shortage of miracles. In these fast-paced stories, the real identity of a seemingly powerless nobody could be a billionaire, and the heroines can always meet and marry the super-rich when they are in danger.

A mini-series can also bring about a real-life "miracle" of sorts, as it said that one can achieve financial freedom by producing a hit mini-drama.

Li Tao, the founder of Xi'an Fengxing Culture, a film company based in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, has seen such a "miracle." One of his company's mini-dramas, "Unparalleled," was so popular last year that the sector attracted more investors.

In August 2023, the total revenue of "Unparalleled" exceeded 100 million yuan (roughly $14 million) eight days after it was aired online. Its viewership and profit also grew with every episode.

"The gross profit was about 20 million yuan ($2.8 million), which still needs to subtract the platform's operating cost, the copyright fee, the production cost and other distribution costs," said Li.

The company was previously engaged in advertising, stage, film and television animation design, but it shifted to producing mini-dramas in June 2022.

"We are the producer, so our income includes the production fee and the share of the profits that the video platform gives us," said Li.

Li said 90 percent of the revenue has been used to promote the drama, so the investment is not as profitable as others imagine. But it is still regarded as lucrative because the hit drama was made in just 10 days with a budget of under 500,000 yuan (about $70,000).

A cross-genre cash cow?

A mini-drama usually has about 60 to 100 episodes, each around two minutes. After enjoying the first 10 episodes for free, viewers need to pay to access additional ones. It costs dozens or even hundreds of yuan to finish watching a whole drama.

Currently, between 300 and 400 mini-dramas are launched in China each month, and industry insiders estimate that only about a 10th of the shows are profitable. Still, investment is swarming in.

In 2023, the mini-drama market in China hit 37.4 billion yuan ($5.2 billion), up 268 percent year on year, according to data from iiMedia. The market size is expected to reach 100 billion yuan by 2027.

Mini-dramas' success can be attributed to the growing habit of watching short videos in China. Data shows that more than 1 billion Chinese online users spent an average of 2.5 hours daily watching short video content in 2022. The vertical, smartphone-optimized mini-dramatic episodes attract casual viewers who prefer quick, engaging content.

Experts also noted that the mini-drama audience overlaps with that of web novels, which have rich elements of plot twists and conflicts to get readers hooked. According to Li, about 90 percent of the mini-dramas in the market are adapted from web novels. Since the early 2000s, web novels have enjoyed a large readership in China, paving the way for the popularity of their visual productions, such as films, TV series and mini-dramas.

Mini-dramas are gaining attention in the overseas market as well. ReelShort, a mini-drama app for English-speaking users, has become the top downloaded app in the United States in recent months. The app amassed nearly 19 million global downloads across all platforms in 2023 and generated more than $22 million in revenue. Behind ReelShort is Crazy Maple Studio, which is backed by COL, a leading player in China's online literature sector.

Both friend and foe

According to several producers of mini-dramas, a key reason behind the popularity of their shows is people who experience stress in real life may find a kind of emotional release in the exaggerated expressions of conflicts in these stories, such as successful revenge by gaining superpower or having great wealth.

However, some draw the line at over-the-top storylines that lack logic or lousy acting. Some are also concerned about excessive amounts of eye-catching elements in the stories, worried about the negative impact on young people, as nearly 60 percent of viewers of short videos are minors.

In November 2022, more than 25,000 "vulgar and harmful" mini-dramas were removed from circulation in a three-month campaign. The National Radio and Television Administration beefed up monitoring a year later when it implemented seven key measures to regulate the sector in November 2023, and the effort is still ongoing, with over 350,000 episodes removed from multiple video platforms since last March.

"Quality" stands out as the keyword for industry leaders and experts. They believe the content and profit models of mini-dramas and related industrial chains will be upgraded with strict supervision, fierce competition and professional film and television personnel participation.

Within just five years, the mini-drama industry has reached 70 percent of the scale of the century-old film industry. However, Sun Jiashan, a researcher at the Chinese National Academy of Arts, believed the boom of mini-dramas won't replace or harm the film industry.

"Mini-dramas are quite short and flexible, which will be a positive complement for the ecology of film and television industry," said Sun.

"By producing mini-dramas, a large number of directors, scriptwriters, actresses, and actors will find more opportunities to participate in and prepare themselves for the industry."

Read more:

Why are Chinese web novels so attractive to global readers?