In the fast-moving world of digital entertainment, few areas are growing as quickly, or as intriguingly, as vertical dramas. In today’s startup ecosystem, where flashy launches and surface-level hype often grab the spotlight, it’s easy to forget that people invest in more than just ideas. At the forefront of this movement is DramaShorts, a vertical streaming platform blending cinematic production with sharp, emotionally engaging narratives.
Co-founded by Leo Ovdiienko and Artem Kutukov, DramaShorts sits within Storyby, a broader ecosystem of storytelling products that empower creators and connect audiences worldwide.
With more than 20 original vertical dramas already released and a global audience in the millions, DramaShorts is carving out a distinct position in an industry ripe for disruption.
The Origins of DramaShorts
Leo Ovdiienko’s journey to DramaShorts began long before the company itself. With a background in operations and growth at high-paced startups including Didi, BetterMe and Uber, he was already used to launching and scaling products at speed. This entrepreneurial grounding eventually led him to co-found Storyby, a tech company focused on storytelling innovation.
Storyby’s first success came with AlphaNovel, a reading platform offering original novels and immersive audiobooks. As certain AlphaNovel titles became bestsellers, the team spotted an opportunity: why not adapt these popular stories into cinematic vertical dramas? The idea quickly gained traction, with early hits like “Taming Mr Black” resonating with global audiences. From there, DramaShorts was born, and since then, it’s gone on to reach over 12 million viewers, with 5 million returning each month.
What Makes DramaShorts Stand Out?
While the short drama market has been dominated by Asian platforms in recent years, DramaShorts is taking a fresh approach. Rather than chasing quantity, the company prioritises narrative depth and cinematic quality, engaging professional actors and production teams with TV backgrounds.
At the same time, the team leverages AI as a co-pilot, using it to accelerate script development, dubbing and post-production, without losing the creative instincts of human writers and directors. This balance of story-first creativity and smart technology adoption sets DramaShorts apart in a crowded space.
The Rise of Verticals
Verticals are dramatic films broken into one-minute episodes designed for mobile-first consumption. Each ends on a cliffhanger, keeping viewers hooked and encouraging binge-worthy behaviour. While the idea isn’t entirely new – Quibi attempted it in 2019 before folding during Covid – the format has since exploded, particularly in China, where the vertical drama industry hit $6.9 billion in 2024.
Now, the trend is going global. In Q1 2025 alone, worldwide downloads of short drama apps surpassed 370 million, a 6.2x increase year-on-year. Industry revenues have also skyrocketed, with global in-app revenue reaching $700 million in Q1 2025, nearly four times higher than the same period the previous year.
Against this backdrop, DramaShorts is positioning itself as a serious player, aiming to expand beyond the well-worn tropes of CEO romances and supernatural dramas. Instead, it’s exploring new genres and richer character arcs – from crime stories like Mafia Boss to emotionally layered titles like Age Gap.
Challenging the Stigma
One of DramaShorts’ ambitions is to move vertical dramas beyond the “cheesy” stereotypes often associated with the format. Many verticals rely on outdated female tropes, but DramaShorts is intent on writing stronger, more complex female leads.
Take “Age Gap”, a story about a woman in her 40s navigating romance with a much younger man. Rather than falling back on clichés, the drama explores mature themes of identity, societal expectation and the right to embrace passion later in life. This fresh, thoughtful approach has already won acclaim, with communities like verticaldramalove praising DramaShorts for its depth and originality.
Shaping the Future of Mobile Entertainment
The success of TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts has proven that audiences are ready for snackable video formats. DramaShorts goes a step further, bringing narrative-driven stories into the same space. By combining bingeable structures with cinematic storytelling, the platform is creating a new category of mobile entertainment that sits between TikTok and Netflix.
With European production advantages, an expanding catalogue of original IPs, and a vision to raise the creative standards of vertical dramas, DramaShorts is well placed to shape the next chapter of this fast-growing industry.
What’s Next for DramaShorts?
The appetite for mobile-first storytelling has never been stronger. But, while much of the industry focuses on sheer output, DramaShorts is proving that audiences also crave quality, emotional connection and innovation. By blending cinematic storytelling, smart AI integration and a commitment to challenging genre stereotypes, the platform isn’t just keeping pace with the vertical trend – it’s helping to define its future.
For founders and creatives alike, DramaShorts is a reminder that even in fast-moving industries, storytelling still sits at the heart of meaningful growth.
