Who owns ReelShort, DramaBox and the other microdrama apps?

Who owns ReelShort?

ReelShort launched in August 2022 and is operated by Crazy Maple Studio, a US studio based in Sunnyvale. Joey Jia founded Crazy Maple in 2017 and is its chief executive. In Porcuna v. Crazy Maple Studio, a privacy class action filed in the Northern District of California on 10 March 2025 and voluntarily dismissed on 24 November 2025, Crazy Maple's own answer confirms that it operates reelshort.com (court record).

The ownership link to China runs through COL Group (中文在线), a Beijing digital-publishing group listed in Shenzhen as 300364. COL's 2026 half-year report, disclosed on 26 August 2026, defines Crazy Maple as an associate held through the group's Hong Kong company. Its 2025 annual report gives the holding as 49.24% on the equity method, with 47.81% of voting rights across A, B and C share classes (official). Because Crazy Maple is an associate rather than a subsidiary, ReelShort's revenue does not appear in COL's consolidated revenue (COL Group's half-year results).

A US court record points the same way. In Crazy Maple Studio v. RepresentLY, a copyright case in the Central District of California (8:22-cv-00029), the certificate of interested entities names COL Investment Group Limited and Chapter LLC as interested parties of Crazy Maple (filings and court records). The Drop's account of an interview with COL executive Timothy Oh, published on 6 April 2026, describes COL as having incubated Crazy Maple (company) (COL on microdrama economics).

COL's filings also carry Crazy Maple's results: FY2025 revenue of RMB 5.72bn (about $805m), up 97%, and a net loss of more than RMB 85m (official). Figures disclosed alongside the 2026 half-year report give Crazy Maple revenue of RMB 1.57bn and net profit of RMB 55.7m for January to March 2026. In filings dated 8 October 2026, COL said it had ended both its planned Hong Kong H-share listing and a private placement of up to RMB 2.83bn (COL drops placement and listing).

Who owns DramaBox?

DramaBox launched in April 2023 and is run from Singapore by StoryMatrix, which press reports describe as owned by Beijing Dianzhong (点众). Dianzhong is a Beijing group that produces titles, buys traffic (投流) and operates apps. It is private, having withdrawn two ChiNext listing applications. Its founder and chief executive is Chen Ruiqing (陈瑞卿); no separate chief executive has been named for the Singapore arm.

No listed parent's accounts cover that link, as COL's do for ReelShort. Press coverage, including KrASIA's report on the plagiarism accusations Dianzhong made against ReelShort in July 2025, identifies Dianzhong as DramaBox's parent (filings and court records), and the table below gives the basis as press.

On capital, Disney selected DramaBox for its Disney Accelerator 2025 cohort, announced on 28 July 2025, which carried undisclosed investment capital and mentorship; no equity stake or valuation has been disclosed (funding table). Separately, Business Insider reported on 8 and 9 January 2026 that DramaBox was seeking up to $100m. No completed round has been confirmed, and accounts of a closed $100m raise trace back to an aggregator page. A side-by-side comparison of the two apps is in ReelShort vs DramaBox.

Which microdrama apps are Chinese-owned?

Most of the apps that lead overseas revenue tables trace back to Chinese groups, often through an operating entity registered in Singapore or Hong Kong. DataEye estimated that Chinese-origin apps took about $1.182bn, or 93%, of the $1.27bn in in-app purchase revenue that microdrama apps earned outside China on the App Store and Google Play in H1 2026 (estimate) (DataEye H1 2026).

• COL Group (SZSE 300364): 49.24% of Crazy Maple Studio, ReelShort's operator; FlareFlow, wholly owned according to COL's half-year report; and Sereal+ and UniReel.
• Kunlun Tech (SZSE 300418): DramaWave and FreeReels, which it reports together in its filings.
• Jiuzhou Culture (九州文化), Jiaxing, private: ShortMax and 99TV.
• Maiya (麦芽), Chongqing, private: NetShort.
• Dianzhong (点众), Beijing, private: DramaBox.
• ByteDance, private: PineDrama, TikTok's standalone app, and Melolo outside China, and Hongguo inside it. Trade press has also reported a paid ByteDance app, LimeShorts.
• Mega Matrix (NYSE American: MPU): FlexTV, through its Singapore subsidiary Yuder.

The ultimate owner of Kalos TV is unresolved; TopShort is Chinese-owned, by Shanghai Jiashu Tech, and operated through a Singapore entity. MiniShorts' developer of record is Noventure Pte of Singapore, and its attribution to ByteDance's Tomato (番茄) unit is unconfirmed on the app stores. For some smaller apps, including FlickReels, StardustTV and AnyReel, only an operating company in Singapore or Hong Kong is named, with no parent group.

China-origin microdrama apps outside China: operator, parent, listing and basis of the ownership link

Who runs microdrama platforms inside China?

Inside China, the main duanju (短剧) platforms are run by internet and media groups, most of them listed. QuestMobile put ByteDance's free, advertising-funded Hongguo at 356m monthly active users in May 2026, up 79.1% year on year (estimate); on those figures it has the largest audience of any platform in the Chinese market (Hongguo user data). ByteDance itself is private.

Mango TV's Damang belongs to Mango Excellent Media, part of the state-owned Hunan Broadcasting. Maoyan, also listed, publishes a duanju heat ranking (Maoyan duanju) rather than producing or distributing titles. More on the domestic business is in China's duanju industry.

China's domestic duanju platforms, their parent groups and the basis of each link

Which microdrama apps are not Chinese-owned?

DataEye counted four apps that are not Chinese-owned among the twenty largest by revenue outside China in H1 2026: My Drama (Ukraine), Vigloo (South Korea), Shortical (Israel) and Inkitt's CandyJarTV (estimate) (DataEye revenue and download maps).

Outside China, owners fall into three groups: media and telecom groups running vertical drama as a line inside an existing business; companies with named corporate or strategic shareholders; and start-ups without a named corporate parent. The table lists apps with a named owner, shareholder or seller of record, and the type of source behind each link.

Start-ups without a named corporate parent include Amavizion (United Kingdom), Chera TV, FLASH (Japan), Idilio (Colombia), Inkitt, whose apps include CandyJar, Lighthouse Verticals, Mansa, Microhouse Films, founded by Taye Diggs and partners, Minivela, N1BW, RoseBerry Media (Epis), Shorta (Argentina), Shortical (Israel), Super Punchy Studios, Tele Tele (Brazil), TrueShort, vertTV and VeYou. Quibi (Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman), launched on 6 April 2020, is defunct. Capital raised by these companies is tracked in microdrama funding.

Microdrama apps outside Chinese ownership with a named owner, shareholder or seller of record

How is microdrama app ownership established?

Ownership in this field is documented unevenly. Listed parents report on their apps in filings: COL Group on Crazy Maple Studio and FlareFlow, Kunlun Tech on DramaWave and FreeReels, and Mega Matrix, which files with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, on FlexTV. US court records add a second documentary trail for Crazy Maple.

For privately held groups, ownership rests on company statements, press reports and app-store listings, where the developer of record is often a Singapore or Hong Kong entity rather than the parent. StoryReel, twelfth among top-grossing entertainment apps in Germany's App Store on 23 September 2026, is published under the seller name Equinox Enterprises Technology Limited, and the listing does not identify the company behind it (German App Store chart). LoveHit's seller of record on both stores is M-Platform Inc.; its owner is not disclosed.

The Basis column names the type of source behind each link: Filing for a regulatory filing, Court record for a court docket, Company for the company's own statement or website, Press for a named outlet's report, Store listing for an app store's developer or seller of record, Group's own product for a strand inside the parent's own app, Research vendor where a vendor's data makes the attribution, and No source named where a link is stated without a named source.