What are Chinese micro dramas and why are they so popular?

We are always looking for newer ways to feed our short attention spans and Chinese micro dramas, also called Duanju, may be the new way to our brains (and hearts)!

What exatly are Chinese micro dramas or Duanju?

Chinese micro dramas or Duanju are short-form web or television series presented in a vertical format, which have gained traction in China.

The micro drama industry has raked in $7 billion last year and is steadily taking over the US as well. Mostly adapted from Chinese web fictions, these Chinese web fictions are released on new media platforms such as TikTok or Douyin.

Episode lengths are relatively short, ranging from 1-3 minutes. Episode duration over the length of 6 minutes is rare. Each micro drama may have 20 to 100 episodes which may add up to the runtime of a full length movie.

Found a Homeless Billionaire Husband for Christmas, You Fired a Genius Surgeon and Mancini's Forbidden Bride are just some duanju examples on ReelShort, all packed in vertical video clips just like Instagram reels and YouTube shorts.

You can sift through plots by actor, actresses names, identities and story beats which can range from friendship and love-hate relationship plots to karma, harem and fake pregnancy series!

Social media's golden goose(s) are short-form videos and the Chinese micro drama market proves it. Our attention span, that was only 12 seconds back in 2002, has plunged to a meagre 8 seconds and companies and industries are doing everything in their favour to appeal to our inattentive minds.

Duanju tap into our "instinct of behavioural gratification" says Seema Shah, Vice President of Insights at Sensor Tower, in an interview. They give us the hook immediately to grab eyeballs, even though they may seem "over-the-top."

Micro dramas vs telenovelas

Officially recognised as a genre in 2020, micro dramas are sort of similar to telenovelas, but they're much faster to make and scale.

Video-form duanju started in 2013 on Youku Tudou before moving to apps like ReelShort, DramaBox, GoodShort and Kuaishou.

On Kuaishou, 270 million people (70% of their daily active users) watch micro dramas every day. 94 million paid users binge-watch over 10 episodes a day! By 2023 the audience for duanju reached about 1.6 billion people. In fact, they are so popular, they even surpassed China's domestic box office!

They're taking off, but how long until they take over India and the rest of the world as well?

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