TikTok is racing to cash in on the micro-drama craze.
The company has been quietly testing a paid short-drama app in the US called LimeShorts since March, Business Insider has learned.
Micro dramas, also called “verticals,” are soap-opera style series split into dozens of clips of around one to five minutes each.
Like other micro-drama apps, including market leaders ReelShort and DramaBox, LimeShorts operates on a “freemium” model, where users get the first few episodes of a show for free before hitting a paywall. Viewers can pay $20 a week or $200 a year for full access to titles, or unlock individual episodes with digital coins, which can be purchased for as little as $5 for 500 coins or up to $70 for 8,500 coins. The company is currently testing different pricing models, so its rates may change, a spokesperson said.
LimeShorts said it offers thousands of episodes across genres like comedy, romance, and mystery, as well as “exclusive original content.” The company’s catalog is currently all from third-party partners. A quick perusal of the offering revealed titles like “Knocked Up by My Ex’s Billionaire Uncle,” “Love at First Bite,” “Falling For My Call-Boy CEO,” and “From Lost Heiress to Royal Highness.”
LimeShorts was added to app stores in place of an earlier fiction reading app from TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, called Mytopia.
LimeShorts is one of several micro-drama experiments happening at TikTok in the US this year.
The company operates a separate, free-to-watch drama app called PineDrama. It’s testing a dedicated mini-drama feed inside its main app. It worked with Hollywood creative Issa Rae’s company, Hoorae Digital, to produce a dedicated micro-drama series called “Screen Time,” and it’s partnering with the Sundance Institute to launch a micro-series writing program. It has also begun casting actors for its own series, Business Insider previously reported.
TikTok isn’t alone in its short-drama fixation. Other US media companies like Fox Entertainment and Paramount are looking to get a piece of the business, which grew into a $1.4 billion industry in the US last year, according to the media and entertainment consulting firm, Owl & Co.
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