Duanju
Duanju, sometimes translated in English as short drama, vertical drama, microdrama, vertical minidrama, vertical series or mobile drama, is a type of short form web or television series that originated in China. These series typically feature 1–2 minute episodes, and a complete production may include 20 to 100 episodes, resulting in a total runtime similar to one or two real television episodes. Produced specifically for smartphone viewing, many duanju are shot in vertical format and optimized for fragmented, bite-sized consumption on platforms such as Douyin. Some titles are further adapted into interactive film-style mobile games. Duanju is characterized by fast-paced plots and heightened melodrama, sometimes adapted from Chinese web fiction.
Emergence and development in China
Duanju originates from Chinese Web fictions that started around 2002. These fictions were written by users on websites such as Qidian and were released in installments, where readers had the option to pay per chapter or a subscription.Video-form duanju started in 2013 on Youku Tudou before moving to apps like TikTok, ReelShort, DramaBox, GoodShort, My Drama, and Kuaishou. By 2023 the audience for duanju reached about 1.6 billion people.
Between 2020 and 2022, the format became professionalized: fast shoots, vertical 9:16 format, smaller budgets, and monetization through freemium or pay-per-episode models. Unlike the majority of content submitted to apps like TikTok, duanju are professionally-produced rather than user-generated. Chinese production companies hire professional actors and crew to shoot and edit the content. The shows are typically freemium, offering a few episodes for free before monetizing through various means, including video-on-demand and subscriptions.
In 2024, China's duanju market generated over 50 billion yuan in revenue. The sector is also estimated to have created over 600,000 jobs. Duanju have thus become one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Chinese entertainment industry.
International expansion
United states
, a company founded by Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov, launched in 2024 the mobile application My Drama, a platform for broadcasting short vertical series of two to three minutes, designed for contemporary mobile use. The platform quickly gained a growing user base in the USA and Europe and generates millions of dollars in annual revenue.My Drama is a mobile and web-based platform for short-form vertical video series optimized for 9:16 smartphone viewing, with episodes of one to two minutes and seasons of up to 100 episodes.
Its catalog spans micro-dramas, mini-dramas, duanju, thrillers, detective stories, action, and mafia genres, and the platform uses AI-powered translation and dubbing to localize content into more than 30 languages for global audiences.
In May 2025, the application won a Webby Award and was named the best streaming service of the year.
In August 2025, the Canadian French-language daily La Presse reported that My Drama had become the dominant platform in Europe for vertical micro-series. As of September 2025, My Drama has reached over 40 million lifetime users. The app releases daily episodes, offering a freemium subscription or ad-supported access through its companion app FreeBits.
In October 2025, Holywater announced a strategic content deal with Fox Entertainment to produce over 200 vertical series for the My Drama platform. The company links its reading app My Passion with the short-form video platform My Drama, using well-performing stories as the basis for short screenplays that are tested with audiences before moving into production. The company’s AI-powered streaming My Muse, was initially used to test series concepts for My Drama before evolving into a standalone platform. Launched in March 2024, My Drama has become the top-earning vertical streaming app from the U.S. or Europe, often leading global download charts on iOS and Android. The service is available in more than 190 countries, with major audiences in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and Western Europe, and is expanding into Asia and Latin America through AI-based localization. As of September 2025, it reported 40 million lifetime users, with the U.S. as its primary market.
Chinese production companies have started collaborating with their American and British counterparts to bring the content to English-speaking audiences. This is done either by dubbing the existing Chinese duanjus or by re-creating the entire series with English-speaking actors. Productions in these countries are also on a very small budget and can be filmed in as little as 10 days for an entire season.
In 2025, Netflix adopted a vertical mobile feed. Journalist Isabelle Deromas Lebocq saw it as a sign of the growing influence of the duanju format.
In July 2025, DramaBox was selected by Disney to join the Disney Accelerator program, confirming the growing interest of major American studios in micro-dramas.
France
In spring 2023, the first French duanju series, Next Door Adventure, was released on Facebook on Guillaume Sanjorge's page, where it accumulated several hundred thousand views before later being distributed on an Asian platform.In January 2024, French outlets including France Inter, France Info, Midi Libre and Courrier International introduced ReelShort as the “TikTok of series,” marking its first broad media coverage in France.
On November 23, 2024, the first public screening of duanju series took place, organized by the association Studio Phocéen.
In June 2024, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on the arrival of short vertical series in France, mainly distributed via the ReelShort app, and noted their growing popularity among younger audiences.
Since 2025, the Asian platform Stardust TV has also expanded into France. Among its new titles is the French vertical series Next Door Adventure, produced by Guillaume Sanjorge. It is the first French series to be distributed on an Asian platform dedicated to vertical mobile fiction.
The French actors Jean-Pierre Castaldi and Marthe Villalonga are cast in Guillaume Sanjorge's duanju series, King Gandolfi.
On June 14, 2025, the association Studio Phocéen brought together an international panel of creators and producers to explore the growing potential of this format. British producer Adam Gee was among the participants.
In July 2025, Gaëtan Bruel, president of the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, mentioned the format for the first time during an official visit to Asia.
In August 2025, journalist Jade Hin-Cellura from the magazine Geo published an article on Hollywood's enthusiasm for Chinese mini-series, highlighting Duanju as a rapidly growing format. The Canadian French-language daily La Presse also published an article by Mathieu Perreault describing the rise of the format in France. Producer Guillaume Sanjorge noted that while early European series mostly adapt Chinese works, the format could expand in the West.
Many in France have warned of the corrosive effects duanju could have on French art and culture. A France Inter podcast, an article from Le Figaro, and a speech by the president of the CNC, Gaëtan Bruel, who described the micro-drama as “the perfect counter-example” of what France should stand for.
Examples
- Kaibo! Duanju Ji, reached nearly 100 million views
- Unparalleled, earned gross revenue of $14 million after eight days of release
- Take Me Home - produced by Stephen Chow
- "Billionaire hides his identity, works as a delivery boy but Sexy female CEO loves him at all costs".
- "Worldwide Prices Plummet by 10,000 Times, I Become the World's Wealthiest".
- "Global IQ Drops by 10,000 Times, I Become the World's Smartest Person".
- "Global Freeze, I Built a Doomsday Safe House".
- "After the divorce, I resumed my status as a rich lady. My ex-husband regretted it".
- Young Elite, a vertical series on My Drama, became a hit across the U.S. and Europe, surpassing 10 million views.
Copyright concerns