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# Overview of the Current Development Status of the Micro-Short Drama Industry

I. Legal Definition of Micro-Short Dramas

On December 8, 2020, the National Radio and Television Administration issued the *Notice on Issues Concerning Content Review of Short Online Dramas in Online Film and Television Works*, which officially defines short online dramas as online film and television works with a per-episode duration of less than 10 minutes. It is the fourth officially recognized form of online audio-visual works following full-length online drama series, online films and online animated series.

On November 14, 2022, the National Radio and Television Administration of China issued the *Notice on Relevant Work Concerning Further Strengthening the Administration of Online Micro Short Dramas and Implementing the Creation Improvement Plan*, which defines the content standards for micro short dramas as follows: each single episode lasts from dozens of seconds to about 15 minutes, with relatively clear themes and main plotlines, as well as fairly coherent and complete storylines.

At the end of 2022, the National Radio and Television Administration updated the duration rules for micro short dramas in the *Online Micro Short Drama Section of the Information Filing System for Key Online Film and Television Programs*, stipulating that the filed duration of a single episode shall be less than 20 minutes.

II. Current Development Status of Micro-dramas

The micro-short drama industry entered its growth phase in 2022, with dramatic expansion of market space and increasingly mature business models. The year 2023 witnessed explosive growth of online micro-short dramas. With the characteristics of "short duration, fast pace and engaging viewing experience", micro-short dramas quickly captured the attention of audiences, and the topic popularity of hit micro-short dramas once surpassed that of a large number of horizontal-screen long-form dramas. According to data released by the National Radio and Television Administration, the number of micro-short dramas that completed filing for online release reached 336 in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 214%, and the figure continued to grow to 584 in 2023. The explosive growth of micro-short dramas has rapidly attracted growing human resources, technologies and investment, and formed a unique industrial chain.

The micro-short drama industry has now entered the transformation and upgrading period, and has officially stepped into the 2.0 era. The micro-short drama industry maintains a steady growth trend in overall volume, with its user scale, market size, number of industry participants, and content supply all hitting record highs, while fundamental changes have also taken place in its production modes and business models.

As of June 2024, the number of micro-short drama users in China has reached 576 million, accounting for 52.4% of the total Internet users, and the scale is still growing. According to estimates by industry institutions, the market size of micro-short dramas in China will reach RMB 50.44 billion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 34.90%. Against the backdrop of this development boom, the registration volume of micro-short drama-related enterprises has continued to rise, and the total number of such enterprises has exceeded 83,000.

Due to the lack of regulatory policies in the initial development stage of micro-short dramas, the sector was once in a phase of "unregulated proliferation". To gain traffic, some production and distribution entities of micro-short dramas tend to incorporate elements such as gore, violence and pornography into their works. With the explosive growth of micro-short dramas, various problems have gradually emerged. For the long-term and stable development of micro-short dramas, China has introduced a series of regulatory policies successively, and established the Special Committee for Micro-short Dramas of China Television Artists Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Special Committee for Micro-short Dramas") on May 18, 2024, which further demonstrates China's emphasis on the micro-short drama industry. With the establishment of the Special Committee for Micro-short Dramas and the formulation and improvement of various regulatory policies, the development of micro-short dramas is bound to get rid of the state of "unregulated proliferation" in a short period of time. Meanwhile, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) strives to promote the high-quality development of micro-short dramas from three dimensions: standardized supervision, guidance and support, and ecosystem construction, so as to escort the healthy growth of the industry. Since 2024, driven by external regulation and endogenous development logic, the micro-short drama sector will return to a rational development track, and gradually transform from audiovisual "products" to fine "works". In the long run, only micro-short drama production companies that focus on content quality and continuously deliver high-quality works can stand out from numerous market players and become leading enterprises in the industry.