Turkish and Japanese Microdrama Makers Say Emotion and Villains Hook Viewers
Microdrama makers from Turkey and Japan told the Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei how they win viewers in crowded mobile feeds. Turkey's İki Dakika stresses emotional recognition, while Japan's Bump relies on infuriating villains and a fast-moving first episode.
Microdrama makers from Turkey and Japan said at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei that emotional recognition and infuriating villains keep viewers watching short-form series. Their studios compete for attention in crowded mobile feeds.
İlkin Kavukcu, founder and CEO of Turkish studio İki Dakika Creative House, said a strong opening hook does not always need a dramatic twist. Her studio looks for moments that make viewers stop scrolling and see something of their own lives in a story.
Audience sharing, she said, is one sign a series has connected. İki Dakika distributes on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. It aims to build longer-running stories around characters instead of a string of one-off plot twists.
Kavukcu also described a business model that brings brands into the creation of a story world. Brands help shape the fictional world and its economic model rather than simply placing a product in an episode. İki Dakika has worked with around 30 local and global brands, she said, and is developing co-productions with Italy, a choice she linked to shared 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. They are 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 stay endearing enough to win support, he said. Sawamura said the genre also resonates in Taiwan and South Korea, while hidden-identity stories have wider international appeal.
Hidden-identity plots hold viewers by delaying the protagonist's reveal and the moment of confrontation with antagonists. Infidelity and revenge stories establish a relationship and its central betrayal quickly. That gives viewers an immediate reason to hope the protagonist retaliates, and it suits a format with little time for setup, he said.
For Bump, the first episode is critical, Sawamura said. The company tracks audience drop-off in the first 30 seconds and whether viewers move on 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, he said.
Bump typically spends about two months developing a project before script approval. Filming and post-production then take roughly 30 days. A 25-episode series with about 45 minutes of total runtime can be filmed in four days, Sawamura said, and the company has 20 to 30 projects in production at once.
Asked whether microdrama intellectual property can extend into other formats, Kavukcu said: "We are already doing this. We can shoot in both vertical and horizontal formats, as long as we have a long enough production schedule. In Turkey, companies including Disney are also interested in trying this."
Sawamura said Bump already has examples of IP being developed further, with manga and animation particularly well suited. "Gundam represents a market worth JPY500 billion to JPY600 billion [$3.2 billion to $3.8 billion]," he said, referring to Bandai Namco's giant-robot franchise.
