China's vertical dramas on rise to go global

Chinese micro and short dramas, or vertical dramas, are rapidly gaining popularity overseas, with homegrown stories and viewing platforms expected to reshape the global viewing habits.

According to latest data from overseas application platforms, the number of Chinese micro and short drama applications overseas has surpassed 300, with products from Chinese companies sweeping the top three spots on global download charts of the category.

In Vancouver of Canada, an English-language vertical drama adapted from a Chinese online content was filmed on a local set. The leading actress, Judith Stevens, who has been in the industry for over a year, has already acted in more than 20 vertical dramas with plots based on Chinese online stories.

"It (the original Chinese story)'s very dramatic, but I feel like that's also what hooks the audience as well, so you can continuously keep watching. You don't want anything boring in between. My brother's also in the industry as well, so we kind of team up together and we do this together. So, it's been a really positive experience," said Stevens.

The series' director and producer were both from China, while the actors, cinematographers and costume and makeup teams were all local to form an innovative "Chinese IP+local production" model.

Meanwhile, Chinese micro drama storyboarding templates and pacing charts have been directly adopted by local crews overseas. This allows them to replicate the signature style of Chinese vertical dramas to grab viewers' attention within three seconds and completing the emotion telling in 60 seconds.

The success behind the Chinese vertical dramas also lies in the mature business operation model with the precise algorithm-based viewing platform that has been transferred and implemented overseas. "The development of the product viewing application relies on China's industrial chain and our in-house algorithms to better achieve highly personalized and targeted content distribution to viewers. Our marketing team works with global media platforms. And we also build our own automated content distribution system to increase our efficiency," said Nan Yapeng, vice president of Crazy Maple Studio, a U.S.-based company specializing in mobile gaming, reading and streaming.

The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, weakened 49 pips to 6.8929 against the U.S. dollar Friday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.

In China's spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate each trading day.

The central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day.