High stakes in short takes: Micro-drama industry levels up

In October, the romance micro-drama Shengxia Fendela (Summer Rose) also enjoyed phenomenal success.

Distinguished by its cinematic visual quality, nuanced performances and outstanding vertical-screen aesthetics, the series achieved over 4 billion views.

Guo Yuxin, who portrays the female lead Bai Qingmei, describes her character as "a fully realized, flesh-and-blood person", noting that the script provides Bai with a complete growth arc and psychological depth.

"As actors, we need to use our performance power to make the essence of each character visible and palpable, so that they resonate with the audience. This is out of respect for our viewers, and it holds the key to the sustainable development of the micro-drama industry,"Guo says.

Zhao, the chief producer at Heard Island, observes that audience tastes have shifted sharply, with viewers now rejecting conventional micro-drama formulas.

"As more production companies enter the field and viewership expands, the evolution of aesthetic expectations has accelerated, moving faster than many anticipated," he says.

The China Internet Development Report 2025, a blue book published in November by the Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, indicates that as of December 2024, China's micro-drama audience has grown to 662 million viewers, while the market's value has surpassed 50 billion yuan ($7 billion).

For the first time, the sector has overtaken domestic box-office revenues, establishing itself as a major new arena in content consumption.

Reflecting on the shift within the industry, Zhao connects it to the history of media technology.

He observes that from the film projector giving birth to cinema, to the television nurturing TV series, and now the smartphone era spawning vertical-screen short videos and micro-dramas, the content form has always been shaped by its medium.

"In this sense, today's vertical-screen micro-dramas are essentially 'smartphone-native dramas'," he notes.

"It's a form built around mobile phone interaction and viewing habits. As long as the vertical-screen format dominates our devices, this paradigm will persist and continue to permeate culture and industry."