April 27, 2026
Vertical video is no longer a social media sideshow.
Once the domain of influencers and content creators targeting teens glued to their mobile phones, this bite-sized content — shot in portrait mode for smartphone viewing — is now being eyed by professional film producers and even giant media companies such as Fox Entertainment and The Walt Disney Co. as a lucrative new market with untapped potential.
Driving the shift is the explosive growth of micro-dramas — serialized vertical stories told in 30 to 100 episodes, each running 90 seconds to three minutes in length and engineered with hooks and cliffhangers to fuel binge viewing. Omdia in a report presented last October at MIPCOM valued the worldwide vertical video market at $11 billion — twice the size of the global FAST business. Much of that is attributed to China, generally acknowledged as the birthplace of vertical video, where the micro-drama market last year surpassed the country’s box office for the first time by generating 50 billion yuan, or about $6.9 billion, according to the China Netcasting Services Association, a state-controlled group that regulates China’s online audiovisual content.
Many of the most popular vertical shows have transcended TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram and Facebook Reels and migrated onto standalone apps built specifically for vertical storytelling. Platforms such as ReelShort, FlickReels, DramaBox and ShortMax — all primarily Chinese-owned or developed by Chinese companies for a global market — attract tens of millions of viewers and staggering amounts of subscription and advertising revenue. By last year, ReelShort alone saw 370 million global downloads and revenue of $700 million.
“It’s a new way of storytelling within a 9:16 frame with short episodes that start with hooks and end on cliffhangers,” says Dana Protsyshak, co-founder of Vert-I-Go Media and organizer of the LA Vertical Drama Market, billed as the first industry event dedicated to verticals. This year’s show will be held May 7-10 in Los Angeles.
“This medium has a huge audience and big demand,” Protsyshak continued, “and is the result of a change in consumer behavior.”
Sensor Tower reports that micro-drama apps added 5.78 billion hours of viewing time in 2025 alone, generating nearly $3 billion in revenue. Omdia says micro-drama engagement on mobile now exceeds that of major streaming platforms in key markets — including the United States, where ReelShort averaged 35.7 minutes per user per day in Q4 2025, compared with 26.9 minutes for Amazon’s Prime Video, 24.8 minutes for Netflix and 23 minutes for Disney+.
“Micro-dramas are redefining what premium storytelling means in the digital era,” says Maria Rua Aguete, head of media and entertainment at Omdia. “They combine the immediacy of social media with the emotional depth of television drama. They are short, accessible and increasingly popular among mobile audiences.”
Omdia projects the global vertical video market will grow 27% this year to $14 billion. China, where the vertical video market originated, accounts for 83% of total revenue, “driven by its large-scale audiences and mobile viewing trends.” Outside China, the United States leads international markets, followed by Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and Thailand.
ReelShort is one of the leading apps in the U.S. micro-drama market, known for high production values and soap opera-style series focused on such tropes as billionaire romance, revenge and action. DramaBox is another major player in the micro-drama space, featuring a hub of short-form content. ShortMax specializes in original dramas. FlickReels focuses on short films and has specific content targeting niche audiences, such as “silver-haired” dramas. Other apps in this space include NetShort, DramaWave, FlareFlow, StardustTV, MoboReels and GoodShort.
ReelShort and DramaBox lead the market, while newcomers such as DramaWave have risen rapidly, according to SensorTower. In the first quarter of 2025, the most-recent period for which data is available, ReelShort and DramaBox saw in-app revenue grow 31% (to $130 million) and 29% (to $120 million), respectively. The two apps secured the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on both the global revenue and revenue growth charts for overseas short drama apps. As of March 2025, ReelShort and DramaBox have generated $490 million and $450 million, respectively, in cumulative global in-app revenue.
As vertical video’s popularity has exploded, Hollywood has taken notice.
“No one wants to miss it after the streaming revolution,” Protsyshak says. “The majority of studios and streamers were rather skeptical about it at first, as everyone remembered Quibi, but the data and proven business model made them become more curious about this quickly developing space.”
Indeed, Hollywood seems to have shaken off the qualms about the short-form mobile video market after the failed experiment that was Quibi. Founded by Hollywood heavyweight Jeffrey Katzenberg and led by Silicon Valley veteran Meg Whitman, the short-form streaming platform — designed to offer content for viewing on mobile devices — launched in April 2020 and shut down in December 2020 after falling short of subscriber projections.
But that was then, and this is now. Hollywood isn’t just experimenting with vertical video — it’s investing in it.
Last August, Cineverse announced a joint venture with Banyan Ventures, the venture arm of former ABC Entertainment Group and WME chairman Lloyd Braun, for the pending launch of a studio and AI-based platform creating serialized micro-dramas. The new Cineverse studio, MicroCo, is headed by CEO Jana Winograde, a former president of entertainment for Showtime Networks, and chief creative officer Susan Rovner, former chairman of entertainment content for NBCUniversal television and streaming. Braun, Cineverse CEO Chris McGurk, and Cineverse president and chief strategy officer Erick Opeka will have management positions in the company.
Cineverse’s announcement was made five months before The Walt Disney Co. signaled a similar move into short-form content distribution during CES.
The media giant dipped its toe into short-form serials in March, bowing the anthology series “Locker Diaries,” featuring characters from popular Disney Channel franchises, including “Zombies,” “Descendants” and “Phineas and Ferb,” with episodes available on Disney+, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. “Locker Diaries” lets viewers peek into the hallways and lives of favorite characters as they open their school lockers — each locker door opening revealing a bite-sized adventure. “Locker Diaries: Zombies” kicked off the series with 11 short-form live-action episodes. Disney+ subscribers got access to the vertical version of the shorts via the “Verts” icon on the website, indicating videos designed and optimized for mobile viewing.
Fox Entertainment in January signed a multiyear deal with Dhar Mann Studios — the digital studio founded by creator Dhar Mann — for a series of original scripted vertical video shows. Under the deal, Dhar Mann Studios will create and produce an initial slate of 40 titles designed for Holywater, the micro-drama video platform in which Fox Entertainment took an equity stake last year. The vertical shows will exclusively debut on Holywater’s My Drama app.
“Micro-dramas are short-form storytelling that is specifically designed for the mobile generation and how we use phones today to consume content,” says Bogdan Nesvit, co-founder and co-CEO of Holywater Tech. “Since so much of video consumption happens on a phone, this medium has a huge convenience factor that allows people to watch from anywhere in a way that feels easy and familiar. The episodes are typically one to two minutes long, and the amount of episodes depends on the series, usually between 60 and 90 episodes. One of our most recent series on My Drama, ‘Wild Silence,’ has 56 episodes. Every episode is filmed in a vertical format and edited for the way people actually watch today: a fast-paced narrative, packed with plot twists and cliffhangers that keep the audience engaged and eager to see what happens next.”
What sets micro-dramas apart is how precisely they are constructed.
“What’s the most important, internally when we produce microcontent, is the structure that we call three-seven-21 — three seconds, seven seconds, and 21 seconds,” Nesvit told attendees at NATPE Global in Miami in February. “This is essential for all the content that we produce. You have three seconds to hook someone’s attention right now, to stop them from scrolling their Instagram or TikTok feeds. You have seven seconds to introduce the plot. And then you introduce a potential reward for the user, and you have 21 seconds to give this reward to the user. And you basically recycle the structure in every episode that you have — you have 21 seconds, essentially, to twist the plot.”
It’s about maintaining interest in short bursts of drama.
“Imagine that you are hanging from a huge cliff — it’s super high,” he said. “This is the whole series; this is the whole movie of 60 episodes. But each episode is like a small cliff. So whenever you fall from this cliff, there is another one that you fall from again and again.”
Vertical video is engineered for the scroll.
“It’s fast, emotional, and easy to consume,” says Cineverse’s Erick Opeka. “We think it is the first truly new content format since reality television. Vertical video is storytelling built specifically for the phone. It’s shot full-screen, in a vertical format, so there’s no friction for the viewer. It’s highly serialized. Every episode ends on a hook, so you keep going back for more. You can watch a full story in small bursts throughout the day. It fits how people already use their phones. We think this could eventually consume 20% to 30% of all video consumption time if it becomes mainstream.”
Hollywood’s entry signals the format has moved from novelty to business.
“One of the clearest signs that micro-drama is becoming a lasting medium rather than a passing trend is the caliber of companies now entering the space,” says Anatolii Kasianov, co-founder and co-CEO of Holywater Tech. “Recent partnerships with Fox Entertainment and Dhar Mann Studios, along with record investment in micro-dramas, show that major players are not just watching the category — they are actively exploring it. And this is still only the beginning.”
The Fox investment will allow Holywater to increase production and shows the traditional media company’s belief in the medium, he says.
“We are in active production on a slate of 200 original micro-dramas and vertical series specifically for our platform, My Drama,” he says. “Some of our newest releases — ‘Swapped Bodies With My Secret Crush,’ ‘High Stakes Heartthrob’ and ‘Secret Society’ — are showing a great response from viewers.”
The new medium is not only economical, but additive.
“What makes the format appealing for the future is not just its mobile-first nature, but also the way it changes the economics and speed of content development,” Kasianov says. “At Holywater Tech, we see ourselves as an IP incubation lab: We can produce content faster and more efficiently, helping legacy players test new stories and adapt existing IP in new ways. Just as importantly, we can pair that with real-time audience insights and analytics, which help show what viewers actually want to watch and can inform both business and content strategy.”
“It’s a new layer of content that sits between social media and traditional film and TV,” says Cineverse’s Opeka. “It’s not replacing anything. It’s additive. Vertical video is appealing because it’s native to how younger audiences consume content. It’s also cost efficient and highly repeatable. If you get something that works, you can scale it quickly. For Hollywood, it’s another way to develop IP and build audiences earlier in the lifecycle.”
Capitalizing on the format’s appeal to its core demographic of women, Lifetime in March announced its entry into the vertical space with “Tides of Temptation,” a micro-drama serving as a digital offshoot of it upcoming “Love of a Lifetime” original movie Terry McMillan Presents: Paradise With You. Executive produced by Taye Diggs, Autumn Federici and Shelby Stone, the micro-drama is designed to expand the film’s universe.
“When we first heard the pitch from Autumn and Taye for a micro-drama connected to a movie, it felt like a smart, strategic way to enter the vertical space,” said Rob Sharenow, president of programming at A+E Global Media. “It allows us to expand the world of the film while meeting audiences wherever they are, without compromising on storytelling quality or production value.”
“We approached this as a fully realized dramatic project, not just short-form content,” Diggs said. “It’s an opportunity to bring emotional depth and visual ambition into a format designed for today’s audiences.”
In February, Telemundo Studios, known for its telenovelas and Spanish-language content, announced a reimagined vertical micro-drama adaptation of its hit series “Armas de Mujer” (“’Till Jail Do Us Part”), now available on ReelShort. The new mobile-first adaptation consists of 123 two-minute episodes, in Spanish with English-language captions or fully dubbed in English.
“As viewers’ habits continue to shift, we’re focused on delivering our stories in formats that meet audiences where they are,” said Javier Pons, chief content officer and head of Telemundo Studios. “’Armas de Mujer’ is a natural extension of that approach, reimagined for short-form,
mobile-first viewing.”
Also on the Spanish-language front, TeleVisa-Univision is bringing its popular telenovelas to mobile devices. The company has produced about 80 different micro-dramas for its ViX streaming platform, with plans to expand into other genres, such as documentaries and comedies, on a later date.
At the official launch last February of its ViX MicrO platform, the company in a press release said it is reimagining melodrama “for a new generation, transforming it into an agile, immersive and social-first experience while preserving the emotional intensity that has defined its storytelling for decades.”
ViX MicrO features scripted micro-series with one-minute episodes and an average of 60 chapters per title. Each production is completed in just five days.
Speaking on a vertical video panel at NATPE Global in Miami, also in February, Damian Villar, general director of content and production for TelevisaUnivision, said, “When we started, I remember one of our writers brought me a story. He said we have to do a story of one or two minutes, 90 minutes total, 60 episodes. And I said why 60? Why 90? And he said the competition is going to be TikTok and Instagram [where people watch] one video after another of one minute [each].”
The hardest thing, he said, is to engineer every episode “so you can capture the audience in the first three seconds. You need something to make you addicted and stay there.”
Disney also is exploring the medium with existing IP, such as the “Locker Diaries” shorts featuring Disney Channel characters. “We’ll look to evolve the experience over time,” Disney said in a press announcement during CES, adding that the concept aims to “explore utilizing short-form content in a variety of ways across categories, and content types, for a personalized and dynamic feed.”
A new “Verts” icon on the mobile navigation bar launched on the service in early March. With the feature, “users can enter a vertical video feed and can swipe through a stream of scenes and moments from movies and shows on Disney+, and seamlessly add to their Watchlist or jump directly into playback,” the company announced. Right now, it’s more of an exploration of existing IP than new content.
“At launch, this includes driving discoverability across Disney’s entertainment catalog, with opportunities in the future to add content from creators that reflects our fandoms, plus other storytelling formats, content types and personalized experience,” Disney said.
Vertical video emerged in China around 2018, driven by mobile-first platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. Its roots lie in romance web novels, which were adapted into fast-paced, serialized visual content.
“It began largely as a visual adaptation of romance e-books,” Holywater’s Nesvit says.
Vert-I-Go Media’s Protsyshak agrees: “It all started from web novels. There are millions of different romance stories out there, and the first verticals appeared as their adaptations into the visual format.”
Vertical video’s popularity in China surged during the pandemic, expanding into “a handful of [other] highly popular tropes — CEO romance, hidden identities, forced marriage, revenge arcs and similar emotionally charged storylines,” Nesvit says. “Each episode typically opens with a strong hook and ends on a cliffhanger. The structure is highly formulaic — and it works.”
“The early content leaned heavily into romance, billionaire stories and supernatural themes like werewolves,” Cineverse’s Opeka adds. “Those may sound specific, but they tap into universal ideas like power, identity, revenge and love. The difference is the pacing. The stories move very quickly and are built to keep you engaged minute to minute.”
Vertical producers are now on a mission to expand genres.
“I would say that romance is still a prevailing genre in verticals,” Protsyshak says. “It’s hard to move away from something that works so well, and romance is a very vast genre.
However, thrillers, true crime and horror are currently getting more attention in discussions, especially within emerging apps.”
“There is an opportunity here for many different genres,” Nesvit adds. “We’re committed to making micro-dramas a mainstream format, and to do that, we need to launch more genres that appeal to different audiences: thrillers, action, unscripted, and even anime. A really exciting upcoming series for us is the first vertical musical, ‘Playback,’ which stars influencer Hannah Stocking. Micro-dramas are for everyone and any genre, and Holywater Tech is already starting to see success outside of the main genre lanes.”
“Right now, romance and fantasy lead, but that will broaden,” says Cineverse’s Opeka. “Horror, a genre with which we have had a great deal of success, is a big opportunity. It works well with short episodes and cliffhangers. Thriller and crime also translate well. Comedy with recurring characters is another area that can scale. You’ll see more variety over time as the format matures.”
Monetization varies. Most platforms operate on freemium mechanics: a handful of free episodes, followed by pay-to-unlock, subscriptions or ad-supported viewing.
“You watch a few episodes for free and then pay micro-transactions or watch ads to unlock the rest,” says Holywater’s Kasianov.
At Holywater Tech, he notes, monetization is built into the viewing model itself. “In addition to regular in-app subscriptions, we also offer premium subscription options, including access models that allow users to watch major premieres earlier,” Kasianov says. “The premium offering is designed around faster access, added convenience, and a smoother viewing experience for users who want to engage with content more immediately.”
Cineverse’s key role in its joint venture is to streamline the way the operation makes money.
“Where we focus is enabling that monetization,” Opeka says. “Payments, ad infrastructure, and data-driven optimization. That’s where we think we can add the most value. Cineverse’s role is not to be a primary content studio in this space. It’s to be the premier distribution, monetization, and technology partner.
“We want to work with best-in-class creators and producers who are already building strong vertical video content. We bring the infrastructure. That includes distribution, ad tech, platform, discovery, payments and data. The goal is to help scale the ecosystem, not own or produce all the content ourselves.”
One problem with the pervasive freemium model is attracting viewers — and keeping them coming back once they’ve finished a show.
“The retention for apps is rather low, so verticals rely heavily on marketing, with marketing budgets often exceeding production budgets several times,” Protsyshak says.
“It’s a very huge problem for not only our platform, but also for all the vertical platforms right now — that we spend a huge amount on promotion,” DramaWave’s Ziyu Wu said at the February EnTech conference in Los Angeles. “Like if we spend $300,000 for production, we probably will spend $3 million for promoting the show.”
To improve the economics, producers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence. Using AI for production can significantly reduce costs and accelerate development, particularly for animation and hybrid formats.
“It’s already happening,” Protsyshak says “There are specific apps which offer only AI verticals; some combine AI and live-action verticals. It’s way cheaper to produce than a regular live-action vertical. AI animation verticals are huge in China and they’re slowly coming to the U.S.”
“AI will help make the model more efficient,” says Cineverse’s Opeka. “It can assist with scripting, editing, localization and analyzing what is working.
“This is a high-volume format, so anything that improves speed and lowers cost is important. Long term, it could be the first place where a 100% AI idea flourishes. There are already independent creators in the space attempting that and succeeding.”
Holywater Tech is using AI to make more appealing content efficiently.
“Holywater Tech is an AI-first tech company that focuses on using AI for efficiency,” says Holywater’s Kasianov. “Our content pipeline starts on My Passion, our independent book publishing platform. We test hundreds of books to gather data from our audiences on which stories resonate with them. The top-performing stories then move to My Muse, which is our AI video platform where vertical series are produced with the support of generative AI. We can then quickly analyze which stories do well in video format. The strongest concepts then become live-action vertical series for My Drama. The stories are scripted, produced and performed by human creatives. We focus on using AI to understand what content works while leaving human creativity at the center.”
Despite vertical video’s momentum, the memory of the spectacular downfall of Quibi makes some observers wonder if this new short-form medium is a passing fad. But those placing their bets on it say the vertical format is destined to last.
“It fits how people already consume content on their phones, from TikTok to webtoons to Reels and Shorts,” Cineverse’s Opeka says. “The format will evolve, but short-form, serialized storytelling is not going away. The companies that build the infrastructure around it will be in a strong position.”
“I’d say that verticals as we see them now are just the first step into the new era of entertainment we’re currently entering,” Vert-I-Go Media’s Protsyshak says. “They reflect the consumer behavior, especially short attention spans. AI is already changing the space, and the immersive technologies which are being developed will follow.”
“The medium has arrived in the mainstream, and it’s no longer just an experiment,” Holywater’s Nesvit maintains. “We recently received our largest financing round to date at $22 million to further our strategy in maintaining micro-dramas as a mainstream entertainment. While the medium is fairly new, the shift in how the world consumes stories has been happening for a long time. This medium arrived to meet that moment. We aren’t asking people to change their viewing habits to make this work, we are meeting people in a way they are already watching.”
Some say the format could be as transformative as the advent of film and television.
“We are at the beginning of something new,” said Scott Brown, founder of digital production company Second Rodeo, which produced the micro-drama musical “Playback” for Holywater, at the February EnTech conference. “When film started, we went to go see films in theaters. With television we brought them into our homes.
“What does it mean when we carry the stories that we love in our pockets everywhere we go?”
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