Short-form drama views on YouTube surge 130% in South Korea as global tech giants move in

Views of short-form drama series on YouTube in South Korea surged more than 130% over the past year as global big-tech platforms push into the short-form drama market and extend their reach domestically. The trend has raised concerns that foreign tech giants could come to dominate distribution channels for short-form content in South Korea.

According to YouTube, views of short-form drama series on its platform in South Korea rose more than 130% from July last year through June this year compared with the same period a year earlier. Watch time over the same period also climbed more than 100%.

The growth is equally sharp globally. YouTube's worldwide views of short-form drama series surpassed 6.5 billion in the first half of this year, with watch time up more than 50% year on year. Views on TV screens alone rose more than 90%.

Short-form drama series typically consist of multiple episodes running one to three minutes each, designed for continuous viewing. Compared with conventional drama series, the format is shorter and faster-paced.

Industry observers say YouTube has leveraged the expansion of its short-form features to extend its influence into the short-form drama market. In September, YouTube introduced Shorts Series, a feature that groups short-form videos by season and episode. The key draw is that viewers can watch episodes back to back — as they would a conventional drama series — without having to search for each clip individually.

As global tech giants enter the short-form drama market one after another, the influence of foreign players in South Korea's content distribution landscape is growing. Google's YouTube, Meta's Instagram and ByteDance's TikTok have long dominated the broader short-form video market, and foreign platforms are now rapidly expanding their user base in the dedicated short-form drama segment as well.

The push is coming not only from the United States but also from China. In January, TikTok — operated by China's ByteDance — launched FinDrama, a dedicated short-form drama app, in the United States and Brazil. The service is separate from TikTok and is designed for continuous viewing of short drama episodes.

In South Korea's dedicated short-form drama app market, Chinese-owned platforms have an even more commanding presence. According to app and retail analytics service WiseApp·Retail, Chinese platforms swept the top rankings by monthly active users among major short-form drama apps in South Korea in August. DramaBox led with about 1.26 million users, followed by DramaWave at about 1.21 million, Netshort at about 1.08 million and ReelShort at 330,000.

Domestic platforms, by contrast, are struggling to gain a foothold. Naver has been expanding its short-form service through its platform Clip, and South Korean OTT companies including Tving have ramped up short-form features in earnest since last year — but neither has disclosed separate performance figures. Biglu, the most-used South Korean short-form drama platform, recorded 300,000 monthly active users in August, roughly a quarter of DramaBox's figure.

As short-form drama grows into a new content market, industry insiders warn that South Korean production companies could become increasingly dependent on foreign platforms. Even when domestic companies produce the content, control over the critical distribution layer — user acquisition, recommendation algorithms, advertising and payments — may end up concentrated in the hands of foreign platforms.

"Short-form drama has relatively low production costs and a low barrier to entry, so it can be a new opportunity for domestic production companies," an industry official said. "But the more users concentrate on foreign platforms, the more domestic producers risk being reduced to content suppliers, with weakening negotiating power over revenue sharing and distribution."