Not content with pioneering a whole new video format in North America through the ReelShort microdrama platform, Crazy Maple Studio founder and CEO Joey Jia now has his sights set on conquering Asia. 

After recently signing a carriage deal with Thai telco AIS, ReelShort announced at APOS this week a similar deal with Philippine telco Globe – as well as a content partnership with Korean studio Showbox. Jia describes the three deals as just the start of an ambitious international expansion plan for the company.

Launched by Crazy Maple Studio in 2022, ReelShort streams English-language vertical dramas designed specifically for mobile viewing, with stories told in one to two minute episodes across 70-80 episodes per season. While the first few episodes are delivered free to hook the viewer, subsequent episodes are pay-per-view or consumed through a weekly or monthly pass. 

The platform’s numbers clearly demonstrate how addictive this format has grown to be in the four years since launch: around 70 million monthly active users globally and more than 286 million app downloads. The genres span romance, drama, thriller, fantasy, action and comedy – and while the storytelling may not exactly be high art with a high quotient of melodrama and a cliffhanger every few minutes – Jia says that is exactly the point. 

Speaking in a keynote at APOS, Jia gave his theory on storytelling as he’s encountered it while working in the North American market for the past few decades: “At the end of the day, there are three kinds of stories: plot-driven stories that work really well for feature films; character-driven stories, which are perfect for TV and series; and then emotion-driven stories, which are a natural fit for mobile viewing.”

Jia explained that he started out making vertical short dramas using traditional plot or character-driven storytelling but found they didn’t work on mobile: “Nobody was prepared to pay for them, and we really struggled for a while. Then we realized we needed to simplify the stories, the character arcs and make everything easier to understand. People aren’t ready to consume complex stories on their cellphones. Once we changed our strategy, everything started working really well.”

Speaking to Deadline later that day, Jia explained that the platform currently offers around 600 shows that have been produced in-house by Crazy Maple Studio in the U.S., while around 4,000 titles have been licensed, again mostly from U.S. creators, with some shows acquired from China and other countries. 

More than 90% of revenues come from the in-house titles, which Jia says demonstrates that his team really understand how to script the addictive story beats, while other U.S. producers are still getting their heads around the new format. He also says that some of shows that have been licensed from China and dubbed into English also work really well, which he wasn’t expecting when he first started out. 

“Three or four years ago, I thought that nobody in the U.S. would watch Chinese content, but I admit I was totally wrong,” Jia tells Deadline. “Some of the Chinese stories are actually more fascinating and the performance is better than the U.S. content. I think it’s because Chinese creators have this history with web novels (serialized text-based stories released through online platforms) and tried to learn from this style of storytelling when they started developing their microdrama business.” 

The platform’s success has inevitably led to a rash of imitators and Jia says he was jolted by a trip to Beijing where he realized that Chinese creators were producing high-quality microdramas on salaries equivalent to $350 a month. At the same time, costs were escalating in the U.S. where Crazy Maple was initially making an entire series for $60,000 but soon struggling to produce a quality show for less than $250,000-$300,000. 

Jia adds that over the past year or so, using AI tools has enabled the company to reduce costs by around 90%, but that the new technology has also massively increased the level of competition. “Before, when you were producing content in Hollywood, your competitors were all mature, high-end studios, but with AI, all of a sudden you realize that everybody has the potential to make vertical dramas to a high standard. You basically have to compete with everybody.” 

He also doesn’t want to take full advantage of the cost savings possible with AI, as he believes in continuing to use human actors and writers. “I don’t believe AI can write a great story. But it can help us with pre-vis, creating sets, background, compositing, help us to make a different kind of story. If I want to build a car racing scene in Montana, then boom here you go, I can even make a story that is set on Mars.”

With the North America market becoming saturated and increasingly competitive, international expansion is the logical next step for ReelShort, which already has around 70% of its traffic coming from outside North America, much of that from Latin America. Asia is of course already consuming Chinese and other locally-produced microdramas, but Jia believes ReelShort can grow users and revenues through localizing its content via dubbing and tie-ups with local telcos. 

The platform is also stepping into production of local content, starting first in Latin America, remaking its shows in local-language versions for Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, and now looking at opportunities in Asia. The deal with Showbox sees the two partners co-producing Korean-language shows, initially focusing on remakes of ReelShort’s existing content, then expanding into original IP. Similar deals should follow, especially in Southeast Asia, which has large, relatively young, mobile-first audiences, less rigid production infrastructure than some territories such as Japan and less competition than markets like India. 

“We’re always are looking for some partners who can leverage our existing IP, reshoot it, then distribute to a broader audience,” says Jia. “We’ll be making Korean versions of our shows, which we can then distribute to the Asia Pacific region and globally. Korea has a very strong and well-established infrastructure to deliver content globally, so Showbox is the perfect partner for us.”