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

Equity

TechCrunch

Entrepreneurship, Business News, News, Business, Technology

4.2 • 372 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	presented by Dot Tech Domains, where tech founders find sharp memorable names for their tech startups.
0:05.8	Hello and welcome back to Equity TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups.
0:10.2	I'm Rebecca Bilan, and this is the episode where we bring on industry experts to help us explore a trend in the tech world and dive deep.
0:16.9	Today, it's not just me. I have on our TechCrunch senior reporter, Amanda Silberling, with me. Hey, Amanda, what's good?
0:22.8	Hello, I'm doing well. I've been thinking a lot about micro dramas lately and social media and I guess like
0:30.3	werewolf billionaire romance maybe. So it's an interesting time over here. Well, perfect timing because
0:36.8	we've got a guest on to talk about all of that.
0:38.6	So for those of you who don't know, over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps
0:42.7	has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business.
0:46.0	They're called microdramas, short form, mobile first scripted shows, usually about a minute
0:51.9	long, designed to be watched vertically from your phone.
0:54.6	So think soap opera meets TikTok with plot lines ranging from secret billionaire romances to disapproving
1:00.3	werewolf mothers-in-law.
1:02.1	The leading app, real short, made $1.2 billion in consumer spending last year alone.
1:06.9	Today we're talking to a founder who thinks this category can be something a lot better than that.
1:17.0	Henry Sung is the founder of Watch Club. Henry, welcome to the show.
1:21.4	Hi, Rebecca. Hi, Amanda. Thank you guys for having me today.
1:24.0	Before we get into Watch Club, tell us a little bit about why this category and why now?
1:29.3	I think this is maybe the most interesting thing happening in all of consumer video in the
1:34.3	United States. For me, it's the microdrama industry is interesting for two reasons. Number one,
1:41.3	the industry was born in China a few years ago, the same time that Quibi failed
1:44.7	disasterously in Los Angeles.
	...

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