The earliest batch of short drama platforms that went global have an annual revenue of over 2 billion yuan.

Text | Lan Jie

Editor | Qiao Qian

During the May Day holiday, some people spent their time traveling, while others chose to stay at home and linger on various apps on their phones. At this time, the consensus among netizens at home and abroad may not only be short - videos but also short dramas.

From a domestic perspective, the myth of getting rich overnight brought by short dramas has turned out to be a deflated bubble. Most practitioners in the industry are sighing that they can't make money.

During this period, platforms have become the ultimate winners. Relying on the experience and team of Fanqie Novel, Hongguo Short Drama has become the undisputed leader in the industry and rewritten the market share ratio of paid and free short dramas. According to relevant practitioners, free short dramas represented by Hongguo Short Drama now account for half of the domestic short - drama market and are still increasing.

Meanwhile, the short - drama market overseas has a completely different competitive situation and market pattern. Overseas, short dramas are still a lucrative business and a way out for practitioners who find it difficult to survive in the domestic market.

Currently, the leading overseas short - drama platforms are represented by DramaBox under Dianzhong Technology and ReelShort under Crazy Maple Studio (Fengye Interactive Entertainment), which has been spun off from Chinese Online. A relevant person in charge of Dianzhong Technology told 36Kr that the revenue of its overseas short - drama business exceeded 2 billion yuan last year. As 36Kr learned, this figure is close to half of the revenue of the leading domestic short - drama platforms. The company behind ReelShort, Crazy Maple Studio, also achieved a revenue of 2.91 billion yuan in 2024.

In addition, many domestic companies that previously focused on online literature are accelerating the pace of short - drama expansion overseas. In the past year, Zhangyue Technology launched the overseas short - drama platform iDrama; Chinese Online launched short - drama apps such as Sereal+ and UniReel; platforms like NetShort of Maiya Media and StoReel led by Zhou Yuan, the former co - founder of Lemon Pictures, have also entered the market. More notably, Melolo, a free short - drama app under ByteDance, has been launched in Southeast Asia and other regions.

According to DataEye - ADX data, since September 2024, the number of short - drama apps launched overseas has increased significantly. By February 2025, the number of short - drama apps launched had reached 231, nearly four times that of the same period last year.

As competition becomes increasingly fierce, DramaBox and Reel Short still lead the way. This is not surprising. When a new market emerges, the winners are often those who seize the opportunity first. However, some trends are now changing.

1. From extensive expansion to intensive cultivation

According to Chen Ruiqing, the chairman of Dianzhong Technology, the launch of short dramas at home and abroad was almost simultaneous, with a time difference of only about two months. It was just that the overseas expansion was slower due to the team's capabilities.

What supported Chen Ruiqing's decision to expand overseas was his prediction of the overseas short - drama market size. He believed that the overseas market size would be three times that of the domestic market, exceeding 100 billion yuan.

DramaBox and ReelShort were almost among the first batch of short - drama platforms to expand overseas. During this period, DramaBox achieved a late - comer - catches - up situation. In the second half of 2023, ReelShort was noticed by domestic media for topping the US iOS entertainment list, while DramaBox was still unknown at that time.

During the Spring Festival in 2024, this situation changed. DramaBox topped the Apple App Store entertainment list in Taiwan, China, for seven consecutive days. In the Google and Apple app stores in North America, the daily revenues of DramaBox and ReelShort took turns to rank first among overseas short - drama companies. This situation has almost continued until now.

What helped DramaBox achieve the comeback was not only a change in the team but also the fact that the platform introduced a large number of translated dramas to enrich the supply, which was an extremely effective method during the extensive market - expansion stage.

In addition, just like in China, overseas short dramas also rely on advertising promotion. A Ye, who has experience in shooting and investing in overseas short dramas, told 36Kr that the advertising - promotion cost of a single overseas short drama still accounts for the majority of the total cost. Therefore, Dianzhong Technology, which has relatively rich advertising - promotion experience, also has certain advantages in the process of short - drama expansion overseas.

Currently, the person in charge of Dianzhong Technology's overseas business said that the revenue of DramaBox mainly comes from English - speaking regions such as North America, with the United States accounting for the highest proportion. The platform's market share in the United States also exceeds 20%.

In addition, the supply on the platform still mainly consists of translated dramas. The monthly output of local dramas is about 10 - 15, which is far from enough.

To some extent, this is because localization is not easy. Apart from the cost being 2 - 3 times higher than that in China, there are also more compliance issues and more difficult - to - predict advertising - promotion effects.

Compared with DramaBox, ReelShort took a more thorough localization path from the beginning. However, ReelShort, which originated from interactive dramas, lacks content supply. Although the quality is better, it also faces problems such as slow updates and difficulty in scaling up.

Taking the data from the Google Play Store as an example, in the same period of 2024, the number of downloads of DramaBox was still less than that of ReelShort. However, now the number of downloads of the former in the app stores has reached over 100 million, while the latter has only half of that of DramaBox, that is, over 50 million.

However, this does not mean that localization is not important.

On the one hand, cultural differences and compliance issues can even determine the fate of a short drama. For example, "The Immortal Cultivation Master in New York" on SnackVideo, the international version of Kuaishou, was taken off the shelves due to complaints about "objectifying the witch group".

On the other hand, localized content also determines the bottom line for a short drama to become a hit.

A Ye told 36Kr that to save costs, some short - drama teams shoot overseas short dramas in China. The female lead in the overseas short dramas she shot also came to China for filming recently. In the recent Instagram post shared by this actress, she was wearing a yellow tweed suit. "This will be a bit out of place." Tweed is a popular element in the daily wear of Chinese women, but few women in Europe and the United States wear such clothes in their daily lives. The probability of such a short drama becoming a hit is also very small.

In addition, for domestic teams, it is difficult to distinguish foreign faces and foreign accents, but locals can accurately identify them.

Therefore, the relevant person in charge said that Dianzhong Technology's overseas business will gradually increase the localization process and increase the number of local dramas in the future. The supply of local dramas will also be completely localized, that is, produced, shot, and starred by locals.

While platforms such as DramaBox and ReelShort maintain their leading positions, some competitive trends are also changing.

2. Market migration and changes in business models

Audience in the European and American markets have a mature habit of paying for viewing, and the US market is also the largest paid short - drama market overseas.

According to Diandian Data, from August 2023 to June 2024, the RPD (average revenue per download) in North America was $4.7, and in Europe it was about $2.3, far higher than the average level of the overseas short - drama industry 2.0 and much higher than the RPD of $0.7 in Southeast Asia.

However, the shooting cost in Europe and America is constantly rising, from the original $150,000 per drama to about $200,000, and there is a continuous upward trend.

This is due to the change in the supply - demand relationship. During September last year, the executive producer who produced short dramas for A Ye had a conflict with her cooperation partner. The reason was that this producer took on several production projects at the same time. The other party said that there were dozens of crews starting shooting every day in Los Angeles, all for short dramas.

On the other hand, some cost - reducing methods are difficult to produce hit dramas. For example, shooting overseas short dramas in China, apart from the fact that domestic production teams may not understand European and American cultures, language is also a major obstacle. A Ye recently connected with an overseas short - drama project. The person in charge of the other party told her that only the director in the entire production team could speak English, and it was not certain that he could direct the play in English. This shocked her. "What does the executive director do? How can they communicate with the actors?"

In contrast, Southeast Asia, with more similar cultures and lower shooting costs, and Japan and South Korea, with relatively high RPD (average revenue per download), have also become choices for short - drama companies expanding overseas in recent years.

In addition, the Southeast Asian short - drama market has surpassed Europe and become the second - largest short - drama market after the United States. According to Diandian Data, in February this year, the United States, with an income of $26.54 million, accounted for nearly half of the overseas market, followed by Southeast Asia with an income of $6.9 million.

At the end of 2024, Melolo, a short - drama app under ByteDance targeting the Southeast Asian market, was launched, focusing on the free model. However, in the few months after its launch, Melolo didn't make much of a splash. Instead, due to the poor quality of the translated dramas on the platform and the low number of downloads, it showed a sense of haste. Even so, because it is backed by ByteDance, the launch of Melolo still triggered discussions in the industry about whether ByteDance is going to recreate an "overseas Hongguo".

The emergence of Melolo and the poor payment habits of the audience in Southeast Asia are both promoting the development of the free short - drama model. A relevant person in charge of Dianzhong Technology's overseas business said, "Our user coverage in Southeast Asia is also very high. Due to the limited local payment ability, we haven't focused on development. In the future, we will also start to explore the free model with advertising - subsidy income."

Earlier, DramaBox, which didn't have many localization measures, already had a good number of downloads in Southeast Asia, accounting for nearly 30% of its total downloads.

Overseas short dramas are going through a path similar to that in China, but there is no monopoly yet, and the free model has not yet dominated.