Micro dramas are weird, cheap, soap operas for your phone. And they're booming.

CandyJar; Getty Images; BI Micro dramas should be easy to ignore: How big could the market be for low-budget soap operas, designed to be consumed in one-minute chunks? Pretty big, it turns out: Possibly $14 billion a year.

Much of that comes from China, where micro dramas started.

But US apps like CandyJar say they're seeing real growth.

And TikTok is looming … What if you could watch short videos on your phone? What if you could pay people to watch those videos? I know, I know: I'm describing Quibi , the infamous app that flopped in 2020.

But: I'm also describing micro dramas — low-budget movies cut into one-minute chunks.

And those do seem to be working: Consumers may be spending as much as $14 billion on them this year.

Most of that spending is happening in China, where the genre took off.

But micro dramas are breaking through in the US , too: Mainstream video platforms like Peacock are adding them to the mix, and US-based companies like CandyJar say they're seeing very fast growth as well.

It may be that micro dramas have limited appeal, and won't grow beyond their current audience — primarily women looking for quick diversions, via Harlequin-style romances.

But even if micro dramas end there, they would still represent a real change in the way at least some Americans get, and pay for, entertainment.

Ali Albazaz thinks they will become much bigger: He's the CEO of Inkitt , a startup that began as a platform for amateur writers, which is now morphing into a micro drama player.

It's the company that owns CandyJar, and which has also launched Ironblood , a micro drama vendor aimed at dudes who are happy to watch AI-generated action/adventure tales.

I think also think it's possible that micro dramas get truly big in the US.

But it's also possible to imagine that when that happens, the industry will be dominated by TikTok and Meta's Reels.