As the open internet continues to evolve, digital content formats are diversifying rapidly. Short drama, first emerging in Asia as a mobile-first content format tailored to fragmented viewing habits, has quickly gained traction worldwide. It is becoming a key part of daily online entertainment, consumed in short, intermittent viewing sessions, and complementing long-form content such as connected TV (CTV). This creates new opportunities for advertisers to build more holistic brand coverage across touchpoints with varying levels of consumer attention.
According to streaming consultancy Owl & Co., the global short drama app market is expected to generate $3 billion in revenue in 2025—nearly three times the 2024 figure—with the U.S. now the largest short drama market outside China[1]. The analysis further shows that the top 20 apps collectively reach 250 million monthly active users[1]. Mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower also reports that Latin America and Southeast Asia account for roughly half of global short drama downloads[2].
The rapid rise of short drama underscores the dynamism of the open internet and presents new opportunities for advertisers. Through this partnership with DramaBox, The Trade Desk seamlessly integrates short drama into a unified open internet programmatic framework, enabling advertisers to manage and optimize campaigns across CTV, mobile, and other premium content environments within a single platform—enhancing cross-channel consistency and efficiency.
"Short drama has become a powerful new growth engine for the global open internet digital content market," said Wang Hefei, Head of Commercial at DramaBox. "As a leading global platform, DramaBox is committed not only to delivering high-quality short drama content to users worldwide but also to exploring sustainable monetization paths. We have chosen programmatic advertising—particularly our partnership with The Trade Desk—because of its proven global infrastructure and capabilities within the open internet ecosystem. This allows us to explore a monetization approach that is scalable, measurable, and capable of delivering real value to advertisers."
Douglas Choy, General Manager of Inventory Development, North Asia, The Trade Desk, added, "As a new complement to the open internet, short drama—through its short duration and serialized storytelling—not only meets consumers' fragmented viewing needs, but also provides advertisers with a high-value environment combining scale and frequency. When combined with other premium open internet content such as CTV, it further strengthens brand storytelling continuity across environments. Through this partnership with DramaBox, we look forward to helping advertisers allocate budgets more efficiently into this fast-growing content environment and unlock the full value of the open internet across channels."
The partnership between The Trade Desk and DramaBox is now live, with advertising inventory now available to advertisers globally.
Data Sources:
- Business Insider: These salacious, bite-sized soaps have become a $1.3 billion business in the US, Sep 2025
- State of Short Drama Apps 2025, Sensor Tower, July 2025
About DramaBox
DramaBox is a vertical short drama entertainment platform serving global users, specializing in bite-sized, high-intensity content tailored to fragmented viewing habits. Through a hybrid content strategy combining translated adaptations and locally original productions, the platform offers a diverse range of short drama genres. Supported by multilingual interfaces and personalized recommendations, it delivers a seamless and immersive viewing experience for users across Asia, South America, North America, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.
About The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk™ is a technology company that empowers buyers of advertising. Through its self-service, cloud-based platform, ad buyers can create, manage, and optimize digital advertising campaigns across ad formats and devices. Integrations with major data, inventory, and publisher partners ensure maximum reach and decisioning capabilities, and enterprise APIs enable custom development on top of the platform. Headquartered in Ventura, CA, The Trade Desk has offices across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more, visit thetradedesk.com or follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and YouTube.
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