QuickTV & the Rise of Micro-Drama: ShareChat’s OTT Bet
What is the right Short Form Video (SFV) Playbook for India?
Hey Streamers 👋,
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And this news just broke couple of days ago -
Zee Entertainment Enterprises is betting big on micro-dramas as the next frontier in Indian digital entertainment, revealing a strategic equity partnership with startup Bullet to launch a micro-drama application.
The Mumbai-based media giant will invest in and acquire a stake in Bullet, which has been co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Azim Lalani and Saurabh Kushwah. The new platform will be integrated within Zee’s ZEE5 ecosystem, giving it immediate access to the streaming service’s established user base.
Agenda
ShareChat’s Micro-Drama Bet
The China Playbook: Kuaishou + Douyin
Monetization Frontiers
Why This Play Is Difficult — And Potentially Lucrative
The Role of AI in Content Creation
Final Thoughts
And….Action!
ShareChat’s Micro-Drama Bet
Moj’s Pivot and the Launch of QuickTV
China’s micro-drama boom has been nothing short of staggering. Reuters reports that the market for vertically-shot, short-format serialized content in China has ballooned into a $5 billion-a-year industry. Platforms like Kuaishou now host 68 mini-series, some of which attract hundreds of millions of views. It’s estimated that 94 million Chinese users binge-watch 10 or more episodes of micro-dramas every single day.
The implications for India haven’t gone unnoticed. Startups like Flick TV estimate that India could see a $5 billion market for similar short-form serial content over the next five years. Meanwhile, homegrown social platforms like ShareChat are taking strategic action. Moj, its short-video product that once competed fiercely with TikTok clones and reels, saw a worrying ~25% drop in monthly active users in 2023. To combat the churn and rebuild engagement, ShareChat has taken a new swing at entertainment: episodic micro-dramas.
At the center of this shift is QuickTV, ShareChat’s newly launched Android app dedicated to “Short Drama & Movies.” The positioning is clear: fast-paced storytelling for mobile-first audiences. Within months of launch in early 2025, QuickTV amassed around 1.7 million downloads — a signal that user curiosity is real.
This initiative rides on the back of Moj’s and MX TakaTak’s combined user base of 300 million. That’s a massive pipe of potential viewers who are already familiar with short video formats. Now, instead of 30-second viral clips, ShareChat wants to turn them into loyal episodic viewers.
As a leading content studio described it, platforms like Moj are now “powering the micro-drama revolution in India.” This marks a significant shift in strategy: from random UGC clips to serialized storytelling, ShareChat is trying to build a TikTok-meets-Netflix hybrid designed for Indian phones and attention spans.
The China Playbook: Kuaishou + Douyin
To understand the strategic play here, it's useful to glance at China’s success stories. ByteDance's Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) has over 766 million MAUs and pioneered video-commerce integrations. During Singles’ Day alone, 480 million Chinese used Douyin for shopping. Meanwhile, Kuaishou with 712 million MAUs has emerged as the go-to platform for micro-dramas — reportedly hosting 60% of the top shows last year.
These platforms have mastered the formula: hook the viewer with the first few free episodes, then use micropayments to unlock the rest. This episodic monetization creates a mini-freemium funnel, generating stickiness and revenue. India hasn’t seen this play out at scale yet — but ShareChat seems determined to lead the charge.
Monetization Frontiers
The real promise of micro-dramas isn’t just attention. It’s in how you monetize that attention.
Until now, ShareChat’s parent company, Mohalla Tech, has leaned heavily on livestream gifting, video & display ads. In FY24, livestream gifting made up 56% of revenue. But as audiences fatigue from generic content, episodic narratives could offer a more valuable monetization loop. Here are the key levers ShareChat may explore:
Micropay-per-episode: Viewers pay small amounts to watch episodes after the free teaser. Flick TV is piloting this model already.
Subscription bundles: Offer access to all episodes in a series or entire genre bundles at a fixed price.
Commerce & brand integration: Embed brands natively into the storyline and build shoppable content around them.
Premium ad inventory [less favored as per my sources]: Mini-series could command higher ad rates and open up branded content opportunities.
Virtual tipping: Allow fans to support shows or creators directly, as Kuaishou does effectively.
In short: micro-dramas provide a structure for time-based monetization and more immersive content experiences that banner ads simply can’t replicate.
Why This Play Is Difficult — And Potentially Lucrative
This is not an easy business. Creating compelling short-form stories that keep users coming back is difficult, especially at the speed and frequency platforms demand.
However, the king and queen are content IPs even in this space. The companies and creators who think deeply about repeatable storytelling formats — and who build characters, cliffhangers, and themes that viewers love — will win. This is what makes episodic content uniquely sticky: the emotional hooks are stronger, and return rates are higher.
The challenge is the discipline required to sustain the content treadmill. While going viral can happen by chance, building story-based video IP is a muscle — one that India’s short video ecosystem is only beginning to develop.
The Role of AI in Content Creation
This is where AI enters the frame. ShareChat and others are likely to tap into AI-based video generation to reduce costs, scale production, and experiment faster. While Video AI isn’t yet consistent enough to handle entire micro-dramas at production quality, we’re seeing rapid improvement.
Tools can already assist with:
Scriptwriting and dialogue generation
Storyboarding and scene planning
Voiceovers and dubbing in regional languages
Virtual actors and synthetic visuals for low-stakes or experimental content
The key will be speed of iteration. If creators can test and refine stories quickly using AI tools, and if viewers accept minor trade-offs in polish for compelling narrative, it could tilt the economics significantly. Platforms like QuickTV will benefit from AI by keeping content production costs in check while improving output quality over time.
Final Thoughts
The micro-drama bet is a defining moment for ShareChat. It signals a pivot away from pure-feed virality to structured, serialized engagement. With QuickTV, the company is trying to build India’s first scalable short drama platform — one that could monetize deeply, attract new creators, and offer brands a fresh storytelling medium.
It's not straightforward. But as the Chinese model shows, the upside is massive. If ShareChat can execute well, building not just tech but a flywheel of creators, monetization tools, and sticky content IP, then this bet may very well pay off.
Content IP + disciplined content treadmill + fast, cost-effective AI production = a high-risk, high-reward formula.
ShareChat just turned the page. Now we wait to see if the story sticks.
Gut wrenching at times, but with great direction and A-list performances, this is a watch pretty much thanks to Boman Irani, arguably one of India’s best character actors. Just watched this After the loss of his mother, Amay, a struggling young architect, is forced to live for 48 hours with the one person he cannot stand, his father. It seems like a recipe for disaster. Wrong! It's much worse. Will the young architect crumble, or will this bumpy ride help him rebuild his relationship?
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