(Yicai) Jan. 14 -- China’s Netflix-like video platform iQiyi and ByteDance's short drama app Hongguo are teaming up to produce and license the content of premium mini-drama series, they announced yesterday.

The basic consensus in the industry now is that makers of long- and short-form drama series will increasingly integrate their offerings in the future, Su Xiao, chairman of entertainment company Linmon Media, told Yicai.

Mini-dramas, which are bite-sized serialized soap operas often of just one-to-five minutes per episode, are an increasingly popular form of entertainment in China.

The market for these bite-sized videos likely grew to more than CNY50.4 billion (USD6.9 billion) last year, surpassing box office revenues for the first time, according to analytics platform DataEye.  That could top CNY68 billion this year and more than CNY100 billion (USD13.6 billion) by 2027.

ByteDance, which owns short-video platforms TikTok and Douyin, launched Hongguo in April 2023. Leveraging traffic from Douyin and reading app Fanqie Novel, Hongguo's monthly active users exceeded 120 million last September, making it China’s leading free-to-use short-drama platform.

China's long-form video platforms are also ramping up efforts in the mini-drama space. At annual staff meeting of Tencent Holdings yesterday, Chief Executive Pony Ma noted that the tech giant will not produce low-quality short dramas but will instead invest in premium short-form productions.

Editor: Emmi Laine