Vampires, billionaire husbands, and influencers: How a Chinese-backed short drama app is taking on Hollywood

• ReelShort leads the short-drama-app trend, driving $52 million in Q1 consumer spending.
• ReelShort plans to more than quadruple story production this year while expanding to new genres.
• It's also reaching out to creators to keep its momentum going.

When Hollywood went on strike last year, Autumn Noel, 23, was at a low point and considered leaving the profession. Then she got an offer to star in a ReelShort drama.

In the show, "Fated to my Forbidden Alpha," she played a young woman caught between two rival werewolf clans fighting for domination. Her character was treated terribly, but the pay was good, and the story took off.

"It kind of blew up," she said. "The whole werewolf thing, and I think people like the men swooping the girl off their feet."

ReelShort, with its melodramatic, formulaic shows cut up into minute-long episodes, is the leader of the hot short-drama-app trend. The number of such apps in the Apple and Google app stores has more than tripled over the past year to 66, including DramaBox and ShortMax in addition to ReelShort, according to Appfigures, a market research firm. The apps drove $146 million in global consumer spending in Q1, up from $2 million a year ago.

ReelShort accounted for $52 million of that, or 37%, with the US being its biggest market. The app also accounted for 37% of short drama app downloads, according to Appfigures. (The revenue figures are before the app stores' cuts are taken.)

ReelShort comes from California-based Crazy Maple Studio, which is backed by Beijing-based digital publisher COL Group. With storylines heavy on werewolves, vampires, and billionaire husbands, often based on internet literature, it's aiming to import the short-drama format popular in China to the US. At some point, people are shown ads or asked to pay to unlock subsequent episodes. Crazy Maple founder Joey Jia said viewers typically pay $5 to $10 a week. According to ReelShort, the app has about 50 million downloads and 2 million daily active users.

"Breaking the Ice," one of ReelShort's popular new shows.

Short drama's long-term future is uncertain

Short drama is still a small fraction of the larger streaming video world dominated by the likes of TikTok and Netflix. But Jia said he believes the genre could be a $500 million business this year, with ReelShort taking 40% of it. ReelShort told The Wall Street Journal last year the company had made $22 million since it started a year earlier. He sees vertical video one day rivaling the film industry as people spend more time on mobile devices and seek out content tailored to the device. It may not be that farfetched: A Deloitte survey found Gen Z prefers to watch social video over TV shows and movies; short dramas have elements of both.

There's no guarantee the buzz around short dramas will last and that ReelShort will maintain its dominance. Its ranking has dipped slightly since the start of the year, when it was in the top 10 among free entertainment apps on Apple's App Store, according to the analytics firm Sensor Tower.

To keep the momentum going, ReelShort is churning out more shows and expanding to genres besides romance, such as young adult. It released 23 shows last year and is on track to put out 120 by the end of this year. ReelShort is trying to appeal to more men, who currently make up 30% of viewers.

ReelShort is also talking to established Hollywood studios about licensing their entertainment content from them, but ReelShort wants to edit their shows to suit its platform, which has been a stumbling block.

Another growth lane ReelShort is looking into is tapping creators, as TikTok and other social platforms have done. ReelShort typically produces its own shows, but it's inviting influencers and other types of creators to create their own content and earn revenue based on their performance. ReelShort is providing a $10 million fund to creators to pitch their own shows. It's also looking to cast creators with large followings to act in its shows.

ReelShort hopes these creators will help it expand beyond romance to formats like mystery, which haven't worked well within ReelShort's existing story templates. The company said it's already working with creators like Joao Coronel, who was a contestant on the Netflix dating show "Too Hot to Handle," and YouTuber Abelar.

"People are looking for more content," Jia said. "People are also looking for diversity of content. That encouraged us to look for more creators as long as they can follow our content and tell a complete, emotional story."

ReelShort is making a pitch to creators

ReelShort is pitching itself as a way for creators to thrive without the limitations of the Hollywood establishment.

It hosted a swanky party in LA in July, where many creators were on hand. Most of ReelShort's productions are shot in Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles; it plans to open a new studio and office in LA located near major Hollywood studios in September.

Noah Mallin, an ad industry vet who consults advertisers on social strategy, said ReelShort's creator approach seemed like a smart way to grow awareness of the app and potentially create a breakout show. He compared it to how TikTok worked to lure creators who were already established on other platforms.

"It does double duty: It creates content for the platform and creates awareness in other spaces," Mallin said of ReelShort's creator outreach. "Creators in that environment have a higher chance of driving subscription revenue because I want to see what they do next."

ReelShort lacks the scale of big social platforms and polish of Hollywood, which could limit the types of creators it might appeal to. Its shows have provided work for up-and-coming talent like Noel, but some who have worked with the company have criticized its productions as lacking diversity and following a grueling schedule. Frequent ad breaks are a common viewer complaint.

Jia said ReelShort is intentionally not trying to mimic Hollywood, though. He said shows are closely scrutinized for their ability to keep people engaged and unapologetically reworked if audiences drop off, something he knows traditional Hollywood creatives wouldn't stand for. The company experimented with three- and five-minute episodes before deciding one-minute clips were ideal for hooking people quickly.

ReelShort is often compared to Quibi, the infamously short-lived video app that shut down after just six months. Jia said he studied the app and tried to find a better way. While Quibi got celebrities to make shows with 10-minute-or-less episodes, ReelShort's model depends on over-the-top emotions, delivered in short bursts.

"It was just old content in new skin," he said of Quibi. As for ReelShort, he said: "The pacing is so different from a sitcom. We want to give people instant satisfaction. You don't need celebrities, just the right story."