"This drama-heavy scene plays in dozens of ads for the microdrama app CandyJar, promoting the vertical show Loving My Brother's Best Friend. Like the medium's name suggests, microdramas are short-form vertical series filmed and edited to be consumed entirely on your phone. The narrative draw of LMBBF is immediately apparent - a cast of attractive young adults and all the necessary romantic beats for a forbidden love affair."
"Apps like CandyJar, ReelShort, DramaBox, and ShortTV are some of the most popular microdrama platforms in the industry today, offering viewers the chance to stream hundreds of titles that can be finished faster than the average blockbuster. This isn't like Netflix, though - one payment to access the entire catalogue. Instead, verticals rely on promotional advertisements and free episodes to get people hooked on storylines and then charge them anywhere from $15 to $50 to finish a series."
Microdramas are short-form vertical series created for phone viewing, often centered on romantic plots and attractive young casts. Platforms such as CandyJar, ReelShort, DramaBox, and ShortTV host hundreds of these titles and promote them through dramatic ad clips. The format scaled from niche to a multibillion-dollar segment in under three years, attracting largely female audiences. Distribution relies on free episodes and promotional ads to hook viewers, then charges roughly $15–$50 to finish series. The genre originated in China around 2020 as promotional material for written-fiction apps. Production standards have been inconsistent, prompting SAG-AFTRA to draft inclusion terms.
Read at Rolling Stone
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]