Micro-dramas make a leap from China to India, fueling a new content race
This report is excerpted from CNBC’s ‘Inside India’ newsletter this week, which brings you up-to-date, informative news and market commentary on the emerging powerhouse. Subscriber Here.
big story
Recent friendly initiatives aside, India cannot always see eye to eye with China. But when it comes to the battle for eyeballs, the country’s entertainment industry has taken a leaf out of China’s playbook.
Microdramas, or 90-second to two-minute videos filled with hooks and crazy plots, have eclipsed the box office in China last year to create a nearly $7 billion industry, and the trend has spread to India as well.
This won’t be the first time a Chinese content format has gained traction in the neighboring country.
ByteDance’s TikTok is on the rise popularity in indiaBefore the app was banned in 2020, millions of people in the country were addicted to the short video format. Meta’s Instagram within weeks of the ban Launched Reels It is a leading platform for user-generated short-format content in India and now in the country.
With popular Chinese apps still banned in India, short video apps backed by streaming platforms, local production companies, and private equity and venture capital firms are eyeing microseries as the next wave of content that drives user engagement.
To avoid being left behind in the race to master this new video format, they are pulling their socks off and investing in creating small-sized serialized content libraries.
Television crew working in a studio
Dpmike | E+ | Getty Images
Take Bengaluru-based ShareChat, whose founders launched short video platform Moj for regional content after TikTok was banned. Manohar Charan, ShareChat’s co-founder and chief financial officer, told CNBC that between ShareChat and Moj, they have more than 200 million users. instagram There were more than 480 million Indian users as of October 2025, according to Statista.
Five months ago ShareChat doubled down on its microdrama space and launched QuickTV. Unlike Moj, which offers user-generated content and ad-supported microdramas, QuickTV streams videos from professional production companies and comes with a subscription model.
“We have 40 million users who watch microdrama content per month,” Charan told CNBC.
Indian microdramas are estimated to be the fastest-growing segment in the country’s $2.4 billion gaming and interactive media industry, according to a report by market research firm Redseer and venture capital firm Bitkraft. The industry is expected to reach $7.8 billion by 2030; The emerging field of microdrama is predicted to become a billion-dollar industry within the next five years.
“This form [micro-dramas] “Designed for today’s fast-paced, snackable moments, it also opens up opportunities for a new wave of creators in India’s vibrant creative ecosystem,” Amogh Dusad, content director and head of Amazon MX Player, said in a post. on LinkedIn earlier this year.
To take advantage of the micro drama opportunity in the last six months, Amazon MX launches India’s legacy media Fatafat Zee Entertainment Invested in Bullet app, Hoichoi launched streaming platform Sooper. There are also PE and VC-funded apps like Kuku TV and Story TV; all vying for attention and wallet share.
Supported by smartphones
India’s massive smartphone user base has helped catalyze the growth of microdrama in the country.
Navkendar Singh, vice president of International Data Corporation, told CNBC: India has about 750 to 800 million smartphone users, second only to China.Inside India” on Tuesday.
“In India, television has become the secondary screen while phones have become the primary screen for many,” said Sambbhav Khetarpal, a former television writer who is also the chief content officer of microdrama platform Sooper.
This shift has been in the making for several years, he says, as people increasingly consume content on smartphones rather than TVs.
The earliest microdramas in India (ignoring user-generated content) began about a year ago with the dubbing of Chinese programs into local languages and later progressed to adapting these stories in India.
“Chinese drama’s copied content is just the beginning of the industry’s teething problems,” said Anuj Tandon, partner at KukuTV investor Bitkraft.
While even generic plans result in subscriptions and app downloads mostly from small towns in India, experts said platforms and production companies are looking for different content due to the influx of new investment and increasing competition.
Khetarpal told CNBC that “it will be difficult to sustain a platform with copycat content” and that only “good technology and good content will survive.”
Television actor-turned-microdrama producer Karanvir Bohra said there has to be a hook in every minute, otherwise the audience will “slide away”.
money question
Currently, most Indian microdrama platforms generate revenue from subscriptions, which is a positive change from earlier “cash burning models of content platforms”, according to Siddharth Jhawar, India managing director of ad tech firm Moloco.
But he added that once the user base of these apps reaches 10 to 15 million, they will need to consider a mix of ad revenue as subscriptions remain flat. Some in the industry, like QuickTV’s Charan, say commercials are a better way to bring shows to a wider audience.
Approximately 70% to 80% of subscription revenue goes to marketing the content on Instagram and Facebook for user acquisition, with the remainder split between the production and distribution platform.
By having a library of platforms, users can stay engaged on microdrama platforms for longer periods of time, just like Instagram does with user-created content, allowing for increased earnings through ads, experts say.
A short video platform with a high content volume works well for ads, Moloco’s Jhawar said, adding that the strategy has helped TikTok and Reels succeed in terms of ads.
“It is easier to place ads after every 3-4 videos than to place ads in the middle of long content,” he said.
Microdramas will need greater content volume to draw the audience away from Instagram’s user-generated content. It’s a potential threat that hasn’t gone unnoticed on Meta, which launched its own microdrama series called “Party for Two” in September. Meta said the series aims to “inspire Generation Z to take creative risks.” expression.
Experts said there could be a content boom in India, given that these shows are produced for less than $3,000 per series and have a wide talent base across Bollywood, TV, streaming platforms.
“There will be a boom in content production in this space for 3-4 years,” said Anurag Shukla, who has written several microdramas in recent months.
Predictions aside, I’m waiting for my Chinese friends to recommend a Mandarin-language show that turns out to be a knockoff of the Indian microdrama. Does it seem like a good benchmark to measure the performance of Indian platforms in this sector?
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IDC India vice president Navkendar Singh expects Apple’s India sales to grow at 10% to 15% annually over the next four to five years.
Ravi Jakhar, group chief financial officer at Allcargo Group, said that despite a strong season overall, global trade had become “extremely muted” in the wake of US tariffs.
Pranjul Bhandari, HSBC’s India chief economist and strategist, said the firm expects India’s GDP to grow around 7% to 7.5% in the next two quarters.
you need to know
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India deepens energy trade with the USA The country is increasing its energy imports from the United States in an effort to reduce its trade surplus with Washington; This is a key demand of the Trump administration during trade negotiations with New Delhi.
The capital markets sector wants a revision in taxes. industry suggested A case of sweeping tax revision emerged as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met market representatives in New Delhi to discuss ahead of the union budget.
quote of the week
I am optimistic that some kind of agreement will be reached between India and the US… India clearly wants to be in the broad band of its ASEAN peers with its labour-intensive exports.
— Suman Bery, vice president, NITI Aayog
In the markets
Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex gained around 0.5% on Thursday; They’ve gained 11% and nearly 10%, respectively, so far this year.
The benchmark 10-year Indian government bond yield rose slightly and was last traded at 6.543%.
— Nur Hikmah Md Ali
approaching
21 November: HSBC’s flash PMI for November; IPO of Sudeep Pharma
21-23 November: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend G20 summit in South Africa
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