Tech, creative and distribution companies – BeLive, Korean short drama producer NewUnivers and ChopChop Systems – are working on a slate of 50 microdrama titles over the next 12 months, the companies this morning as Day Two of the Singapore Media Festival’s ATF market opened.

The collaboration, currently at MoU stage, “brings together three complementary leaders with the aim of building a scalable global engine for premium short-form storytelling,” the companies said this morning. 

They also promised an end-to-end model that would enable microdrama production at “unprecedented speeds” and said they aimed to “create a scalable production and distribution engine that supports the rising global demand for premium short-form stories”.

Partnership details are vague other than “long term” and the hint of equity participation.

The partnership was initiated through Content IP Xcelerate in Singapore, operated by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) Singapore Business Centre in November, and is a core element of KOCCA’s ATF participation. 

NewUnivers has so far produced about 20 microdramas, including “Goodbye My Brothers”, and is slated to produce 60 new titles in 2026 across various genres. 

The three companies are looking at distributing their microdrama catalogue across international platforms, and to build a B2B business ecosystem “to facilitate the licensing of microdrama IPs by content owners, brands, producers, and distributors”.

NewUnivers founder and CEO, Ryan Jeong, predicted 2026 to be a year of “dramatic growth”, and talked about adapting Korea’s K-drama prowess into the microdrama space.