Are minidrama studios using TikTok to do what Quibi couldn’t? [Video]

We’re in a new age of soap opera–one where all the drama, romance, and secret twin and/or baby reveals are packed into just 60 or 90 seconds of content posted on platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram.

Much akin to livestreamed shopping, which has become a dominant ecommerce force in China but is just catching on in the West, minidramas have been around on Chinese social media since 2018. These series have historically been produced by Chinese studios, and have classic, tropey plotlines like fake marriages and falling for the bad boy.

Per Bloomberg, early drivers were companies like Tencent and Kuaishou Technology. Their business model? Produce bite-size episodes for smallish five-figure budgets (eat your heart out, Quibi), distribute a few of them on social media sites like TikTok’s sister app Douyin, then redirect viewers to their own apps to watch their full slates of programming.

These …