Micro dramas are all the rage, but their ability to make money is a mystery

Shock, terror, disappointment, redemption, joy, achievement... How many emotions can you pack into two minutes? Turns out, many. That’s the trick to making binge-worthy micro dramas — fictional shows of 2- to 3-minute episodes. 

Each one of the 30-50 episodes has to end on a cliffhanger — or “the consumer can leave you. His finger is just one centimetre away from the screen,” says Vinod Kumar Meena, cofounder, KuKu FM, which launched its micro-drama service, KuKu TV, this February. 

Go through any of the hundreds of micro dramas, such as Rented Husband, Love Potion, or I Wish it Were You, and it is evident that they are not about subtlety, quality of talent, or writing. They are cheap, snacky programming to go. 

“There are moments in the day when consumers are looking for short, thumb-scrolling kind of content,” says Amogh Dusad, director and head of content, Amazon MX Player. “The same consumer who binge-watches series on weeknights may be watching micro dramas in the daytime.” Amazon MX Player’s micro drama play, MX Fatafat, is expected later this year. 

“You see them so fast that you don’t know how much you have consumed,” adds Saameer Mody, founder and managing director, Pocket Films. The short film aggregator launched micro dramas in May this year. 

Snackability, low cost, and an ability to titillate consumers into spending more time than they intended has made micro dramas all the rage globally. 

In China, Korea, and India — the three big micro-drama markets — the action has been relentless. 

In China, of the 1.04 billion users of short-form video, 662 million watch micro dramas. “If a market like China can get almost 60 per cent penetration as fast as it has, the potential in India must also be very strong,” says Daoud Jackson, senior analyst, Omdia, a tech research and advisory firm. 

This is what investors seem to be betting on. Flick TV, ReelSaga and Chai Shots, among a host of startups and existing firms, have raised $2-$5 million (₹17-45 crore) each this year to build their micro-drama business. 

This is where the questions come up. 

What about the money? 

In April this year, India had about 523 million people browsing online for news, entertainment and social media, according to media measurement and analytics firm Comscore. That is the potential audience size. The bulk of them are probably already watching micro dramas. 

“The screen time for mobile-first content is four times that of TV or OTT,” reckons Meena.

 

However, putting a revenue number to this is near impossible. This means the entire digital media market, which got ₹80,000 crore in ad and pay revenues in 2024, is the playing field. 

Micro dramas lie in the Venn space at the intersection of YouTube, Netflix, Instagram and Dangal TV, or services such as those.  They lie in the gaps of time when we watch reels, surf a news channel, or chat with friends on WhatsApp. But they demand the kind of gripping storytelling associated with streaming at a fraction of that cost and quality. And they serve episodes in bulk, much like Dangal TV or Star Utsav. It is fiction fighting for the time spent on user-generated stuff on YouTube or Instagram. 

Why would advertisers pay a premium for it? Because it is part of a larger package: such as MX Fatafat on Amazon MX Player, which already has 250 million unique visitors, or Fliqs on Dish TV’s app Watcho, or Bullet on Zee5. 

 

“For MX, it is about capitalising on both different consumer cohorts and the same consumers in different formats,” says Dusad.

Or it could be part of a specialised service like Pocket Films, which is a large distributor of short films across platforms like YouTube, Facebook, JioHotstar, and MX Player. Since its inception in 2009, Pocket Films has distributed over 4,000 films; it shares ad revenues with creators. 

“We are like a YouTube for short films,” says Mody. Pocket Films has 4 million subscribers each on YouTube and Facebook (which brought in  healthy ad revenues till July 2023). But then Meta, which owns Facebook, deprioritised video on the platform. 

“Our revenues fell by 55 per cent. It was scary because our monetisation was primarily on YouTube and Facebook,” says Mody.  That is why Pocket Films decided to launch its own app, which includes micro dramas. Only this time, one can watch 10 episodes of a micro drama free before paying ₹29 a month. 

“Micro dramas can drive involvement for short films, which remain free,” says Mody. 

Micro to macro 

Building a micro drama business on top of an existing portfolio is becoming a common model. For instance, for KuKu FM, which has been offering audio series and books since 2018, KuKu TV is another way of expanding its portfolio. The combined service has 6 million subscribers paying between ₹499 for three months and ₹1,499 annually. 

However, this play works when there is a huge variety of shows. While there is a good deal of licensed stuff from all over the world in Indian languages, the originals have just about taken off as the creative ecosystem catches up. 

Pocket Films has just commissioned five shows, and MX Fatafat is working on a slate that has both licensed and original content, much like its mother service. 

“OTT had a learning curve. Micro dramas are on the same journey,” says Dusad. “They have to be written differently; the story arcs are different.” 

But just like the dramas themselves, the cycle is faster. A 30-50 episode micro drama takes 4-6 weeks to make compared to, say, one season of a streaming show, which takes 12-24 months. “There is a frugality to micro dramas, but it offers a wider selection,” says Dusad. 

Jackson quips that the audience has moved — “from 30 minutes to 8 minutes, and now to one or two minutes. Eventually, they might just be going through pictures.” The way things are going, it will be no surprise if even those are packed with a dozen emotions.