How soap opera-TikTok hybrids became a billion-dollar business
Watch as Equity digs into the short-form, mobile-first shows quietly becoming a multi-billion dollar industry, with Watch Club founder Henry Soong.
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Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They’re called “micro dramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire romances, disapproving werewolf mothers-in-law, and cliffhangers engineered to keep users tapping. The leading app, ReelShort, made $1.2 billion in consumer spending last year alone.
On this episode of ’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan and senior reporter Amanda Silberling sit down with Henry Soong, founder of Watch Club, who thinks the micro drama industry is still “in its MySpace era.” He has a vision for what the Facebook moment could look like.
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