The CCP has tightened its censorship of micro dramas and began subsidizing content aimed at boosting the regime’s soft power abroad.
President Donald Trump falls in love with a White House cleaner, for whom he is determined to leave his wife—it’s the plot of a fake micro drama that supposedly took U.S. housewives by storm and raked in $203 million in revenue.
The micro drama, its supposed popularity, and its massive revenue, reported by multiple Chinese media outlets in late July, all turned out to be fake news. However, as viewers become increasingly obsessed with micro dramas, China experts told The Epoch Times, the mobile-first entertainment format has become a key propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to direct nationalist sentiment in China and to influence overseas viewers.
Micro dramas, also known as Verticals because most are shot vertically to fit mobile phone screens, are serialized short videos. They typically feature one- to three-minute-long episodes with twists and turns to entice viewers to pay to find out what happens next.
Common themes of the stories include romance, which often involves a working-class girl and a secret billionaire; and revenge, where an underdog heroine emerges victorious after becoming rich and powerful.
On micro drama apps and social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, X, and Instagram, titles such as “Summer Honeymoon With My Secret Billionaire,” “Doctor Boss Is My Baby Daddy,” and “What Doesn’t Break Me” have amassed tens of millions of views.
The Chinese regime has capitalized on their popularity. Over the past three years, the regime has tightened its censorship of micro dramas. It has also begun to subsidize content that paints the CCP in a positive light, as well as cultural content targeting domestic and foreign audiences.
A Growing Market
The industry first boomed in China, where investors embraced the new format, which is much cheaper to make and can bring in returns faster than traditional films and TV shows.
According to iiMedia Research, in 2023, the size of the Chinese online micro drama market was $ 5.25 billion, more than double the size in 2022. It is projected to reach more than $14 billion in 2027.
Outside of China, the size of the industry skyrocketed from less than $100 million in 2023 to $1.5 billion in 2024, and is projected to reach $3.8 billion in 2025, according to a report published in July by Soochow Securities.
Los Angeles-based Cineverse and U.S. entertainment executive Lloyd Braun, who recently launched MicroCo, the first U.S.-based microseries studio, said the size of the global micro drama market, excluding China, is projected to reach $10 billion by 2027.
Ever since the U.S. short video platform Quibi failed to take off in 2020, Chinese players have dominated the global market.
By March, there were 237 Chinese micro drama apps in overseas app stores, Chinese state-owned media Guangming Daily said in August.
By Lily Zhou
