Japan's Hot 'Short Drama' Trend: BUMP Leads the Way in the World of 'Irrational Desires'

Short dramas that allow viewers to watch episode 1 in just 3 minutes are emerging as a new trend in Japan. This content, which has gained popularity overseas, is rapidly spreading in Japan thanks to newly emerging companies.

Compared to traditional long-form dramas, short dramas offer the advantage of allowing viewers to experience emotion and entertainment in a short amount of time without any time constraints. Particularly, in today's society where efficiency is valued, short dramas are gaining popularity among Gen Z and Millennials who want to consume satisfying content with minimal time investment.

The popularity of short dramas originated in China. As evidenced by the growth of Douyin (抖音), the Chinese version of TikTok, short videos have rapidly become mainstream in just a few years. According to the 'China Internet Viewing Development Research Report (2023)', the size of China's short video market reached 6 trillion yen as of the end of December 2022.

With the emergence of drama-formatted content within the short video genre, major video apps like Douyin (抖音) and Kuaishou (快手) launched paid subscription models for short dramas starting in 2021. Tencent Video (騰訊視頻), a long-form video platform, also entered this market.

In Japan, companies like SAMANSA, a short film subscription app, and Gokko Club (ごっこ倶楽部), which specializes in producing short dramas, have entered the market, gaining significant popularity, particularly among Gen Z women. This popularity can be attributed to the increasing emphasis on time efficiency in content consumption.

Market research firm YH Research estimates that the global short drama market will reach 8.8 trillion yen by 2029, with the Japanese market reaching 150 billion yen by 2026.

'BUMP' is an app that offers short dramas using a 'subscription' model. Since its launch in December 2022, the app has surpassed 1.1 million downloads, and the total number of views of 'clip videos' posted on SNS has exceeded 1 billion.

'BUMP' is also actively pursuing global expansion. It started offering Korean-translated content in May 2024 and plans to expand into Asia and North America in the future.

'GOKKO', the operator of 'Gokko Club', recently secured approximately 200 million yen in investment. This funding will be used to build a production environment for improving content quality, recruit talent to expand and strengthen the team, and strengthen the dissemination of overseas content. 'GOKKO' aims to grow into a global entertainment company originating from Japan.

Short dramas are not just content that can be enjoyed in short bursts of time; they are establishing themselves as a new entertainment industry. Short dramas are expected to evolve into even more diverse forms in the future, offering new viewing experiences.