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Baijing App (ID: baijingapp), Author: Li Shuang, Editor: Yin Guanxiao, Original Title: &#34;Short Video Apps are Becoming Non-Gaming Apps with Revenue Second Only to TikTok&#34;, Cover Image: AI Generated
Short video apps going global have strong revenue generation capabilities, with revenue second only to TikTok.
• 💰 Monthly revenue of short video apps going global exceeds $100 million
• 🌍 Short video market still has 20 times growth potential
• 📈 Strong performance in the Asian market, with significant revenue contribution from Japan and South Korea
&#34;I want to watch the full series, I've watched every episode uploaded. I'm already 73 years old, I don't have much time left. Please!!!&#34; - @starksce1
This is a hot comment on the hit short video series &#34;The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband&#34; produced by ReelShort on YouTube. Many netizens are surprised by the existence of such an &#34;elderly movie fan&#34; and deeply empathize with her eagerness to watch the series. As of September 2024, the above comment has received 13,000 likes and 479 replies on YouTube, while the actual views of &#34;The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband&#34; have reached a staggering 20.71 million. These instances may be seen as a microcosm of the popularity of short videos in overseas markets, and the enthusiastic market feedback is quietly pushing the revenue of short video global platforms to a new peak.
On the 8th of last month, ReelShort reached the Top 18 of the U.S. iOS bestseller list, setting a new record for the highest ranking of short video apps in the U.S. bestseller list. Sensor Tower data shows that ReelShort's in-app purchase revenue on mobile reached $23 million in August (approximately 164 million RMB). Another dimension to understand this data is that this revenue achievement has surpassed previous strong revenue-generating products in the global market such as BIGO LIVE, CapCut, PictureThis, etc. Among non-gaming global apps, the only possible competitor that short video apps may not surpass is TikTok.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220618816085.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220618816085.png"/>
August overseas non-gaming revenue list | Data source: Sensor Tower, Appmagic
&#34;The user base of overseas short videos is about 2 billion, compared to China, if overseas short dramas can achieve a 50% penetration rate among short video users, it would be roughly a user base of 1 billion. However, currently the combined MAU of various platforms should be less than 50 million, with an overall penetration rate of less than 5%.&#34; In other words, the overseas short drama market may still have 20 times growth potential, as judged by Nine Tails, COO of ShortMax five months ago. Since then, the monthly revenue and download data of overseas short drama products seem to confirm this.
&#34;投&#34; for high growth, 13 products break million-dollar monthly revenue
According to the &#34;Insights into the 2024 Overseas Short Drama Market&#34; released by SensorTower at the beginning of this year, in February, the total monthly in-app purchase amount of the overseas short drama market was less than $50 million. By August, the monthly in-app purchase amount of just the top 3 players far exceeded this number, and the monthly revenue of non-top players also continued to rise. In August this year, the number of overseas short drama apps with monthly in-app purchase amounts exceeding one million US dollars has reached 13, and it is expected that the total monthly in-app purchase amount of the overseas short drama market will exceed $100 million, doubling compared to the beginning of the year.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220619894927.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220619894927.png"/>
Revenue and download situation of major overseas short drama apps in August | Data source: Sensor Tower, AppMagic, DianDian Data
Another trend worth noting is that the revenue share of top products is decreasing. In August, the top three overseas short drama apps accounted for about 60% of the overall revenue in the field, a decrease of about 10 percentage points compared to the beginning of the year. This means that the overall market growth rate is higher than that of the top products, and non-top products have also gained significant growth space. Specifically, a large number of overseas short drama apps are concentrated in the revenue range of one to six million US dollars per month, but breaking through the ten million US dollar mark is a significant threshold.
Looking at the revenue market distribution, for any of the aforementioned overseas short drama products, the United States remains the main revenue market. At the same time, the revenue contribution from the nearby Japanese and Korean markets is becoming more significant. Taking DramaBox as an example, it is estimated that its monthly revenue in the Japanese market in August was $3.9 million, making Japan the second largest revenue market after the United States, with around a million dollars in monthly revenue in South Korea as well.
It is worth noting that currently in the Japanese and Korean markets, there is more of a situation where &#34;the winners take all&#34;, with players outside the top 3 generally only generating tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of US dollars in revenue, with limited growth space. The United States remains the top choice for overseas expansion.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220620447590.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220620447590.png"/>
Top 5 overseas short drama products in Japan by income distribution｜Data source AppMagic
Along with the surge in revenue, the download data also showed significant growth. Sensor Tower data shows that in February this year, the total downloads of overseas short drama products were about 12 million times, and by August, DramaBox alone had a monthly download volume of up to 10 million times. Another representative with a sharp increase in downloads is ShortMax, with a cumulative download volume of 8.5 million times in the first 6 months before its launch, and now the monthly download volume exceeds this number. Behind the surge in downloads is the hefty investment made by overseas short drama manufacturers. According to extensive data, overseas short drama apps have been leading the way in overseas non-game investment flow rankings for nearly a month, with only e-commerce platforms like Temu and SHEIN able to compete.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220621556940.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220621556940.png"/>
Top 20 overseas app placements in July｜Source: Extensive Data
Rise, has been the main theme of short drama overseas in the recent period, with some new faces emerging as &#34;dark horses&#34;, which we will introduce one by one.
Short drama overseas, &#34;East meets West&#34;
When we first observed the overseas short drama market, most of the participants were overseas online literature manufacturers. The rapid growth of the overseas short drama market has also attracted more domestic manufacturers to expand their short drama business overseas, and their growth has been very rapid as well. Representative manufacturers include: Sereal+ under China Literature, MiniShorts by Fanqie, and others.
Even though the domestic market background is heavier, their online literature genes and investment experience have quickly taken them out of the &#34;novice village&#34;. DataEye data shows that the above two products swept 4 seats of the Top 5 English popular short dramas in a certain week in August, with &#34;Fake It Till We Make It&#34; from MiniShorts topping the popularity chart for 4 consecutive weeks. The revenue of these products ranges from 5 to 6 million US dollars, placing them in the second tier of overseas short dramas.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220622741037.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220622741037.png"/>
Top 10 overseas short drama income in August｜Data source: Sensor Tower
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220623530833.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220623530833.png"/>
DataEye overseas micro short drama popularity chart｜Image source: DataEye
Looking at the distribution of popular short drama themes, themes targeting female users such as urban romance and CEO dominance continue to thrive.
Another interesting trend is that more short dramas created by overseas manufacturers have appeared on the bestseller list, with GalateaTV from Germany and My Drama from Ukraine both breaking the million-dollar monthly revenue mark. In these two manufacturers, we once again see the familiar background of starting with online literature business. Compared to our last observation (interested readers are welcome to read &#34;German online literature companies enter the scene, short dramas finally attract foreigners?&#34;), the products of these two overseas manufacturers are more suitable. In addition to launching more local overseas dramas, both products are actively introducing Chinese-translated short dramas to fill their content libraries.
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Overview of GalateaTV and My Drama
Of particular interest is Holywater, a tool manufacturer that originally started with dynamic wallpapers and custom fonts. Its later content product matrix and CMS are highly similar, bringing together three major content platforms: online literature, interactive novels, and short dramas. The interactive novel platform My Fantasy was also once its most successful content product, ranking in the top 5 in category revenue at one point. However, its revenue declined later, which may have prompted Holywater to decide to transform its product categories.
Founder Bogdan Nesvit stated in a blog post that in 2023, they saw the popularity of short dramas in the Asian market and quickly launched a pilot project and secured financing. The short drama platform was officially launched in May of the following year, and they are currently testing the addition of AI social functions in the short drama app, allowing users to continue interacting with characters and even go on dates after watching the short drama.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220624649675.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.huxiucdn.com/article/content/202409/09/220624649675.png"/>
Development history of Holywater
My Drama currently positions itself as the &#34;largest non-Chinese short drama platform in the world,&#34; with a pragmatic attitude of &#34;picking soft persimmons to pinch.&#34; However, the founder's strategy is very clear. Next, they plan to expand short drama production capacity, shorten production time with AI, expand authorization cooperation with Asian short drama copyright holders, and everything will revolve around increasing content supply and efficiency. Without any surprises, it will continue to compete with overseas manufacturers in the overseas short drama race.
What makes Holywater special is that it is a startup that has grown in the midst of war, while maintaining good performance. It is said that the product matrix ARR has reached 90 million US dollars, and the founding team has a lot of thoughts on content products. Currently, there is also an audiobook platform, a product that &#34;elevates content personalization and immersion to a new level,&#34; and a product based on top IP for AI interactive storytelling under construction... If you are interested in this company, feel free to leave a comment in the comment section, and we will release related articles in due course
Closing Notes
With high growth rates, it seems imminent to &#34;recreate&#34; a TikTok-like platform in the short video category. A more positive signal is that there have been some clear and positive answers to questions about the profitability of short videos going global. The latest financial report data from Chinese Online shows that the parent company of ReelShort, CMS, had a revenue of approximately 1.086 billion RMB in the first half of the year, achieving a net profit of 22.93 million RMB. Short videos going from burning money to making money also definitely have the opportunity to go further

BYTED

Short video apps have shown significant revenue-generating capabilities in overseas markets, with monthly revenue exceeding $100 million, second only to TikTok. The market potential is enormous, with an expected 20-fold growth space. The Asian market has performed strongly, especially in the Japanese and Korean regions. ReelShortApp ranks in the top 18 on the U.S. iOS bestseller list and achieved $23 million in in-app purchase revenue in August, surpassing other products like BIGO LIVE. The popularity of short videos and market response have driven its revenue to new heights

Short video app, how strong is its ability to attract money?