TikTok has quietly launched a brand new stand-alone brief drama app referred to as PineDrama within the U.S. and Brazil. The app affords entry to microdramas, that are basically bite-sized TV exhibits that may be watched in a sequence of one-minute episodes. Suppose TikTok, however each video you come throughout is a brief episode of a fictional story.
PineDrama is out there on iOS and Android. It’s free and at present ad-free, although that would change sooner or later.
The information was first reported by Enterprise Insider.
You’ll find content material by way of the app’s “Uncover” tab, the place you’ll be able to type by way of “All” or “Trending” dramas, or by way of infinite vertical suggestions which are tailor-made to your style. PineDrama options quite a lot of genres, together with thriller, romance, household, and extra. Examples of widespread exhibits embrace “Love at First Chew” and “The Officer Fell for Me.”
The app encompasses a “Watch historical past” part the place you’ll be able to leap again into the assorted sequence you’re watching. There’s additionally a “Favorites” part the place it can save you the dramas you want essentially the most. You may as well share ideas with different viewers within the remark part and enter a full-screen viewing expertise that eliminates the caption and sidebar.
The transfer comes as TikTok launched a “TikTok Minis” part in its app late final 12 months, the place customers can watch microdramas. With the launch of PineDrama, TikTok is taking up widespread microdrama platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox. Whereas the microdrama trade wasn’t that widespread till current years, it’s racing towards $26 billion in annual income by 2030, as reported by Selection.
Quick-form storytelling hasn’t all the time discovered success, even with notable backing. In 2020, DreamWorks co-founder and former Disney govt Jeffrey Katzenberg launched a short-form streaming platform referred to as Quibi with $1.75 billion in funding. The platform provided episodes beneath 10 minutes that includes widespread Hollywood actors, however failed to achieve traction and was shut down six months later.
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ReelShort and DramaBox succeeded the place Quibi failed as a result of whereas Quibi tried to compress Hollywood TV into shorter episodes, ReelShort and DramaBox created low-budget tales that hook viewers inside the first few seconds, adopted by steady cliffhangers, all that includes non-union expertise. Moreover, they aim followers of soapy romance and revenge thriller tales, whereas Quibi tried to focus on everybody.
TikTok is now seeking to replicate this success with PineDrama. The corporate already dominates the short-form social media house and is now aiming to tackle one other media class.
