Albee Zhang, a producer of 12 years, initially declined the offer to create short-form content for phones last spring but later accepted as she saw it could be a profitable way of storytelling. The largest player in the genre is ReelShort, owned by Crazy Maple Studio, featuring melodramatic, minute-long, vertically shot episodes. Pay-as-you-go model and simple dialogues and characters let the cost of making these features remain low, while the number of downloads keeps increasing worldwide. Furthermore, the money earned from the App is also remarkable. The genre seems to be getting the attention of major studios, as well.
