After a steamy night of passion and posing for selfies,
a couple wakes up in bed together.
Neither of them has any idea who the other one is.
What the hell are you doing here?
Have you lost your mind?
Their phones ring.
Hi, I'm busy right now.
And they discover that they seem to be married.
So then what?
End of episode.
All this happens in 1 minute, 35 seconds.
That's the first episode of Insta Marriage,
a micro-drama from a Chinese-owned platform called Real Short.
Microdramas are China's response to a new age when audiences' attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.
They're dramas with episodes shorter than an average TV commercial and packed full of twists and turns.
And these microdramas have been a huge success.
Between 2021 and 2023, their market has grown tenfold.
Last year, microdrama revenues outperformed the film industry in China for the first time.
Chinese production companies are now looking to replicate that success overseas.
But back home,