TikTok May Make Original Shows

TikTok is planning to bring short-form series to its app in order to capture the attention of its aging audience.

The Little-Big Picture: Short-form series have spiked in popularity for ByteDance’s Chinese TikTok counterpart, Douyin. The company now wants to remake that revenue magic for the rest of the world, especially in the US. The only problem is that Facebook, YouTube, and Quibi have all tried and failed at making premium short-form content happen here.

Behind the Algo: TikTok wants to take on Hollywood.

• The company is exploring introducing short-form series, dubbed “minidramas,”to attract new users.
• It could finance original shows, license content from popular minidrama platforms like ReelShort and Inkitt, and may even look to partner with Hollywood studios on content.
• TikTok’s minidramas could have a similar business model as Douyin, such as offering the first few episodes for free and then putting the rest behind a paywall.

Next Season: Over the summer, TikTok published a minidrama white paper on minidrama showing that the market outside of China would eclipse $10 billion in the near future, with demand the highest in the US. That’s hard for ByteDance to ignore, especially while it controls the short-form sphere of influence. If TikTok decides to pull the trigger on the feature, expect the company to tap popular creators on its platform for its initial slate.

Go Deeper: TikTok already allows creators to paywall their own shows on the app via a feature called “Series.”