Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They're called “micro dramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire romances, disapproving werewolf mothers-in-law, and cliffhangers engineered to keep users tapping. The leading app, ReelShort, made $1.2 billion in consumer spending last year alone.

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan and TechCrunch senior reporter Amanda Silberling sit down with Henry Soong, founder of Watch Club, who thinks the micro drama industry is still "in its MySpace era." He has a vision for what the Facebook moment could look like.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

Why micro dramas took off in China while Quibi burned through $2 billion and failed in the U.S., and what that gap reveals about content, product, and business model.

How Watch Club is targeting a completely different audience than ReelShort and Drama Box.

The tension between building an intentional social experience and optimizing for engagement the way TikTok does.

Whether AI is coming for the werewolf billionaire romance script. Amanda has thoughts.

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Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:11 Why micro dramas, and why now?

04:25 What makes Watch Club different

07:29 The monetization model problem

18:52 Optimizing for intentionality, not engagement

24:23 Why Quibby failed (content, product & business model)

28:22 Defensibility: tech company or studio?

31:36 AI, the WGA, and the future of storytelling

33:44 Outro

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ReelShort made $1.2 billion on werewolf romances. Watch Club wants to do it better.