Can Sharechat’s micro drama bet reverse its declining ad revenue?
The Bengaluru-based company has invested in five-month-old micro-drama app Quick TV and hopes the national surge in short-form consumption will attract advertisers, co-founder and chief financial officer Manohar Singh Charan said.
“Microseries content allows you to get a higher price (for ads) while selling premium OTT-style inventory to a more engaged audience,” Charan said in an interview. “We’re seeing a lot more advertisers interested in placing ads on this content.” He declined to comment on planned investments in microdramas.
Five minute fix
A microdrama is a serialized video series consisting of short one- to five-minute episodes in a vertical format, designed for rapid, mobile-first consumption. Charan said Sharechat’s Quick TV app has been downloaded 15 million times since its launch, but did not share details of its paid subscriber base.
In micro-drama, regional content curated for tier 2 and 3 audiences will be top priorities. He noted that around 35 million users on Sharechat and short video platform Moj are currently watching some 200 million episodes a day.
Sharechat currently operates two models: free (mix of free and paid content) content under Quick TV and 100% free content under Sharechat and Moj. The company expects advertising revenue to drive Quick TV.
The focus of the microdrama is ShareChat’s parent company, Mohalla Tech Pvt. Ltd saw an 8% drop in advertising revenue ₹290 crore in FY25, ₹315 crore last year. Advertising is the company’s second largest source of revenue after live streaming, accounting for 40% of total revenue. Sharechat’s operating revenue touched in FY25 ₹723 crore, with a marginal increase ₹718 crore last year.
Charan largely attributed the decline in ad revenue to the 28% Goods and Services Tax (GST) imposed on real money gaming (RMG) apps in October 2023. The tax created a significant financial burden that restricted advertisers’ performance marketing spend.
game kick
India has banned real-money gaming, a sector that has become one of the biggest advertisers in recent years, with leading companies such as Dream11, Games24x7 and Mobile Premier League (MPL) spending money on sponsorships and advertising. The ban is expected to nearly wipe out advertising revenues ₹10,000 crore, according to industry stakeholders. However, Sharechat’s Singh noted that the firm has significantly reduced its exposure to real-money gaming platforms after the 2023 tax increase.
The microdrama strategy is key to ShareChat’s goal of achieving 30% revenue growth in FY26. The company has already passed a stage ₹1,000 crore annual revenue rate (ARR) by the end of the first half of the current financial year.
The move to monetize microdramas is in line with the rapidly growing digital advertising market. ₹According to Crisil Intelligence’s estimates, the 1 trillion figure was reached in March 2025, with digital channels accounting for almost half of all spending.
The short video and microdrama market has a monthly streaming rate of $50 million, according to consulting firm Redseer. With more than 300 million users currently following this format and new platforms flooding in, analysts expect the space to grow into an $8-12 billion opportunity by 2030. Mint was reported last month.
hard move
However, Siddharth Jhawar, country manager at AI-powered ad tech company Moloco, said scaling micro-dramas depends heavily on the sustainable quality of new content in an increasingly competitive environment.
“There are two pressures likely to come before microdrama success: First, increased competition will increase the cost of producing content. Second, possible regulatory changes regarding UPI direct debit could hurt subscription growth,” Jhawar said.
In India, Quick TV goes head-to-head with other microdrama apps like Kuku TV, Story TV, ReelSaga and Amazon MiniTV.
Jhawar noted that even with a strong launch, the wave of micro-drama apps producing content in regional languages faces the problem of stalling at a certain scale, making content renewal a constant necessity for growth.
Bright side
On the bright side, paid online content has increased, with a quarter of the 600 million active OTT users having quarterly or annual subscriptions to top streaming platforms, according to a September study by marketing agency Ormax Media. China’s micro-drama segment, considered the world’s largest, is thriving on paid subscriptions, with 60% of its 830 million subscribers in FY25 being paid users, according to estimates by market research firm Media Partners Asia.
Sharechat’s Charan acknowledges the challenges.
“All marketers know where attention is shifting. But they’re still trying to figure out how to latch on to this movement and measure success. Anyone who moves first will be going against the tide. They’ll have to make their own case to prove it’s worth it. Because measuring ROI in branding is very difficult.” [return on investment]” he noted.
