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They are as short as a toothbrushing tutorial but pack the same spicy wallop as a BookTok romantasy. Theyre as bingeable as a bajillion-dollar Netflix series, but with the stripped-down aesthetics of a Hallmark movie. Im talking, of course, about microdramasthe fast, fizzy serialized videos flooding phones worldwide. In just a few years, theyve become a full-blown phenomenon, generating billions in revenue without Hollywoods help. At least, not until now. As studios grapple with a sluggish summer box office and another thin fall TV lineup, a growing legion of viewers is glued to stories made exclusively for their phones. Microdramasor vertical shows, as theyre often calledblend the raw emotion of K-dramas with a TikTok sensibility. Think high-intensity, telenovela-like series, unfurling in one-to-three-minute chunks across 50 to 100 mostly paywalled episodes. They may have titles such as Doctor Boss Is My Baby Daddy or Signed, Sealed, Deceived by My Billionaire Mailboy, but their massive, global fan base makes them impossible to dismiss. A structural shift Born in China during the early COVID years, microdramas have since ballooned into a $7 billion industry, and are projected to generate $10 to $13 billion in revenue by 2027. More than 40 dedicated apps, including Seoul-based Vigloo and Californias ReelShort, operate on a freemium model. Curious viewers can try a multi-episode taste of most series, with the option to continue by either paying to subscribe or making in-app purchases. Although the format first gained traction in Eastern regions, the U.S. emerged last year as the largest market for microdrama apps, contributing 60% of global revenue, according to data analysis firm Sensor Tower. Apps like GoodShort and DramaBox now regularly jostle with Netflix for top slots in entertainment rankings. (To be clear, these companies remain well behind Netflix in revenue and profit.) Now, as U.S. demand for vertical shows surges, a group of Hollywood veterans is jumping in. MicroCo, a new partnership between horror-focused studio Cineverse and Lloyd Brauns Banyan Ventures, has tapped former Showtime president Jana Winograde as CEO and ex-NBCUniversal content chief Susan Rovner as COO. The companys still-unnamed app wont launch until next spring, but its very existence suggests a massive sea change is currently underway. Vertical viewing is not just a passing trend,” says Neil Hyuk-jae Choi, CEO of Vigloo parent company SpoonLabs, “but a structural shift. Dont call it Quibi 2.0 To understand what microdramas are, its important to know what theyre not, which is: Quibi. Jeffrey Katzenbergs quixotic quest to bring short-form A-list streaming content to the masses failed spectacularly, lasting all of seven months in 2020. Once it officially folded, Quibi became both a cautionary tale and an all-purpose punch line for jokes about doomed media projects. Heres the thing, though: For all its flaws, the “quick bites” concept now seems rather prescient. Quibi launched in April 2020, at the dawn of the pandemic, about a split-second before TikTok exploded. At the time, the average U.S. social media user had not yet internalized the habit of swiftly thumbing through a succession of vertical videos, nor had TikTok yet matured into a marketing juggernaut. (Indeed, microdrama studios now frequently seed samples on TikTok to reel in fresh viewers.) If theyd launched two years later, we’d probably be telling a very different story now, says Cineverse president Erick Opeka, who is part of the MicroCo team. It wasnt just the length of the clips that sank Quibi. The company banked on repackaging star-driven cable-style shows into bite-size chunks. If consumers had wanted to see so-so cable TV shows in seven-minute increments, well, there were already plenty of streaming apps aroundand all of them came equipped with pause buttons. What potential viewers seemed to want, in retrospect, was something they hadnt seen before. Quibi was less microdrama and more micro-TV show, says Sammi Cohen, a tech and culture influencer who runs the YouTube channel and podcast Social Currency. The concept made so much sense to me, though; as people have shorter and shorter attention spans, it seemed like the obvious direction shift for the entertainment industry. Katzenbergs venture had the right tech too early, and with the wrong content. Microdramas, however, seem to have arrived right on scheduleand many viewers are now quick to bite. All gas, no brakes These shows arent just TV that’s been shrunk down. They thrive on hyper-speed pacing, heightened dialogue, and Kabuki-level performances. A conventional three-act structure in cinema requires 20 to 30 minutes spent setting up the characters and their goals, followed by another 40 to 50 minutes of compelling complications, and finally, 20 to 30 minutes of resolution. Microdramas, however, speed-run much of that process and fill it with the emerging conventions of the format, such as hidden identities, rescue moments, and love-triangle showdowns. In effect, that means ubtlety is out, and nearly every episode ends on a cliffhanger. (Viewers will never have to question, for instance, the motives of Escaping the Bridezilla’s protagonist as she tears through one conflict after another.) Its a format designed for a generation hyper-exposed to endless streams of content, where you must capture attention instantly and sustain it across 50 or 60 episodes,” says Mauricio Osaki, a filmmaker with several microdramas to his credit, including 2025’s Fight for Love, the most-watched English-language series on Vigloo. Closed-captioning is standard, so viewers can keep up while watching with the sound off during downtime in a college classroom, during a Zoom meeting, or at their kids Little League game. (The latter seems more likely, too, given that 70% of Vigloos viewership is over the age of 35.) Its not really meant to be sat down and fully engaged with, says Tristan McKenzie, a young filmmaker who has been producing microdramas, like this years Under the Hood, since 2022. It’s a new type of media, in a language that’s actively being created. How your microdrama sausage is made As several creators who spoke with Fast Company tell it, the all-gas-no-brakes urgency of these series carries over to production. Microdramas come together with head-spinning speed and efficiency, going from concept to streaming in a matter of months or even weeks. Budgets are tight, typically in the $100,000 to $200,000 range. Apps like Vigloo look for creative partners who have already notched vertical hits, or those who seem most open to working in an experimental style and with limited resources. Those who deliver highly viewed shows for the app tend to come back for more, with the two sides working hand in glove to optimize the material. According to Osaki, who has made several microdramas with Vigloo, the company regularly shares data with returning collaborators. The data may reveal patternsmoments when viewers skip ahead or exit the story,” he says. “When we see those weak points, we rework them in future scripts, whether its adding a dramatic element, shifting when a reveal happens, or strengthening a cliffhanger.” Because microdramas are tailored for vertical viewing, they require not only the ability to work lean, but also with a vastly different approach to visual storytelling. The 9:16 aspect ratio makes for a more intimate format, with much less room in each frame to add directorial razzle-dazzle. Instead, microdrama creators tend to focus heavily on the interactions between people, and what they are doing with their facessometimes with the assistance of an inner monologue. You can’t really do expansive vistas and big special effects, Opeka says. The industry has already spun up its own talent ecosystem to form a kind of MicroHollywood. Actor Kasey Esser, dubbed the Brad Pitt of microdramas by The Ankler, has starred in more than 50 vertical shows and now writes and produces them as well. Beyond Esser, a growing roster of recognizable, camera-ready actors has emergedenough that, according to Choi, many Vigloo subscribers in the U.S. pick shows based largely on whos in the cast. Given that these projects operate outside the traditional entertainment system, theyre unsurprisingly non-union productions. Many of them also rely on AI to some degree, a practice still largely frowned on in Hollywood, as evidenced by this years Oscars fracas around minor AI usage in The Brutalist. For us, the question isnt whether to use AI, but how to apply it creatively and responsibly, Choi says. The CEO claims that Vigloo has been testing AI in post-production, visual effects, and marketing assets. Considering how quickly Vigloos rival studios are churning out content, though, and how cookie-cutter the dialogue can get, it seems inevitable that some series are (or will be) written with AI. As for MicroCo, although Braun has signaled his intention to use AI tools to keep costs down, Opeka says the team has no plans for using them on the storytelling side. My perception is that AI scriptwriting is just not ready for prime time, he says. Microdramas, American-style The shows geared toward U.S. audiences have started to develop their own identity. Romance is still the top genre everywhere, but some subgenres have especially taken off stateside. Romantasy titles, like Vigloos A Vampire in the Alphas Den, are huge in the U.S., the epicenter of BookTok, as are sports romances and high school-set dramas. The storytelling is definitely adapting [for Western audiences,] Osaki says. Compared to Asian IP, there are fewer toxic relationships; stronger, more empowered female characters; and the narratives are beginning to reflect settings and cultural touchpoints that feel distinctly American. (One show, for example, takes place during spring break.) Microdramas are on the verge of becoming even more Americanized as MicroCo assembles its in-house team of writers and prepares to flood the zone with fresh content. The team is wary, however, of messing too much with a winning formula. Romance is working very well in the microdrama space, and so we want to lean into that, says MicroCo CEO Jana Winograde. But it will have the same formatted nature. We’re not trying to change what it is. Beyond content, the fledgling company also aims to shake up the tech. Winograde says the app wont just host viewing but will add social featuresletting users like, comment, clip, share, and engage in ways the team hasnt yet disclosed. We all wanted to make watercooler TV, she says, and now we have this thing in our hands that is both the TV and the watercooler. Microdramas may be light-years away from Hollywood film and television, but as audiences continue flocking to the bite-size series, the industry may have little choice but to rethink what storytelling looks like in the palm of a hand. Ultimately, humans will always crave stories, Osaki says. “Thats part of who we are. And well continue to explore new ways to tell them.
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E-Commerce
I don’t care about Starbucks. Madrid now drowns in indie coffee shops with coffee brewed from specialty beans that are flown in by winged unicorns and roasted to perfection. In this city, the green mermaid feels as relevant as a McDonald’s next to Casa Botín (the oldest restaurant in the world, opened 51 years before the United States declared its independence), Dabiz Muozs three-Michelin-starred DiverXo, or any other of the best restaurants on the planet that reside in Madrid. But for all my Eurotrash snobbery, I also dont hate Starbucks. In fact, I credit it as the first place in Madrid that actually offered a cup that didnt taste like it could resuscitate a fentanyl victim or kill an ironman triathlete. For a long time, Spanish coffee was strong, but not very pleasant. [Photo: fitopardo/Getty Images So when I learned that Starbucks planned to open a new flagship store in the troubled Santiago Bernabéu Stadiumhome of Real Madrid Club de Fútbol and host to Taylor Swifts fansI had to see it for myself. I live just around the corner from the stadium, so I took along my personal Lego architect (my son) for commentary. His verdict? Oh boy! And oh boy it is. [Photo: courtesy of the author] This isn’t your typical neighborhood Starbucks. We entered through the rather bland storefront, which looks just like every other restaurant and bar integrated in the stadium facade. But beyond the door there is a foyer with digital displays that completely cover the walls. They illustrate the journey of coffee, according to the company, in animated impressionistic sequences. [Photo: courtesy of the author] A destination in a destination The cool starts when you walk into the central atrium. Concrete columnspart of the old stadium’s brutalist bonessoar toward the ceilings. Custom fixtures and plants line the walls. There is a big metal-and-wood staircase flanked by a large suspended sculpture, created by Madrid artist Cristina Mejías: a flowing ribbon that, according to the company, is an abstract Starbucks Siren that echoes the stadium’s curves. It accentuates the impression of never-ending space ahead of you. [Photo: Starbucks] On the bottom floor, there is your usual Starbucks counter, where you can order coffee and food. The company says the design pays homage to the original Pike Place store in Seattle and to the energy of Madrids San Miguel Market, an iconic iron fixture designed and built by Spanish architect Alfonso Dubé in 1916, now turned into a gourmet food court. To me, it feels nothing like San Miguel despite the use of metal, but whatever. Its a welcoming space that, unfortunately, was overcrowded (the stadium is Madrid’s top tourist destination, according to city officials). [Photo: courtesy of the author] The upper floor is what really got us going La madre que me parió! (literally, The mother who birthed me!one of Spains equivalents to Holy f%ck!). Its comprised of different lounge areasthere are small tables for small groups and large community tables, a library/reading space, and a giant mural that says MADRID. But the real attraction is the unobstructed view of the Bernabéu pitch, courtesy of floor-to-ceiling widows that stretch the entire length of the space. [Photo: courtesy of the author] On the right is the Reserve Bar, with a menu of delicious beverages and plates. Theres even a cheesecake created by chef Albert Adri, currently of Michelin-starred restaurant Enigma; Adri was the pastry chef at his brother Ferráns three-Michelin-starred elBulli, considered one of the world’s best restaurants before its closing in 2011. Starbucks boasts its mixology bar serves cocktails crafted by Coffee Masters who’ve competed in international championships. [Photo: Starbucks] I ordered a croque monsieurwhich was huge, with actual béchamel sauce, very good Emmental and Gruyre, and equally good ham on excellent sourdough breadand a Special Reserve cold brew coffee. My son got a strawberry croissant and a stracciatella (gelato) shake. The food was legitimately goodrestaurant quality, not chain store-y at all. [Photo: Starbucks] Can you watch games? I wanted to know if it was possible to watch games on match days. Unfortunately, you cant. Starbucks says, “On match days, the store is closed a few hours before kickoffthis is to allow the usual security checks to take place at the Stadiumand reopens around an hour after the game concludes. The store has to be closed to allow VIP seat holders to reach their seats, but it remains closed and doesnt serve food for the duration of the game, the spokesperson says. Starbucks says Bernabéu is among its largest coffeehouses, rivaled only, perhaps, by its other Reserve Roasteries in Chicago and Taipei, Taiwan. Superlatives don’t matter here. Spanning almost 10,000 square feet over two floors, this Starbucks feels like the biggest coffee shop I’ve ever seen. The fact that it is integrated into an iconic location could have been a problem, but Starbucks is conscious about where it isthe city of Madrid and the Real Madrids stadium. The company built everything around those elements, rather than dropping corporate branding onto generic retail space. The Chicago and Taipei Starbucks dont have the fundamental element that makes this the greatest Starbucks shop in the known universe: the views into the legendary pitch of the Bernabéu Stadium, home of the greatest soccer team of all time. It feels more like a destination that happens to serve coffee than a coffee shop with a nice view. I just hope there wont be a line out the door every day.
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E-Commerce
Sitting on a hillside between the mountains and the ocean in Lahaina, Hawaii, this new neighborhood of brightly-colored cottages did not exist a year ago. The housesmost of which were built in factories in Colorado and Idaho and delivered to Maui on a bargeare temporary homes for families who lost everything in the Lahaina wildfires in 2023. Theyre also a new type of housing for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Built to meet local and international building codes, theyre very different from the cheap, toxic trailers that FEMA deployed 20 years ago, when Hurricane Katrina displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Some of those trailers had formaldehyde levels that were 75 times greater than safe levels. They were poorly insulated and never meant for long-term housing, but some families were stuck in them for years. [Photo: Liv-Connected] The cottages in Hawaii, by contrast, use materials chosen to maintain healthy air quality. The homes are filled with light, with huge windows and high ceilings. They were built to be durable, with the potential to be turned into affordable long-term housing after their temporary use. They could be a model for future disaster response. But as the Trump administration pushes to dismantle FEMA, its not clear what will happen to the homes nowor what will happen during the next disaster. [Photo: Liv-Connected] Rethinking disaster housing Liv-Connected, the New York City-based modular home company that designed most of the new Hawaiian cottages, didnt originally plan to build disaster housing. But the startup, founded in 2019, got attention from the disaster relief world after it made some early prototypes. The companys first goal was to lower costs by making transportation easier for modular homes. The team saw the potential of building Lego-like homes efficiently in factories, but it also saw that other modular companies had failed in part because the homes were expensive to move, and building big factories in multiple locations was even more expensive. We just said, all right, our modular can be differentits going to fit on a flatbed truck, says Jordan Rogove, CEO and cofounder of Liv-Connected. We worked backward from there: How do we get a really great house that fits on a standard flatbed? [Photo: Liv-Connected] While shipping a fully constructed volumetric modular house might require a couple of oversize trucks and cost $16 to $18 a mile, a home that fits on a flatbed truck could cost $2 to $3 per mile instead. The companys basic design includes some fully built pieces, like the kitchen and the bathroom. But most of the house can be flat-packed and then quickly assembled on-site. The installation in Hawaii turned out to be different. Because the homes needed to travel more than 2,000 miles over the open ocean on a barge, it made sense to fully build each house and ship them in complete, watertight sealed units. (Future homes delivered to the continental U.S. could use the less expensive flat-packed version.) But there were other reasons that FEMA picked Liv-Connected to provide more than 100 homes for the site. [Photo: Liv-Connected] The houseswhich range from a 480-square-foot one-bedroom unit to a 980-square-foot three-bedroom homeare designed to help improve well-being, with high ceilings, wood-paneled walls, and outdoor views. “It’s just more generous and dignified,” Rogove says. “Our understanding of providing accommodations like that is that healing happens a lot faster.” Outside, the homes are painted in different colors, both as a nod to buildings that were lost in the fire and to help the development feel more like a neighborhood. “I think the issue with those FEMA trailers is that they’re all identical, and then it starts to have this quality of barracks,” he adds. “So there isn’t a sense of neighborhood or a community.” [Photo: Liv-Connected] The homes are also designed to last, with fire-resistant siding and tight insulation. They could stay in good condition for decades, versus months or a few years for an old FEMA trailer. “In our discussions with FEMA, you really need to do better for people,” Rogove says. “If you are willing to spend upward of 20% to 30% more than you would for a trailer, you can have a home that could be used for up to 30 years. So it could be deployed multiple times as opposed to a single deployment and then basically tossed into the garbage.” [Photo: Liv-Connected] Building the neighborhood After the wildfires in August 2023, FEMA invited developers to submit proposals for the homes the following March. In late June last year, Liv-Connected learned that it was selected to provide 109 homes in a first installment. (Two other companies provided a smaller number of houses, with 167 total in the development.) Then it worked with two manufacturing partners to begin building. One of FEMA’s requirements was that the homes would be delivered by November 2024. “We effectively had about two months to build 109 homes,” Rogove says. “And then another two months to have all of them installed.” At the same time, engineers were preparing the site. Hawaii offered state-owned land for FEMA’s temporary use at no cost. At a Colorado factory owned by Liv-Connected’s partner Fading West, a crew of workers spent 12-hour days on the project, building as many as 10 homes each week. Guerdon Modular Buildings, in Idaho, was contracted to build the final 25 homes, and it finished in two weeks. Then the houses were trucked to the Port of Seattle and spent three weeks on a barge to Maui. Just before Thanksgiving, families started moving in. The process was incredibly fast, although the factories say that it could be even faster if FEMA could preapprove particular designs. “If FEMA had a library of preapproved modular plans, we could start production within seven to 10 days of a natural disaster, Tommy Rakes, CEO of Guerdon, said in one case study of the project. These homes could be shipped anywhere in the continental U.S. in three to five days, installed, and occupied within a day. In under three weeks, displaced victims could have permanent homes. Having additional factories in some areas could also help. Fading West has talked to the Hawaiian government about the possibility of setting up a local modular housing factory to avoid long-distance transportation. The state also sees the potential for modular housing as a way to help it deal with the affordable housing crisis. [Photo: Liv-Connected] An uncertain future In FEMA’s original plan, families would have up to five years to live in the homes in Lahaina, paying a fair market rent that’s limited to 30% of a household’s gross income. But the development may now close as soon as next February. FEMA would have to grant an extension to the state to keep it open later and continue providing financial assistance. The agency says that the state’s request is currently under review, but it didn’t provide more details. It’s not clear what will happen next, or where the homes will end up when the project ends. Trump has called for eliminating FEMA and tried to cut billions in disaster funding. FEMA originally planned to build another 231 modular disaster relief homes in Lahaina, Rogove says, but that doesn’t appear to be moving forward. “It’s been absolute silence,” he adds. “So I think the likelihood of that happening seems to decrease day by day.” FEMA says that it isn’t planning another 231 homes. In future disasters, it’s not clear how FEMA will handle housing or what role modular homes will play, though the agency says that modular homes may be considered when they’re a fit for local requirements. It’s possible that states may push the solution forward faster. In Maui, the state of Hawaii partnered with a nonprofit developer on another modular neighborhood built near the FEMA site. Texas has explored the idea of building modular housing in advance and storing the units in warehouses in key citiesready to deploy in a disaster. In California, Liv-Connected and other modular housing manufacturers are offering options to residents trying to rebuild after the Los Angeles fires. “What we’ve seen so far is states stepping in to fill the gap, in the absence of the clear organizational order that was there before,” Rogove says. “I think that’s probably what it’s going to look like for the next several years. That fills me with hope for the states that have the capacity to do that. And I have a lot of reservations for states that don’t have those types of resources.” In Hawaii, the state government says that FEMA’s assistance has been critical over the last several years through hurricanes, flooding, fires, and volcanic activity. “While state, local, and private resources have supported recovery, they are limited in scale and speed,” Gov. Josh Green wrote in a recent letter about the agency. “Timely federal deployment remains crucial to meeting the needs of affected communities.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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