This fall, Vivian Yin, founder of Y+X Entertainment, is set to launch LumiView, a new microdrama platform that isn’t chasing the next viral sensation; instead, she is on a mission to rescue the microdrama format from the “junk food” cycle of disposable content and transform it into a sophisticated, IP-driven ecosystem.
For Yin, vertical content is the next game-changing development in the business, empowered by technology. “TikTok changed the distribution model,” Yin tells me in the latest episode of ScreenMDM Talks, which you can watch on YouTube below or on Spotify here. “No longer do you rely on your existing distribution channel. You are relying on the algorithm. TikTok’s impact is more significant and profound than many of us perhaps have realized. Vertical is the new cinematic language. The younger generation is walking, and they’re scrolling, right? People’s behavior changed, so must change the storytelling.”
The problem with the current business model, Yin says, is that “people are pursuing distribution efficiency, quantity, scaling up, and monetization. What is missing is value and IP longevity. Every day we see so much content being flooded into the world, and people are making money, and the audience is spending money and time consuming what I call junk food.”
That approach has resulted in escalating user acquisition costs, and the misuse of AI is not helping with the surge in content, she adds. “LumiView want to be the second wave of correction. This is the most exciting and the most dangerous moment for the microdrama space. What is missing is not distribution. It quality. It is IP. The first wave proved the demand. And the second wave will define the value. At LumiView, our logic is that we don’t buy users, we build believers. That is the value of an IP, because if content is disposable, you have to keep buying users.”
Indeed, if microdrama is your guilty pleasure, “you probably won’t share with anybody else. It is engineered to stimulate dopamine instead of leaving you feeling anything like after watching a good 90-minute film. If the content is meaningful, users will bring other users. Great IP doesn’t need to chase users; users follow great IP.”
At LumiView, the team is leveraging existing IP with built-in fanbases and exploring new ideas that could become franchises, Yin says. “I would say vertical drama is the entry step to building up an IP.”
To the non-believers, meanwhile, those who think the vertical drama boom is a passing trend, Yin says, “Vertical storytelling is redefined cinematic language. Who said that it has to be horizontal? We can make a very beautiful story out of vertical. It is not a downgrade of cinema. It is just a new narrative language, and you have to learn all the tools and all the new skill set. You have to upgrade. Do not be so arrogant, saying, because it’s micro, because it’s vertical. It is inferior. People who hold that stereotype will learn their lesson over time. The question is not the format. The question is intention and craft. It is not about duration. It is about depth. Can you build depth in this format?”
To keep costs manageable for LumiView’s premium slate, Yin says the company is leveraging AI tools and, crucially, focusing on quality over scale. “We are optimizing for breakouts.”
The company is building a “new generation of storytellers,” she says. “We are not selecting creators, we are building them. Vertical storytelling, in my opinion, is a discipline. We believe all the tools can be learned, but taste cannot. The craft, the intention of writing, how you build the story, and whether the story has the potential to move across formats. Does it have the potential to go to the bigger screen? Does it have the potential to go into interactive storytelling, for example, gaming? So it has the potential to go somewhere like an immersive experience where people can step into this world. I call myself the architect of a 360 IP universe.”
As for defining success for the new platform, Yin is focused on “content and community. How many people would love to share the dramas they watch on Lumiview with others, and the interactions they have conducted on our platform? They want to purchase the original book or go to the game that’s associated with it. Retention rate and interaction rate are the two important indicators for us. We don’t use all that data to decide what to create because data can be a useful indicator. It can also be a trap.”
While LumiView is focused on scripted IP, Yin, who has a background in entertainment, having run Fremantle China, says lots of potential for vertical non-scripted. “We are in discussions with some legendary producers in this field, and we will collaborate and do something really revolutionary, something really unprecedented.”
Across genres, Yin sees vertical content as “an entry to a whole new world. What can you do as a storyteller? It’s a threshold for me to build what I call values-aligned entertainment and a new entertainment ecosystem.”
Her closing words for the rush of creatives clamoring to explore this new world: “Don’t chase the tail of the trend. Always ask yourself why you want to tell this story and then learn from there. Your intention and the craft will be rewarded.”
