The Chinese founder who is betting on the Western appetite for short soaps
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Mega Matrix (NYSE American: MPU) and FlexTV want to succeed where Quibi has failed by embracing the allure of “so bad it’s good” shows.
Jia Songtao is the chief strategy officer of Mega Matrix, which focuses on short drama , a format of vertical-screen soap operas that originated in China . The shows feature low-budget production, kitschy storylines, and dramatic plot twists. Mega Matrix, a newly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange, is the owner of FlexTV, an app devoted to the genre. FlexTV mainly operates in the U.S. and targets American audiences, but aims to expand internationally in different languages.?
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.?
Many American audiences are not familiar with short-form drama. Can you use one example to tell us what it is?
Sure. Short-form drama thrives on short-video platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou in China. Compared to traditional TV shows, they are low-budget, extremely short [not more than a few minutes long], and shot on vertical screens, optimized for mobile viewing. Often, they’re adapted from web novels by amateur authors, similar to fanfiction in the West.
Our hit series Mr. Williams! Madame Is Dying consists of 80 episodes, each under two minutes. It is about the toxic love between Hunter Williams and his terminally ill wife Madison. It riffs on a tried-and-true genre called tian nue in Chinese web novels, which are love stories with a twist of abuse and revenge.?
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Why did you invest in the short vertical screen format after Quibi’s failure, and how is FlexTV approaching it differently?
Unlike Quibi’s top-down approach that involved big budgets and established names, our model is lean and data-driven. We analyze numerous scripts and do a lot of testing to determine the frequency [at which] a plot twist is needed to keep the audience engaged. We don’t treat each show as an artistic endeavor but a product designed to evoke emotional response. Our most successful show cost about $100,000 to produce.
Can you elaborate on Mega Matrix’s business model and its prospects for success?
We balance our budget between production and marketing. Facebook, TikTok, and Google are our primary traffic drivers. We usually offer 10 to 20 free episodes. Viewers can pay per series using in-app tokens or a VIP subscription — $29.9 weekly or $59.9 monthly — to access all content. We draw people in with our free episodes, and we are confident that a lot of them will stay on the app for more.??