DUANJU  NEWS

In the south of France, in La Ciotat, the Eden Theatre , built in 1889, remains a unique place. Recognized as one of the birthplaces of cinema, it preserves the memory of the first moving images and the beginnings of audiovisual storytelling. It was here that the Lumière brothers, pioneers of cinema, filmed and screened, at the end of the 19th century, short sequences of a few dozen seconds that captured moments of everyday life. These films, intended to capture reality or to dramatize it, laid the foundations of a visual language and explored the possibilities of visual storytelling. At that time, cinema was, by its very nature, a short format. From the outset, filmmakers like Georges Méliès sought to go beyond mere filming by introducing visual effects, illusions, and transformed narratives, thus recomposing reality. This logic is extended today by digital technologies and artificial intelligence. More than a century later, a new short format has emerged internationally: the duanju, developed in China and often referred to as a "microdrama." However, this format cannot be reduced to a simple technical variation; its scope, economic models, and distribution methods define it according to its own logic, directly adapted to contemporary uses, particularly mobile viewing. The big screen structured its narratives. The telephone now constructs its own. It is within this dynamic context that the Eden Theatre, still active and in tune with the evolutions of the film world, recently hosted a talk by producer Guillaume Sanjorge. Having been involved in this format since 2023, he defended the idea of a new stage in the history of audiovisual storytelling, at the crossroads of uses and technologies. This reflection is part of a broader international dynamic, notably through the Global Traffic Conference 2026, organized in Shenzhen on April 23 and 24. The event brings together the main players in these emerging formats and demonstrates their rapid structuring on a global scale. Tickets for the Shenzhen event: https://baijing.cn/ui6v6

Launched by Chinese producer Wenwen Han , Short Drama Alliance (SDA) is an international platform dedicated to professionals of duanju, these vertical mini-series designed for smartphones. The Short Drama Alliance's mission is to connect creators from around the world, foster international co-productions, and make China's thriving short drama ecosystem more accessible. The platform offers: a free discussion space for authors, producers, translators and distributors, monthly reports on Chinese market trends (DataEye), guides, webinars and strategic analyses to better understand this new narrative language, a premium membership program for organizations wishing to access targeted resources and collaboration opportunities. To join the platform: www.shortdramaalliance.com #WenwenHan

The market for film photography is projected to reach nearly $5 billion by 2025. The "Camp Snap" camera, screenless and inspired by film photography, has sold over a million units. Companies are anticipating this shift. A segment of young people is turning away from traditional smartphone uses, despite the increasing image quality. Generation Z (born between 2000 and 2010) is beginning to adopt screenless cameras and rediscover film, in the United States, Europe, and Asia. This movement is part of social media fatigue, the quest for authenticity and slow media, as well as a return to analog ( analog revival ). For the past twenty years, social media has transformed the image into a tool for self-promotion. Photography is no longer simply about capturing a moment, but about producing a version of oneself in comparison to others. This performative image must be seen, validated, and compared, with demands akin to those of audiovisual professionals. The ego is constantly engaged, and sharing loses its logic of lived experience. With screenless cameras and film photography, there is no instant control, no retouching, and no immediate publication. The image regains its uncertain, delayed, imperfect character, freed from this pressure, like the photo albums of yesteryear. This situation can also be extended to online video on social networks. The dominant formats (Reels, Shorts) focus heavily on the individual in a selfie talking, mixing self-exposure, influence and reaction, and perpetuate a logic of short, self-centered and above all repetitive content for more than 15 years now. Recent criticism and litigation in the United States targeting platforms like Meta, accused of spreading videos harmful to young people's mental health, highlight the limitations of this model. Several court decisions and ongoing legal proceedings support users. The success of analog formats in photography signals an expectation that could also translate into a growing separation between the object of capture (the camera) and the object of dissemination (the phone screen), a trajectory particularly favorable to fiction professionals. A vast opportunity is also opening up for professional fiction adapted to phone screens. Formats that reintroduce narrative will restore the image of social networks. The user once again becomes a spectator of a story, remotely and without needing to represent themselves. It's a way to escape a space where the ego is constantly engaged. Article written by Guillaume Sanjorge #GuillaumeSanjorge

Nippon TV is one of the major names in Japanese media, the country’s first commercial broadcaster from the 1950s onward, and it also operates Hulu in Japan. The group announced the launch of Viral Pocket, a structure dedicated to the Duanju market. Nippon TV does not present this initiative as an isolated experiment, but as a fully fledged business built around three functions : IP development, the production of projects designed for the vertical format, and marketing support driven by performance indicators. This positioning builds on results that are already in place. Nippon TV highlights the success of We are Coy Every Day , launched in March 2023, which the group says has generated more than 2.6 billion organic views. The company also points to Chokotto Paa-chii , whose episodes reportedly average more than one million views on TikTok. In other words, Viral Pocket is not being launched to test whether an audience exists. The division is there to turn existing know-how into a more structured production and commercialization pipeline. For several months, the sector has often been viewed through the lens of specialized apps, mobile-native studios, or players emerging from the creator economy. Nippon TV explicitly links this new division to its international growth ambitions, its content portfolio, and its strategy to connect with audiences that were built on social platforms. Sources : • Nippon TV  – February 17, 2026 • World Screen  – February 17, 2026 • C21Media  – February 17, 2026

The more widely a language is spoken, the larger its market for audiences and distribution in the audiovisual sector. Today, English is by far the dominant language with approximately 1.4 billion speakers. Mandarin follows with over 1.1 billion speakers, while Spanish boasts more than 560 million speakers. These languages shape the world's largest audiovisual markets. But the hierarchy is changing. French, long perceived as a cultural rather than a demographic language, is growing rapidly. It now has nearly 396 million speakers worldwide, compared to approximately 321 million in 2022, and is now the fourth most spoken language in the world (surpassing Arabic). This growth is based on a structural dynamic. French is now present on every continent. It is also the second most widely learned foreign language in the world, with tens of millions of learners. The shift is largely demographic. The majority of French speakers are now in Africa, where population growth and increased school enrollment directly fuel the expansion of the language. By 2050, nearly 85% of French speakers could be African, which profoundly redefines the market outlook. This logic is also found in the digital economy. French is one of the main languages of online content and is establishing itself as a language of communication, education, and cultural dissemination on an international scale. Digital and audiovisual uses are increasingly converging, particularly with streaming platforms and short-form content. In this context, language can become a strategic lever for investment. An audiovisual project is no longer conceived solely in terms of territory, but also in terms of an accessible linguistic audience. This is one of the reasons behind certain industry strategies. The Canal+ Group has thus invested heavily in Africa, a market where the French language allows it to simultaneously reach several countries and tens of millions of potential viewers. Linguistic consistency here becomes a factor of scale, capable of structuring a market beyond national borders. As uses become globalized with digital technology, the question remains: how to choose the language that allows you to reach the right audience size. Sources: • International Organisation of the Francophonie – March 16, 2026 • France Diplomacy – March 20, 2026 • Le Figaro – March 17, 2026 • Franceinfo – March 17, 2026 • Le Parisien Étudiant – March 19, 2026 • Ethnologist – 2026 • W3Techs – March 20, 2026 • INSEAD Knowledge – May 22, 2017

Google, one of the world's largest technology companies, is launching an initiative related to the duanju format. Through 100 Zeros, developed with the American company Range Media Partners, the group is financing and structuring short series designed for mobile phones, with initial exposure planned on the Google TV app for Android. For the public, the issue is concrete: duanju would no longer be confined to a specialized application, but integrated into a discovery and recommendation interface already established in the uses of the general public. The industrial signal is important. When a player of this size opens a window onto the duanju, the format changes status. It's no longer just about producing quickly, but about organizing the circulation of works, their visibility, and their monetization within a distribution framework conceived beforehand. If the initial exposure occurs on Google TV before wider distribution, then the format, pacing, talent involved, and business model are considered from the outset in relation to their distribution trajectory. This is undoubtedly one of the most structuring aspects of the project. The choice of the initial talent partners reflects this same approach. Mike Fleiss is known for creating The Bachelor, one of the biggest American reality television franchises. McG comes from commercial film and mainstream television production. Simon Fuller is the creator of Pop Idol and American Idol, two global music entertainment formats. Kenan Thompson is one of the most established faces in American television comedy. Until now, the sector's growth has relied primarily on players born with mobile, often with an Asian focus and direct acquisition strategies. This doesn't guarantee an immediate shift, but it does show that vertical fiction is beginning to be considered a possible component of large digital distribution architectures. Sources: • Reuters – May 5, 2025 • C21Media – March 13, 2026 • Deadline – March 12, 2026 • Synopsis – March 13, 2026

"A country that no longer controls its narratives is a country that loses its soul. And an industry that no longer controls its formats is an industry that loses its future." It was with this quote attributed to the famous French director Bertrand Tavernier that Isabelle Degeorges recently raised the debate surrounding fiction for mobile phones. Isabelle Degeorges, President of Gaumont Television France since 2013, heads the French television branch of Gaumont. The group, founded in 1895, is considered the oldest film and television production company still in operation in the world. In two posts published on LinkedIn, she does not reject the duanju format. Rather, she raises awareness about what it reveals: the rise of new uses, new platforms, and new dependencies. For her, the issue is simultaneously cultural, industrial, technological, strategic, and political. His argument places the challenge of a response not on a French scale, but on a European scale. In her second post, she emphasizes Europe's dependence on infrastructure, platforms, operating systems, servers, and now artificial intelligence, largely governed by American law. She specifically points out that, through the Cloud Act, data hosted in France can be subject to foreign law. Applied to the duanju format, this reasoning takes on a particular dimension. If the formats, distribution platforms, algorithmic logic, and, in the future, the production tools are designed elsewhere, France and Europe risk losing not only control over their narratives, but also over their circulation and monetization. Duanju then becomes more than just a new narrative language: it also becomes a test of digital sovereignty. Isabelle Degeorges explicitly questions the risk that duanju will become "yet another threat to our cultural sovereignty" rather than simply a driver of growth. Aware of these new uses, she raises the alarm and calls for a renewed industrial focus on a European scale. This concern echoes other French debates surrounding online platforms. In 2013, during the proposed merger between Yahoo and Dailymotion, French Minister Arnaud Montebourg opposed a sale that would have meant losing control of a French digital player considered strategic, arguing that this "flagship of the web" should not be handed over to a foreign group. Today, Dailymotion remains one of the leading video streaming platforms for professional media. The potential for a revival and renewed success with the general public is not out of the question, especially given the tensions inherent in globalization. Revisited in light of duanju, this earlier episode with Dailymotion reminds us that behind emerging formats, the issue is never only one of innovation. It is also about who owns the tools, who controls distribution, and who shapes the digital future of storytelling. Find Isabelle Degeorges' publications on LinkedIn: Article written by Guillaume Sanjorge #GuillaumeSanjorge

Long associated with personal phones, the vertical format could soon become a permanent fixture in living rooms. In China, several manufacturers are developing mobile home screens, larger than a smartphone, capable of natively displaying content in portrait orientation. These screens, usually mounted on stands, can be oriented in portrait or landscape mode, and are sometimes equipped with a built-in battery, and are designed to move around the house. They can be moved from the kitchen to the living room and used for streaming, fitness, video conferencing, or vertical entertainment. This model breaks with the traditional horizontal fixed television and introduces a hybrid device, somewhere between a giant tablet and a mobile TV. Several Chinese companies are already positioned in this segment. Xiaomi has launched a 27-inch "smart home screen" on a mobile base in China, integrated into its connected ecosystem. Hisense offers lifestyle screens on stands with integrated batteries and automatic rotation. Skyworth is also developing portable screens geared towards home use, combining mobility and a connected TV interface. Upstream, China's industrial power in panel production reinforces this dynamic. BOE, TCL CSOT, and HKC are among the world's leading manufacturers of LCD and OLED panels for smartphones, tablets, and televisions. This technological continuity between small mobile screens and large home screens facilitates the emergence of new hybrid formats. For the audiovisual industry, the stakes are strategic. If these screens become widespread, the vertical format could move beyond the strictly individual realm of smartphones to become a collective mode of home consumption. Vertical series, currently designed for personal use, could then be adapted for larger screens, viewable from a distance and shared within the family space. Sources • Cinco Días – August 15, 2025 • NotebookCheck – January 6, 2026 • Skyworth USA • DisplaySpecifications – October 14, 2025 • Reuters – September 26, 2024

Viu is a streaming platform owned by the Hong Kong-based PCCW Group. The service is available in several markets across Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa, with 15.5 million paid subscribers at the end of December 2024. Since then, the company has reached 16.8 million paid subscribers, and subscription revenue has grown by 13% year-over-year. On January 8, 2026, Viu announced Viu Shorts, a new section of vertical videos integrated directly into the Viu mobile app. It's not a separate app, but a new section within the existing platform. Viu describes Duanju's offering as featuring episodes ranging from 1 to 3 minutes, a multilingual selection (including Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Indonesian), and several genres (romance, thriller, fantasy, and variety). Viu also lists launch titles and distribution and production partners, including Rising Joy, KT Studiogenie, China Huace, 1001 Frames, and Youhug Media. What makes this launch significant is the scale of the environment: Viu Shorts is being launched by an already established platform, with subscribers, active markets, and a media/telecom group behind it. This is not an isolated test. Viu claims to be expanding its content offering by adding very short formats alongside its longer series and films, in order to better cater to different viewing habits within the same app. Viu also says it wants to better engage its audience based on viewing preferences, with faster mobile consumption, and to leverage a freemium model that can broaden access while creating new advertising opportunities. If we read this with the group's figures, the objective is also economic: to increase the platform's reach, enrich the advertising inventory, and accelerate monetization with more "cost-efficient" content (less expensive to supply than some long premium offers). The initial results were “encouraging,” with Viu Shorts viewing penetration exceeding 11% in the first three weeks following its launch. This suggests that the goal is not simply to gain a foothold, but rather to rapidly create a new use case within an already existing user base. Sources • PCCW – January 8, 2026 • PCCW Media – February 25, 2026 • PCCW – February 10, 2026 • CANAL+ Group – June 21, 2023

With the Walkman, music left the living room, the hi-fi system, and shared listening, to enter the rhythm of movement. It became part of the body. Headphones on, you no longer "put on" music: you wear it. Shuhei Hosokawa, a Japanese researcher and theorist of musical cultures, described in the early 1980s this individualized listening zone which partially cuts off auditory contact with the outside and transforms the street into a scenery to be passed through, rather than a space to be lived collectively. Michael Bull, a British sociologist specializing in the use of sound technologies (from the Walkman to the iPod), has shown how these devices allow users to create scenarios for their daily lives, producing a carefully chosen soundtrack that restructures their experience of the city. The smartphone extends this scenario-making to images: we no longer simply overlay music onto our day, but rather overlay faces, scenes, and tensions onto moments that were once "empty." Fiction is undergoing the same transformation, but through images. The smartphone is not just a new screen: it's a portable stage, a personal booth, a prosthesis for attention. The common thread is not the technology itself, but mobile privatization: access to a work becomes personal, instantaneous, chosen on the fly, consumed within a moving bubble. On the subway, on a bench, in a queue, you can watch a fictional story without creating a "TV moment." You start a stream, then pause it. You resume. You pause again. The experience fragments, but doesn't disappear: it reconfigures itself around the gaps. Extended time is no longer imposed as a single viewing session; it is recomposed through micro-accumulation. This shift is also reflected in attention figures. In the United Kingdom, a survey reported by The Guardian indicated that by 2025 time spent on mobile devices will have surpassed time spent watching television, with mobile use being more constant throughout the day, more spread out, and closer to the body. Historically, music didn't disappear from the collective because of the Walkman; it redefined its spaces of sharing. The concert wasn't killed; it changed in value, function, and desire. Fiction could follow a similar trajectory: the personal screen doesn't abolish the shared screen, but it establishes an autonomous, intimate, mobile practice that coexists with other forms of viewing. The real change is not just the format. It's also the way the public carries the work, triggers it, cuts it, resumes it, and lets it coexist with the world. Article written by Guillaume Sanjorge #GuillaumeSanjorge Sources: • Cambridge Core – January 1984 • Taylor & Francis eBooks – September 23, 2019 • The Guardian – June 25, 2025 • ResearchGate – April 27, 2018 • SpringerLink – 2006