Micro-drama platform V+Short founding sisters talk content trends and production powerhouses

Exchanging stories around a fire is a tradition as old as time, a practice that has been passed down through generations and civilisations. These days, the light of the fire may have been replaced by the glow of a small screen, and our attention spans might have shortened considerably, but we are still as drawn to stories as we have always been. Angela Herliani Tanoesoedibjo and Clarissa Herliani Tanoesoedibjo are aware of the power of storytelling, as well as the fragmented focus of today’s audiences. The sisters, daughters of Indonesian entrepreneur and politician Bambang Hary Iswanto Tanoesoedibjo, were in Hong Kong this month for the launch of their micro-drama app, V+Short. Known as duanju in mainland China, where they originated during the pandemic years, micro-dramas are fast-paced and made for viewing on the go, on phones. They pack soap-opera plots into punchy one- or two-minute episodes, each of which ends on a cliffhanger. A series can range from 20 to 100 episodes, although V+Short is keeping its titles to within the 30- to 40-episode range. Angela, the president director and CEO of MNC Digital Entertainment – V+Short’s parent company – has had a prolific career running magazines and TV stations. From 2019 to 2024, she also served as Indonesia’s vice-minister of tourism and creative economy. Now, she is investing her passion for storytelling into V+Short with her sister, who has executive-produced films and television series. “There’s a behavioural shift in media consumption,” says Clarissa, the CEO of V+Short. “Attention spans have shifted, especially for the younger generation. That’s why we believe this micro-content concept is the future.” Upon launch, V+Short already possessed an extensive library of original micro-dramas, with a new self-produced series available daily. “Although we are focused on micro-dramas, the aim is to launch other content, be it comedy, horror or thrillers. Eventually, we are also going to develop animations and even reality shows,” says Clarissa. With social-media platforms from Instagram to TikTok already boasting a plethora of content and creators, it might be tough for a newcomer to stand out from the crowd, especially without the algorithmic muscle those platforms employ to push content onto audiences. But the sisters say their app allows for easy sharing and even free viewing for a limited time. The app is available on Google Play and the App Store, and MNC Digital Entertainment has a content-licensing collaboration with the likes of Chinese streaming platforms iQiyi and iQiyi International, which are distributing its micro-dramas across mainland China and international markets. Perhaps more importantly, the sisters want to use V+Short to position Southeast Asia – where they have two production hubs, in Jakarta and Bangkok – as a content-creation powerhouse for this type of short-form material, perhaps helping to achieve the kind of reputation South Korea has earned for its K-dramas, and the recognition Thailand has garnered for its creative advertising, horror films and Boys’ Love (BL) and Girls’ Love (GL) shows. “What makes us stand out is the origin of the content itself,” says Clarissa. “Most of the content consumed in the region is Chinese micro-dramas; those are the most popular ones right now. But our creators are from the Global South. So the appearance, dialogue and flair of the dramas are of a different flavour and approach, appealing to emerging markets that may not consume Chinese micro-dramas.” Eventually, V+Short hopes to set up more production hubs in the Philippines and as far afield as Africa. MNC Digital Entertainment operates four free-to-air television networks and a number of pay-television channels. The sisters are aiming to bring their experience to bear on their videos tailored for smartphones. “At MNC Digital Entertainment, we own the end-to-end value chain of digital media,” says Angela. “We own everything from the production down to the content and intellectual property. We even have talent management and, of course, the digital distribution. Plus, we have decades of experience from doing that.” That all-encompassing nature allows the company to kill two birds with one stone in terms of content creation. “With our production ecosystem, we can shoot both formats at the point of production. So we can have two outputs – vertical for short-form and horizontal for TV and OTT [over-the-top, direct-to-consumer video on demand],” says Clarissa. The differentiation lies in the editing, during which length and continuation points are altered to suit each format. As V+Short owns the intellectual rights to all its content, that content is available universally, without the geo-blocking issues that plague streaming platforms such as Netflix. That flexibility will also allow it to fully exploit any series that goes viral. These days, it’s hard to talk about content without bringing up artificial intelligence. It remains a contentious topic in creative industries, but the sisters say V+Short aims to keep to an even ratio between live-action and AI-generated content. “With AI productions, it still requires the human touch, like when we develop the script. We understand emotions better than AI does,” says Clarissa. “It won’t replace the volume of production output, either. Live-action will be for dramas, but AI is used more for action and things that are harder to shoot, say a scene that involves a car being blown up.” The digital edge derived from being an app allows V+Short to gauge what works for different audiences. “The obvious first step is to translate content [into a variety of languages], which we have done. The next step is to see what genres work in different regions and eventually work with creators to create content based on local flavour and demographics,” says Clarissa. They’ve found that sinetron, Indonesian soap operas, work well in Latin America and Africa due to their similarity to telenovelas, a beloved entertainment tradition in both regions. “We can take the same script and concepts and use AI to help localise [a show] with language and approach. There are ways for each market. But we need to be in the game to study each region and develop our creative processes,” says Clarissa. “Across my career, it’s all been about creativity,” says Angela. “I love the dynamic and surprises, especially working with ideas, innovation and people.” And that, she hopes, makes for stories worth sharing.