[Netherrealmer]

Gen Z have short attention span. They don't have the patience to watch a whole TV series or patience to watch a whole movie. So now what China does right now is make shorts or micro-dramas. These micro-dramas are online content that are created for smartphones. So they use vertical videos. They are meant to be watched on cell phones. Micro-dramas have three-minute episodes, and if you combine those three-minute episodes, it's like watching a full movie. What they do is they put a cliffhanger every three minutes, and then it will excite you to watch the next episodes. Originally, they just used Chinese actors, but now they started using Caucasian actors who happens to be in China. Their Chinese content currently have English dub or dub in different languages, and they changed the name of the Chinese characters with Western names. For example, one of their most popular drama is titled Linda Walker, but the protagonist is Chinese, but they turned her name into Linda Walker so people will remember her better. These vertical dramas are making $25 billion in China right now, and many people think that it's gonna be a threat to Netflix.






Most people watch the ones with Chinese actors because the ones with Caucasian actors are very weird because, you know, they have different accents. Like, how can you explain seeing a person with Moldovan accent, a person with Russian accent, a person with Swedish accent, and a person with French accent on the same room and they're supposed to be Americans?






The most popular microdrama right now is Linda Walker, and it's very weird because, you know, they're Chinese characters, but they have American names. But somehow, yeah, this Linda Walker series is so popular in the whole world right now.The character in the series originally had a Chinese name, so the actress who played her just get weirded out that foreigners keep calling her Linda Walker because she had no idea that internationally the name of her name got changed.

[eldavis]

I have also noticed this as well, most people actually prefer this short dramas compared to 30+ episodes. Apps like drama box or pocket tv and the rest are now trending. There are even English short dramas. Though they have good plot, but some of the acting is just cringy

[Netherrealmer]

I think trying to pass multiple Europeans with different accents as Americans is hard for me to swallow. If they are dubbing the Chinese actors in English, why don't they just dub those European actors in English if they really want them to play Americans?

[ptrikha21]

I was not aware about these.
Yet in many ways, Chinese and even to some extent, Indian folks innovate with respect to Media content.
And the revenues sound good as well.

[Netherrealmer]

Some microdrama episodes are so short, so you will be seeing a cliffhanger every single minute. The acting is so terrible, and some people decided to upload them on YouTube, so you won't download their app. They're hilariously terrible. Also, they're filmed with the intention of being on a cell phone, so they're vertical videos.



If you compile all those one to five minute episodes, they are enough to make a full movie.

[bestwriter]

This says a lot about the mind set of Gen Z. I am experiencing it They only want to meet at events and they move on. They do not even want to talk about the events they attended.

[Netherrealmer]

Yeah, Gen Z basically have a short attention span. That's why they're so attracted to these dramas with three-minute episodes.

[bestwriter]

With this kind of attitude relationships are bound to take a toll

[germainebull]

I have also noticed this as well, most people actually prefer this short dramas compared to 30+ episodes. Apps like drama box or pocket tv and the rest are now trending. There are even English short dramas. Though they have good plot, but some of the acting is just cringy

Yea. Drama box et al. are capitalizing on humanity's increasingly diminishing attention spans.

[Netherrealmer]

I can't endure the one with Chinese actors but not dubbed. Usually, I love the dubbing in Netflix, but the Chinese microdramas have terrible dubbing because they're using AI as voice actors. So I just use the natural Chinese voices. Also, the one with Chinese actors are better with the one with white actors because most of those white actors are, you know, white tourists from Europe who happens to be on China on that time. So the acting in experience is like zero.

They are now paying members ala PTC, small money though