How JioHotstar’s micro-drama entry could reset the market for ShareChat and Moj

New Delhi: JioStar’s plan to roll micro-dramas into JioHotstar by early 2026 is not a simple OTT-versus-short-video story. It signals the moment when one format begins to travel across every large distribution rail in India at the same time, dedicated micro-drama apps, short-video discovery feeds and a mass OTT funnel.

That is why the move matters for ShareChat and Moj, even though their core products are not comparable to an OTT platform in a like-for-like manner. 

ShareChat and Moj sit in social and short-form video, while JioHotstar sits in streaming. But micro-dramas themselves sit in the overlap. 

They are discovered like short video, consumed like serialised entertainment, and monetised through a mix of subscriptions, episodic unlocks and performance-led acquisition.

Redseer Strategy Consultants has estimated India’s micro-drama segment at an annual run rate of about $260 million as of November 2025, with growth nearly doubling within two months. 

The firm also pegs micro-dramas as the fastest-growing slice of India’s wider interactive media market, which includes social discovery, audio, devotional and astro-tech, and AI companion products, and is projected to touch $3.1–$3.4 billion by FY2030.

The scale explains why micro-dramas are now drawing multiple kinds of players. 

Specialist apps have already built the early market around vertical, sub-two-minute episodes designed for mobile bingeing. 

A second layer has come from social and short-video platforms that can push sampling through feeds and vernacular discovery. 

Now, with JioHotstar preparing a rollout by early 2026 to scale micro-dramas quickly on its app, a third layer is entering: a large OTT funnel that can mainstream the format inside a viewing environment where users already arrive primed for serialised consumption.

This matters because micro-dramas are not short video with a new label. They demand a different operating rhythm, script discipline, continuity, rapid refresh cycles, and cliffhangers that reliably convert a casual viewer into a repeat viewer. 

The platforms that win tend to be the ones that can industrialise production without pushing costs high enough to break unit economics, and without letting storylines become so repetitive that drop-offs spike.

The market is also no longer limited to one or two names. Kuku TV has emerged as the most visible specialist player by scale, while global apps such as DramaBox and ReelShort have entered India with harder gamification and unlock mechanics. 

On the Indian side, ShareChat launched QuickTV in May 2025, making its micro-drama strategy more explicit than a feed-only distribution approach. 

 The question is whether it can defend its position when the format begins to receive mainstream distribution and premium packaging.

For ShareChat and Moj, the pressure does not come from JioHotstar being “another competitor” in the same category. 

It comes from what a scaled OTT rail can do to pricing and buyer behaviour. 

A large streaming platform can potentially change how agencies and brands value the format if micro-dramas start getting sold as a brand-safe, serialised product with clearer control over placement, adjacency and targeting. 

If that happens, social and short-video platforms may have to work harder to justify why micro-drama inventory in a feed environment deserves premium pricing when the same narrative format is available inside an OTT context.

At the same time, social and short-video platforms still have an advantage that matters in micro-dramas: discovery. In India, micro-drama viewing is strongly driven by inorganic triggers, including sampling through feeds, promotions and shares. 

That keeps short-video and social ecosystems important as top-of-funnel engines, even if an OTT platform tries to compress the journey from discovery to bingeing within its own app.

Monetisation design

In India, micro-dramas have been built largely on direct payment behaviour, with subscriptions and episodic unlocks doing more work than advertising. That makes conversion, churn and payment friction central to the model. 

It also raises the bar for platforms that rely primarily on feed-led advertising, because micro-dramas reward a tighter loop: discovery that converts into watching, watching that converts into paying, and paying that sustains content production at scale.

This is where ShareChat and Moj’s response will be tested. Their distribution strength is vernacular reach and community-driven discovery. 

Their challenge is to make micro-dramas pay, by keeping fresh content flowing, holding viewers, and converting them to payments, without turning it into generic short video or overspending to look premium.

As micro-dramas scale, undifferentiated inventory is likely to get priced down, and only platforms with clear format economics and consistent refresh cycles will be able to defend attention and monetisation.

If current growth curves hold, micro-dramas could become one of the most contested “new TV” battlegrounds in India’s digital entertainment economy over the next 12-18 months.