Duanju (simplified Chinese: 短剧; traditional Chinese: 短劇; pinyin: duǎn jù), sometimes translated in English as short drama,[1] vertical drama,[2] microdrama,[3] vertical minidrama or mobile drama, is a type of short form web or television series that has gained popularity in China. These series are mostly adapted from Chinese web fictions and are released on new media platforms such as TikTok/Douyin (抖音 in China). Each episode is very short, usually around 1 to 2 minutes in length. While the duration of a single episode may range from 1 to 6 minutes, episodes longer than 3 minutes are relatively rare. A full series may include anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, making the total runtime comparable to that of one or two full-length movies. Usually created for mobile platforms, many duanju are produced directly in vertical format to facilitate mobile viewing. They are optimized for vertical viewing on smartphones, catering to audiences who prefer bite-sized entertainment that fits into fragmented viewing habits. Because of their short length and mobile-first design, duanju are sometimes referred to as short dramas, vertical dramas, micro-dramas, or mobile dramas in English. Short dramas are sometimes adapted into interactive movie games.[4]
Compared to mainstream Chinese TV dramas, and in terms of storyline, these Chinese short dramas can be compared to soap operas in English speaking countries, although in a faster-paced, more hyperactive style.
Emergence and development in China
editDuanju originates from Chinese Web fictions that started around 2002. These fictions were written by users on websites such as Qidian and were released in installments, where readers had the option to pay per chapter or a subscription.[5]
Video-form duanju started in 2013 on Youku Tudou before moving to apps like TikTok, ReelShort, DramaBox, GoodShort, and Kuaishou. By 2023 the audience for duanju reached about 1.6 billion people.[5]
Between 2020 and 2022, the format became professionalized: fast shoots (often under two weeks), vertical 9:16 format, smaller budgets, and monetization through freemium or pay-per-episode models.[5] Unlike the majority of content submitted to apps like TikTok, duanju are professionally-produced rather than user-generated. Chinese production companies hire professional actors and crew to shoot and edit the content.[6] The shows are typically freemium, offering a few episodes for free before monetizing through various means, including video-on-demand and subscriptions.[6]
In 2024, China's duanju market generated over 50 billion yuan (approx. USD 7 billion) in revenue. The sector is also estimated to have created over 600,000 jobs.[7][8][9][10][11] Duanju (short or vertical drama) have thus become one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Chinese entertainment industry.[12]
International expansion
editUnited States
editChinese production companies have started collaborating with their American and British counterparts to bring the content to English-speaking audiences. This is done either by dubbing the existing Chinese duanjus or by re-creating the entire series with English-speaking actors. Productions in these countries are also on a very small budget and can be filmed in as little as 10 days for an entire season.[5]
In the United States, producer Chris Wicke described duanju as "the next frontier of global mobile-first storytelling" in a Forbes article published in March 2025.[13]
In 2025, Netflix adopted a vertical mobile feed. Journalist Isabelle Deromas Lebocq saw it as a sign of the growing influence of the duanju format.[14]
In July 2025, DramaBox was selected by Disney to join the Disney Accelerator program, confirming the growing interest of major American studios in micro-dramas.[15][16][17]
France
editIn spring 2023, the first French duanju series, Next Door Adventure, was released on Facebook on Guillaume Sanjorge's page, where it accumulated several hundred thousand views before later being distributed on an Asian platform.[18]
In January 2024, French outlets including France Inter, France Info, Midi Libre and Courrier International introduced ReelShort as the “TikTok of series,” marking its first broad media coverage in France.[19][20][21][22][23]
On November 23, 2024, the first public screening of duanju series took place, organized by the association Studio Phocéen.[24][25]
In June 2024, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on the arrival of short vertical series in France, mainly distributed via the ReelShort app, and noted their growing popularity among younger audiences.[26]
Since 2025, the Asian platform Stardust TV[27][28] has also expanded into France. Among its new titles is the French vertical series Next Door Adventure, produced by Guillaume Sanjorge. It is the first French series to be distributed on an Asian platform dedicated to vertical mobile fiction.[29][30][31][32][33]
The French actors Jean-Pierre Castaldi and Marthe Villalonga are cast in Guillaume Sanjorge's duanju series, King Gandolfi[34][35][36][37].
On June 14, 2025, the association Studio Phocéen brought together an international panel of creators and producers to explore the growing potential of this format. British producer Adam Gee was among the participants.[38]
In July 2025, Gaëtan Bruel, president of the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, mentioned the format for the first time during an official visit to Asia.[39]
In August 2025, journalist Jade Hin-Cellura from the magazine Geo published an article on Hollywood's enthusiasm for Chinese mini-series, highlighting Duanju as a rapidly growing format.[40] The Canadian French-language daily La Presse also published an article by Mathieu Perreault describing the rise of the format in France. Producer Guillaume Sanjorge noted that while early European series mostly adapt Chinese works, the format could expand in the West.[41][42]
Ukraine
editHolywater, a company founded by Bogdan Nesvit, launched in 2024 the mobile application My Drama, a platform for broadcasting short vertical series of two to three minutes, designed for contemporary mobile use.[43][44][45] The platform quickly gained a growing user base in Eastern Europe and generates several million dollars in annual revenue.[46][47][48]
The French media outlet Duanju.fr described one of the series available on the platform, Alpha King's Hated Princess, as “a dark and intense romance, delivered in an ultra-condensed format with a stylized staging, aimed at a mature and adult audience.”[49]
In May 2025, the application won a Webby Award and was named the best streaming service of the year.[50][5][51][52]
In August 2025, the Canadian French-language daily La Presse reported that MyDrama had become the dominant platform in Europe for vertical micro-series. According to the article, the company was founded by Ukrainians, and its creators told the Kyiv Post that they used artificial intelligence to generate parts of scripts, aiming to reduce the cost of producing a series to around 20,000 US dollars.[41]
Examples
edit- Kaibo! Duanju Ji (On Air! Micro-Drama Season) - Reached nearly 100 million views[12]
- Unparalled - earned gross revenue of $14 million after eight days of release[6]
- Take Me Home (金猪玉叶) - produced by Stephen Chow[53]
- "Billionaire hides his identity, works as a delivery boy but Sexy female CEO loves him at all costs".[citation needed]
- "Worldwide Prices Plummet by 10,000 Times, I Become the World's Wealthiest".[citation needed]
- "Global IQ Drops by 10,000 Times, I Become the World's Smartest Person".[citation needed]
- "Global Freeze, I Built a Doomsday Safe House".[citation needed]
- "After the divorce, I resumed my status as a rich lady. My ex-husband regretted it".[citation needed]
Copyright controversies
editDue to the short production cycle and low cost, if a script becomes popular, many companies will rush to imitate it, resulting in the same plot flooding the internet, leading to sense of exhaustion, infringing on the original creator's copyright and other intellectual property rights.[54]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "How Chinese "Alpha Male" Short Dramas Conquered the World". EqualOcean.
- ^ Khomami, Nadia; Arts, Nadia Khomami (4 April 2025). "Clickbait titles and cliffhangers: the mini TV serials capturing phone audiences". The Guardian.
- ^ "Inside the rise of micro dramas – and the opportunities for marketers | WARC". www.warc.com.
- ^ "China's next cultural export could be TikTok-style short soap operas". MIT Technology Review.
- ^ a b c d e Armstrong, Stephen (2024-11-11). "'This will be the next film industry': The rise of the one-minute movie". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
- ^ a b c Frater, Patrick (2024-09-27). "After TikTok, Micro Dramas Could Be China's Latest Disruptor to Global Entertainment". Variety. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
- ^ "In China in 2024, the Duanju market will overtake the cinema market". Duanju. 2025-07-30. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
- ^ "China's Micro-Dramas: Growth & IP Issues". Chambers. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
- ^ "Inside the rise of micro dramas – and the opportunities for marketers". WARC. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
- ^ Li, Ping. "Micro drama market outperforms the box office for first time". China Daily. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
- ^ "2024 Micro-Short Drama Industry White Paper: Over 36,400 New Series". AWN China. 2025-05-26. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
- ^ a b 李虹睿. "Micro-dramas making big waves". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
- ^ Moore, Schuyler (March 18, 2025). "The Next Big Small Thing". Forbes. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
- ^ Isabelle Deromas Lebocq (9 May 2025). "Netflix refond son interface avec IA et vidéos verticales". Freenews (in French).
- ^ "Disney bets on Duanju with DramaBox". Duanju.fr. 26 August 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ Moss (2025-07-28). "Disney Accelerator Announces Its 2025 Class of Companies". The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ "Disney Accelerator backs microdrama platform DramaBox and AI outfit Animaj". C21Media. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ "French series in Duanju format "Next Door Adventure" to be a hit with audiences in 2023". www.duanju.fr. 30 April 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
- ^ "When France discovers ReelShort". Duanju. 2024-01-31. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ "Reelshort : le TikTok des séries". France Inter (in French). 2024-01-01. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ "ReelShort : quelle est cette nouvelle application américaine dédiée aux séries qui cartonne ?". Franceinfo (in French). 2024-01-10. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ ""Le TikTok des séries" : ce qu'il faut savoir de ReelShort, la nouvelle application des séries au format court qui cartonne". midilibre.fr (in French). Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ "Séries. ReelShort, l'application venue de Chine qui séduit les Américaines au foyer". Courrier international (in French). 2023-12-27. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ Vertigo, Léa (2024-11-23). "First screening of French series in Duanju format [Video]". Duanju. Retrieved 2025-07-20.
- ^ "Projection Studio Phocéen". Montmartre Addict (in French). Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ^ "Des microséries avec des épisodes de 1 minute, à regarder à la verticale". Le Monde (in French). 7 June 2024.
- ^ "March 2025 – Top Short Drama Apps and Series in Asia". Insightrackr. Retrieved 2025-07-14.
- ^ "EngageLab AppPush Partners with StardustTV to Enhance Short Drama Experience". EngageLab. Retrieved 2025-07-14.
- ^ Découvrez « Les aventures avec ma voisine », la première série française qui débarque sur une plateforme asiatique : Actualités - Orange (in French). 2025-04-11. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ^ "Les Aventures avec ma voisine - Série TV 2025". Allociné (in French). Retrieved 2025-07-14.
- ^ "StardustTV - A Leading Online Short Drama Video Media Platform, Watch a Vast Collection of Short Dramas Online". stardusttv.net (in French). Retrieved 2025-04-09.
- ^ "Découvrez "Les aventures avec ma voisine", la première série française qui débarque sur une plateforme asiatique - Quinze épisodes d'une minute 30 seront disponibles | Jean-Marc Morandini". www.jeanmarcmorandini.com (in French). Retrieved 2025-07-17.
- ^ Vertigo, Léa (2025-04-06). "The first French series arrives on Stardust TV". Duanju. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
- ^ "King Gandolfi". Duanju. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ AlloCine. Draculi & Gandolfi (in French). Retrieved 2025-08-27 – via www.allocine.fr.
- ^ GORLIN, Stephanie (2016-02-17). "Exclu : Jean-Pierre Castaldi, de retour à la télé en chevalier bourru (Vidéo)". www.programme-tv.net (in French). Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ GORLIN, Stephanie (2016-02-17). "Jean-Pierre Castaldi revient à la télé dans l'armure d'un chevalier". Télé 2 semaines (in French). Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ^ Vertigo, Léa (2025-06-13). "In Paris, on June 14, 2025, the world Duanju scene gathered". Duanju. Retrieved 2025-08-25.
- ^ "Gaëtan Bruel, president of the CNC, discusses the Duanju format for the first time". Duanju. 2025-07-16. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
- ^ "Comment le tout Hollywood est devenu accro aux mini-feuilletons chinois. Et surtout pourquoi?". Geo.fr (in French). 2025-08-15. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
- ^ a b Perreault, Mathieu (2025-08-20). "Microséries tournées pour le téléphone: Bienvenue dans l'univers du (très) petit écran". La Presse (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2025-08-20.
- ^ "When the French-speaking world takes over Duanju: Guillaume Sanjorge in the Quebec newspaper "La Presse"". Duanju. 2025-08-21. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
- ^ "Our Short-form Series Perform Better Than Netflix. Here's How we Film Them | HackerNoon". hackernoon.com. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
- ^ "Vertical Video Series Platform: How HOLYWATER Challenges Streamers like Netflix & Apple TV - Technology Org". 2024-09-06. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
- ^ "My Drama: An AI-Powered Short Drama App with Immersive Chatbot Characters". Global Village Space. 2024-09-04. Archived from the original on 2025-01-25. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
- ^ Sweeney, Andrew (2025-04-05). "Ukraine's Next Export? Two-Minute Dramas Generated by AI". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ^ Fink, Charlie (2025-03-10). "Holywater's AI Makes Synthetic Content For Its Video Streaming App". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ^ "My Drama: l'application de séries courtes qui révolutionne le divertissement avec des personnages IA". 2051.fr (in French). 2025. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ^ "Alpha King's Hated Princess – a dark romance in short format". Duanju.fr. 29 August 2024. Retrieved 2025-07-20.
- ^ "My Drama platform wins award at the Muse Creative Awards 2025". Duanju. 2025-06-07. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
- ^ "Застосунок вертикальних серіалів My Drama визнаний найкращим стримінговим сервісом у світі". speka.media (in Ukrainian). 23 April 2025. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
- ^ Кишиневський, Микита (2025-04-23). "Український застосунок My Drama здобув престижну премію The Webby Awards 2025". ШоТам (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2025-05-09.
- ^ Team, Dao (2024-06-05). "Famous Chinese film producer Stephen Chow steps into microdrama production". Dao Insights. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
- ^ "短剧虽短,版权不容侵犯 - 新华网客户端". app.xinhuanet.com.