Meet the microdramas drawing in viewers — and creating entertainment jobs in Canada
CBC
Jennifer Cooper came across her first vertical drama while scrolling on TikTok.
The ad for a melodramatic series began to lay out the premise: a woman seeks revenge against her cheating boyfriend and mean family in a plot that involves seducing her boyfriend’s wealthy uncle.
Some of the tropes of jealousy and romance reminded Cooper of some longform Chinese dramas she’d been watching, and she quickly watched all the free minute-or-so-long episodes before shelling out the cash to see how the story would end.
Of course, the woman found love in the end, and triumphed against her terrible family. And Cooper, who has since started reviewing and making content about these kinds of series online, was sold on the trove of stories about billionaire romances, demanding bosses and vengeful vampires on the platform.
Welcome to the land of microdramas — outlandish stories served up in one- to two-minute chunks in a vertical aspect ratio, straight to your smartphone.
There are legions of apps dedicated to the content, which is heavily promoted on social media apps like TikTok. Though the individual videos are only a few minutes long, the whole story is usually told over dozens of videos, like a movie divided into chunks.
And while the plots might be predictable, the videos are drawing lots of attention — including from producers and talent here in Canada who are taking on the new medium.
For those in the North American entertainment industry like TV journalist Elaine Low, the format conjures memories of Quibi, the mobile-first streaming platform filled with short videos designed for viewers to consume on the go, which shuttered in 2020 after less than a year in operation.
While the format didn’t pan out in North America then, Low says it has caught on in China in recent years.
The microdrama industry there reportedly raked in $7 billion US in 2024 — outperforming that country’s box office. Japan and South Korea are also hot on China's heels as they’ve started making similar dramas, while the microdrama industry globally is expected to be worth $9.5 billion US by 2030.
"This is an industry that has been very robust in Asia for the past few years and has really only begun to make its entrance stateside over the last year, year and a half," Low said.
Low says even traditional Hollywood studios are starting to take note of the trend. She points to Fox, which recently struck a deal with microdrama maker Holywater, while another vertical production company, DramaBox, received investment and partnership opportunities from Disney through their accelerator program last year.
Director Samantha MacAdams has worked on commercials and TV shows for a decade, but recently decided to take on a microdrama because they seem to be "taking over Hollywood."
"The eyeballs are going there," said MacAdams. "I think with the younger generation, they're watching a lot of stuff on their phone. And so verticals are on the rise."
