Fifteen years ago, a bullying at high school set up a story for the Korean TVING short show Shut Up, You’re the Villain of my Work. In the play, she has become the leading actress, Kang-yeon, and has chosen Liu Hui-ji, the former bully, as the lead actress for her new play.
“Shut up, you’re the villain in my play” not only adapted from the real history of the two people, but also used the scene of the violence against Kang Ree-yeon, but also accurately recapitulated the pain she had experienced. The size of each episode is only two minutes, and the audience is caught by a layer of backsliding and new conflicts.
As the pace of life accelerates, the demand for debris-based entertainment content among viewers increases, and the Korean short play market expands rapidly. On 4 August, TVING SHOT launched its first series of “TVing short play originals” and, in addition to Shut Up, you are my villain in the play, it is also on the line “The Killer Next Door.” The latter, in a total of 60 episodes, each for about two minutes, tells the story of an untimely partner between a killer afraid of knives and a retired baseball player.
On August 18th, TVING SHOT will also launch a new play, I Will Transition with Infidelity, focusing on the story of revenge for women who have been betrayed by their husbands and their girlfriends. In addition, there is the series Me, Me and Me, which are free of charge on the TVING platform.
In the last two years, the short drama industry has grown rapidly and has become a lucrative subdivision of the content industry. The Korean market is not too backward, and the platforms that focus on micro-short dramas have emerged as a spring, including TopReels in Fox Media, Vigloo in Spoonlabs and Shortcha in Watcha. According to Kakao Ventures estimates, as of May last year, the global shortshow market was 13 trillion won (about $9.6 billion) and the Korean mainland market was 65 billion won. The market is expected to expand further with the entry of TVing.
Driven by YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram Reels, there has been a surge in market demand for stand-screen, mobile-end optimization dramas. According to the Korean market research agency OpenSurvey last November, 80 per cent of Koreans between the ages of 15 and 59 have seen the content of a micro-short play. As with other vertical videos, short plays attract audiences through up-sliding, high-intensity themes such as fast rhythms and revenge, cheating, etc. The single-sum model is the same as the Internet comics.
Shortcast production takes less time and less money than traditional TV dramas, is more efficient for investors and provides opportunities for new actors, scriptwriters and directors. The streaming media platform is seen as a powerful tool for extending the time spent by users.
However, some practitioners have warned that over-dependence on irritating content can cause addiction problems. “When all content must be presented and consumption stimulated in a minute or two, the early focus will inevitably be on sensory stimulation”, one of the practitioners said, “As the form matures, we look forward to seeing more diverse issues emerge.”
The sensory experience that this stimulus brings will come and go, and when it fades, how to retain the user will be a question that must be faced.