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Elyssa Lopez · · 7 min readAI came for microdramas. Now it wants the whole picture
It all looks absurd.
A kiwi fruit hosts a dating show. The contestants? Grapes and strawberries. They bicker. They fight. They flirt.
Image credit: Ulla
That’s the gist of Fruit Love Island, an AI-generated TikTok series. The show’s first episode has generated 36.6 million views, capturing an audience from the US to Singapore.
By the end of the year, it is estimated that microdramas – serialized short videos produced for mobile users – will generate US$14 billion in revenue, data from Omdia shows. That’s up from US$11 billion the year before.
At present, the AI microdrama industry has three key players: the producers, the companies that own video-generation platforms, and the distributor or the streaming service.
But as the industry moves out of China, widely credited as the origin of the modern microdrama, many of these firms are looking at how they can do all three functions.
“The microdrama industry is already a multibillion business, but it is still very young. The quality and the creativity of the shows can still be improved,” RisingJoy CEO Cassandra Yang tells Tech in Asia.
See also: China’s hooked on microdramas. Will Southeast Asia tune in?
The Singapore-headquartered firm is one of many looking to carve their place in the industry before it goes global.
The CEO estimates that only 20% of short-video viewers around the world have watched a microdrama. Indeed, the majority of the industry’s revenue is still generated from China, with the US contributing only 20%, according to Omdia.
Equipped with original scripts, studios are now turning to either existing AI video generation platforms or use their own proprietary models to bring their ideas to life.
“AI can cut down production costs – there’s no debate on that. But the beauty of it is it can help us create something very new for the industry and explore new genres,” Yang says. “You can’t create a Game of Thrones show with just a microbudget, right? But with AI, you can.”
The AI-fication of microdramas
The pursuit for creative-friendly platforms
TikTok enters the scene
Is consolidation in the future?
Stay ahead in Asia’s tech landscape
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With the microdrama industry set to rake in US$11 billion by late 2026, AI studios from China to India are racing to secure global dominance.
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