Thailand leads in short-drama in-app purchase revenue in Southeast Asia and is the third-largest regional market in terms of downloads, says research firm Sensor Tower.
Social media platform TikTok Thailand is capitalising on mini-dramas to provide local content producers with a gateway to distribution channels in order to reach new audiences.
Mini-dramas are rapidly emerging as one of the fastest-growing categories in mobile entertainment, outperforming over-the-top streaming apps in downloads, Krishan Patel, country head of India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand at Sensor Tower, told TikTok App Summit.
The category was projected to generate US$2.9 billion in global revenue in 2025. In the first quarter of 2026, short dramas surpassed 850 million downloads and earned $650 million.
Global time spent watching them surged 478% year-on-year, hitting 3.8 billion hours.
Southeast Asia accounts for more than half of all global viewing hours, with users spending around 40 minutes a day on short-drama apps. The region also makes up 32% of global downloads, growing 220% year-on-year.
Indonesia led the region's short-drama market in the first quarter of 2026 with more than 160 million downloads, outpacing the Philippines at 60 million and Thailand at more than 30 million.
Thailand led the region in short-drama in-app purchase (IAP) revenue in the first quarter at $17.4 million, followed by Indonesia at $15.2 million, Mr Patel told the Bangkok Post.
Thailand's short-drama market continued to expand for the period, with downloads reaching nearly 32 million, up 120% year-on-year.
IAP revenue in Thailand grew 21% to $17.5 million, indicating sustained monetisation growth even as audience acquisition accelerated at a much faster pace.
"Success in this space relies on aggressive paid user acquisition and deep localisation. For example, platforms use local languages in India and anime aesthetics in Japan to build massive audiences. Pairing these localised paid ads with a constant stream of fresh, newly generated content is the key to driving downloads and revenue," he said.
Gateway for mini-dramas
Thunyavut Vongsoonthorn, general manager of TikTok for Business Thailand, said TikTok Thailand is creating a user journey where content discovery, search and financial transactions all happen entirely within the app, without redirecting to external websites.
While this began with TikTok Shop for e-commerce, it is now expanding into travel, financial services and entertainment.
TikTok is introducing its Mini-Series by collaborating with local content productions. The primary early adopters are expected to aged 18-35, who comprise more than 40% of TikTok's 53 million users in Thailand.
These are fast-paced episodes lasting 1-2 minutes, designed to hook viewers within the first 15 seconds.
In Thailand, the most popular genres are expected to be intense "revenge/office dramas" and love stories, he noted.
The first phase of Mini-Series will be launched in the third quarter, with the second phase expected in the late third quarter and the fourth quarter, said Mr Thunyavut.
Viewers can watch and pay for subsequent episodes directly within TikTok. TikTok plans a revenue-sharing model with content creators.
"While the demand for compelling storytelling remains strong, audiences prefer consuming content in shorter formats and bite-sized pieces throughout the day on mobile devices," Tien Nguyen, managing director of YeaH1, a Vietnam-based vertical drama media channel, said at the summit.
YeaH1 uses artificial intelligence to test a wider range of concepts, stories and genres, which helps to match music and visual styles dynamically to touch audience emotions at precise narrative moments, she said.
