İlkin Kavukcu, founder and CEO of Turkish studio İki Dakika Creative House, told the Taiwan Creative Content Fest that microdramas succeed by creating moments of emotional recognition that stop viewers from scrolling. Kavukcu said audience sharing signals that a series has connected. Her studio distributes work on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, building longer-running stories around characters rather than one-off plot twists.
İki Dakika works with brands by bringing them into the creation of a story world, giving them a role in shaping the fictional universe and its economic model instead of simply placing a product in an episode. The studio has worked with around 30 local and global brands and is developing co-productions with Italy. Kavukcu linked the Italy choice to shared cultural themes such as family and tradition.
Sawamura Naomichi, CEO of emole Inc. and founder of Japanese short-form drama platform Bump, outlined four popular genres in Japan: female rivalries, hidden identities, infidelity and revenge, and lightly suggestive dramas aimed at men. Female rivalry stories depend on sharp dialogue and characters who may be easy to mock but remain endearing enough to win viewers' support. Hidden-identity stories have wider international appeal, he said.
For Bump, the first episode is critical. The company tracks audience drop-off in the first 30 seconds and whether viewers move to Episode 2. A strong opening should establish the protagonist's emotional stakes, the central conflict and the payoff viewers can anticipate. Making the villain's behavior sufficiently infuriating can build the audience's desire to see them punished, Sawamura said.
Bump typically spends about two months developing a project before script approval, followed by roughly 30 days for filming and post-production. A 25-episode series with about 45 minutes of total runtime can be filmed in four days, and the company currently has 20 to 30 projects in production at once.
Kavukcu said her studio can shoot in both vertical and horizontal formats with a long enough production schedule. In Turkey, companies including Disney are interested in trying this. Sawamura said Bump already has examples of IP being developed further, with manga and animation particularly well suited. Bump has tested co-productions in the U.S. and South Korea, with local partners helping shape scripts around cultural context and social media trends. Bump has surpassed 4 million downloads, with more than 7 billion social media views.