Watch Club is attempting what Quibi couldn't: build a sustainable short-form video business. Former Meta product manager Henry Soong's approach combines union-produced microdramas with social networking features, betting that quality content plus conversation beats the industry's dominant freemium-plus-AI model.
The timing is notable. ReelShort generated $1.2 billion in in-app purchases last year, DramaBox hit $276 million, and TikTok just launched PineDrama. The format works. The content quality doesn't necessarily matter.
Soong's thesis: it should. Watch Club will use SAG and WGA talent (competitors typically don't), produce "grounded coming-of-age" stories instead of werewolf-billionaire romance, and integrate social features directly into the viewing experience. His example: "Heated Rivalry," designed to spark discussion among specific communities.
The social networking component is the technical differentiator. Rather than bolting on comments as an afterthought, Watch Club is architecting the platform around conversation from the start. Soong describes himself as "a fangirl, through and through" and spent time at Meta working on social products. The bet: microdrama viewers want to discuss shows, not just consume them.
Whether the market wants better microdramas is the question. The sector's economics favor volume over quality. Production runs $500 to $2,000 per minute versus traditional TV's $15,000 to $60,000. Fox Entertainment committed to 200-plus vertical series. AI tools now help writers optimize cliffhangers. The winning formula appears to be: produce cheap, iterate fast, maximize in-app purchases.
Watch Club's counter-strategy: build retention through community rather than paywalls. No announced monetization model yet. No funding details disclosed. The platform is positioning against a proven business model (ReelShort's $1.2B) with an unproven one (social viewing).
Three things to watch: whether union talent costs allow competitive pricing, if social features drive retention better than content gating does, and whether "quality" microdramas find an audience beyond the romantasy demographic that's currently funding the sector. History suggests format matters less than distribution strategy and unit economics. Watch Club is testing whether taste matters at all.