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Vertical Short Drama: The next screen addiction? Insights from Dr Wenjia Tang

Dr Wenjia Tang, post-doctoral researcher with the Mediated Trust ARC Laureate team, explores the rise of vertical short drama — a fast-growing format reshaping screen culture. In this talk, Dr Tang examines how mobile-first storytelling platforms are transforming audience habits, merging social media aesthetics with narrative content, and raising new questions about attention, monetisation, and media addiction in the digital age.

Transcipt

Dr Wenjia Tang, post-doctoral researcher with the Mediated Trust ARC Laureate team, explores the rise of vertical short drama, a fast-growing format reshaping screen culture. In this talk, Dr Tang examines how mobile-first storytelling platforms are transforming audience habits, merging social media aesthetics with narrative content, and raising new questions about attention, monetisation, and media addiction in the digital age.

“The frame of smartphones – vertical screens – has shaped how people consume content. The way audiences understand screen consumption has evolved, and short vertical films are now one of the available options. These resemble traditional long-form streaming media but carry characteristics of modern screen consumption. Some platforms even have dedicated channels circulating short narrative storytelling.

For example, one episode might depict a character experiencing fear, getting pregnant, and having a miscarriage, all within a few minutes.

If you’re new to the platform, you can watch the first episode for free. But if you want to continue the story, you need to pay. In 2024, the market value of this format reached $1.7 billion.

Its popularity stems from how well it aligns with the rules of social media. These platforms use hashtags and circulate content on TikTok and Instagram.

RealShort is the first platform to build a business around short-run content. Their shows receive hundreds of millions of views. On the homepage, if you click “Show,” it leads you to all the apps they offer. You can browse categories like “Identity” or “Story Bits”, and these are the genres you can choose from.

There’s a lot of research on Netflix and other long-form streaming platforms, but it’s hard to imagine watching a full Netflix episode while waiting for your boss or during a 10-minute lunch break. There’s a clear market demand for short-form content, and people are willing to pay for it.

We want to understand why this format is so successful and explore how it might serve as a new template for streaming content in the modern digital age.

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