Bamboo Network is a frontrunner in serialised micro-reality, with hits such as "The Bedmate Game: Sharehouse" and "Eluvator". Dabin Chung, CEO of the Seoul-based production house, talks about trends, scale, IP and creating an ecosystem of co-growth.       

A month ago, Korean micro video series, The Bedmate Game: Sharehouse (해야만 하는 쉐어하우스) hit 10 million cumulative views on Chinese-owned mobile platform DramaBox. The show, originally made for Korean platform Vigloo, is billed as “Korea’s first R-rated scripted reality microdrama”.   

Five months earlier, Bamboo Network CEO, Dabin Chung, had celebrated the reality show’s record performance for Korean content in North America. “Yesterday was a very meaningful day for me,” Chung said in a social media post marking the milestone. 

Along with titles such as unscripted dating show Eluvator for PickMore, the performance of The Bedmate Game: Sharehouse puts Chung on the royalty list of a whirlwind sector that shows no sign of abating. 

Chung talks about reading market tides and riding waves. “In the content business, what matters most is not building something massive but creating fast connections; not just building powerful structures but designing structures where everyone can win”.

Among the very early adopters of serialised micro-episode video series, the 34-year-old Chung continues to believe short-form is “not just a passing fad but will become a true IP business format...  a scalable, repeatable business”.

Today, his conviction in the format is as firm as it was then, with hopes growing that “the market evolves beyond simple production revenues into a recurring revenue share structure – like music, webtoons, and web novels... Not a market where big fish eat little fish, but one where the fastest swimmers win”. 

As the seven-year-old Bamboo Network expands its Gen Z-focused entertainment strategy, Chung highlights how the studio is shaping the future of storytelling through both scripted and unscripted short-form formats.

“From 2023, we realised that short-form content – especially microdrama – was not just a passing trend but a completely new format. At that time, the traditional drama market had no real alternatives. Microdramas suddenly appeared as a strong solution, with a business model that was structured, profitable and cost-efficient,” he said during the 2025 ContentAsia Summit in Taipei.

“Also, platform algorithms supported short and powerful stories, which clearly showed that this format would dominate. That is why we were the first in Korea to enter this market in a systematic way”.

Can Korea compete with China in the microdrama space? Chung believes it can. “It’s true that China has grown the market with speed and volume. But global audiences do not only want fast production. What they want is strong storytelling and emotions that everyone can relate to.” 

“Korea has already shown through K-dramas that it can create stories, characters and direction that touch people around the world. If this same K-content DNA is applied to microdramas, I believe Korean producers can also take a leading role globally,” he says. 

“However, I also believe the real leadership in microdramas will belong to those who can consistently make influential content that wins over the U.S. market, because that is still the ultimate battleground for global entertainment.”

Romance is a genre bedrock. “The core structure of romance never changes. What changes with each generation are only the expressions – how people confess, how they date, and how they show relationships. That’s why romance could be reinterpreted in the short-form format, while still connecting across different generations,” Chung says. 

The Bedmate Game: Sharehouse, for instance, became a global number one “not only because of its fun setting, but because it reflected real social issues – like young people’s openness to physical intimacy, the rise of co-living, and the instability of modern relationships”.

Talking about the current video production ecosystem, Chung says microdramas are way more than simple short videos with 12x accelerated production cycles. 

“They are creating a new production ecosystem. They serve as a test bed where new writers, actors and directors can debut quickly, and at the same time, they function as a laboratory for global distributors to observe rapid audience reactions. In other words, if traditional dramas are large-scale projects, microdramas can be defined as a startup-like market that grows quickly and learns through both successes and failures.”

Chung also believes a key point is not to make “cheap” series, “but to deliver the greatest immersion with limited budgets. In fact, the greater the constraints, the more creative solutions emerge – and that becomes the true competitive edge... That said, I don’t believe producing microdramas ‘as cheaply as possible’ is the right approach. I believe that even within the micro-drama scene, there should be a work with the global impact of something like Squid Game”. 

The true power of microdrama IP goes way beyond the screen, he adds. “Microdramas may be short, but they can become the seed of IP. They can expand into OTT series, films, webtoons, novels, merchandise, and even advertising campaigns. I see microdramas as essentially the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) of IP. They may start as small experiments, but they hold limitless potential to grow into global mega IPs... microdramas serve as the starter of IP. While short-form dramas themselves can generate revenue, I believe their true power comes from the vast value chain that unfolds afterwards”. 

The biggest concerns for IP holders are rights management and revenue-sharing structure. “I believe true explosive growth will come only when a unique distribution ecosystem is established that is designed specifically for microdramas, rather than simply mirroring traditional drama models,” Chung says.

“Unlike the legacy broadcast industry, where platforms tend to take the majority of revenue, I believe it is essential to create a system where successful production companies can also secure R/S (Revenue Share) or GR (Gross Revenue Share). This way, both platforms and creators can achieve sustainable co-growth.”

▶ Published in ContentAsia October/November 2025 Magazine