RealShort's $22M Soap Operas
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A story about a Chinese app called RealShort that's found massive success by creating short-form soap opera content for Western audiences.
"RealShort is basically bite-sized English scripted video content. Instead of paying for Hollywood hitters like Quibi did, they make cheesy D-grade soap operas and Hallmark-style films. The shows are all about affairs, scandals, marital intrigue, and absurd plots. Titles like 'Son-in-Law's Revenge', 'I'm Getting Married Without You', or 'Never Divorce a Secret Billionaire Heiress'.
A show is typically 50 episodes, each episode only 90 to 120 seconds. They started by adapting Chinese romance soap operas for Western audiences. It's free to watch, but you watch ads to unlock more episodes, or you can pay coins to unlock them faster.
TechCrunch estimates the app has been downloaded 11 million times across iOS and Android and generated over $22 million in revenue since August 2022. It's owned by this Chinese company COL Group. The shows were actually so addictive and 'bad' that they were banned in China, so they brought them to America - the Las Vegas of the world where anything goes."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.