Emily is a college student during the day, but works night shifts at a strip club to pay for her education. She thought no one would find out her secret, until one day a mysterious English teacher showed up! Did he recognize her? Will her secret be revealed? You can pay 60 “tokens” to see what happens next, watch ads, or… you can buy a VIP pass for $20 per week and skip ads entirely.
These stories are pulpy and exaggerated, full of cringe-worthy acting and writing. But these “microdramas” (TikTok-like shows where episodes are about a minute long) are raking in billions of dollars a year.
The Microdrama app, which first became popular in China, is poised for a breakout year in the U.S. app market. According to app intelligence company Appfigures, total consumer spending on ReelShort reached approximately $1.2 billion in 2025, an increase of 119% from 2024. DramaBox, another major app, had $276 million in total consumer spending last year, more than double its 2024 figure.
It seems that the market momentum is not slowing down. TikTok just launched its own standalone microdrama app called PineDrama, and a new app from a Hollywood veteran called GammaTime just raised $14 million, including checks from angel investors including Alexis Ohanian, Kris Jenner, and Kim Kardashian.
It’s amazing to see a short-form scripted drama app enjoying such success just five years after Quibi’s demise. Quibi wanted to be like Netflix, but with 10-minute episodes designed to be watched on the go. Founded by DreamWorks co-founder and former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, Quibi has raised more than $1.75 billion in funding from major Hollywood studios and produced shows starring stars such as Liam Hemsworth, Reese Witherspoon and Anna Kendrick.
No one wanted Quibi, and it was such a huge failure that the app became a punch line. But the app ReelShort, which boasts top shows such as “My Sister Is the Warlord Queen” and “In Love with a Single Farmer-Daddy,” has been a hit.
“How are they succeeding when Quibi failed? They’re basically OnlyFans from a female perspective,” Eric Wei, creator economy expert and CEO of Carat Financial, told TechCrunch. “They’re about romance, and the titles are all like ‘My Alpha,’ which is like ’50 Shades of Grey,’ but for vertical video.”
While OnlyFans isn’t the best comparison (these shows aren’t pornographic, but can be suggestive), Way is right that sex sells. When the story gets exciting, you’ll be asked to watch an ad or pay to continue the story. But the payoff is far from appealing, and if you keep watching, you’ll see another pop-up asking for more money or some other obscure in-app currency.
The business models behind these apps replicate the same dark patterns as mobile games. These are designed to keep users hooked on free content and reward them with free in-app currency when they log in each day. As people spend more time on apps designed to be addictive, they need more coins or tokens to unlock more episodes of a show, but there’s no way to earn enough to get your fix without shelling out real money.
Microdramas are interactive, where viewers can choose the route the story takes, but good options (a woman confronts her abusive ex) cost tokens, while less satisfying options (an abusive ex-husband doesn’t face the consequences of his actions) are free.
Soon, hooked viewers may relent and pay a $20 weekly ad-free pass. After a month, it will cost you more than your HBO Max, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Paramount Plus subscriptions combined.
With the advent of AI, these companies will be able to churn out content at an even more astonishing pace. LLMs can’t write high-end dramas like HBO’s “Succession” or sitcoms like “The Big Bang Theory,” but the most successful microdramas are so predictable and formulaic that they don’t actually require much human resourcefulness or creativity. You’d be surprised how many microdramas start with a girl wearing glasses being pushed down by a mean classmate. The story is about a girl who wears glasses and is pushed down by a mean classmate, but a popular jock realizes that she’s actually quite cute when she takes off her glasses and saves her.
PocketFM, an audio series platform powered by Lightspeed, is already embracing AI. Last year, the company released a tool it calls CoPilot. The tool is trained on thousands of hours of content to understand the “beats” of a formulaic story, helping writers add cliffhangers and plot twists to their stories, and predicting that viewers will want to see more. Meanwhile, Ukrainian company Holy Water has raised $22 million to fund its micro-drama app My Drama, which describes itself as an “AI-first entertainment network.”
Microdrama could go the entirely AI route, but Dhar Mann Studios CEO Sean Atkins believes there’s an opportunity for creators, too.
“Think about it: short-form format has slightly less overhead than long-form format, but vertical format has even more overhead,” Atkins told TechCrunch. “I think a small number of creators are going to start working on it pretty hard, especially because they have experience with low-cost production.”
These companies have great business models. But this is one that thrives on short attention spans, in-app purchases, and adult-oriented “Cocomelon”-like content.
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