Quibi may have failed because it didn't have enough AI characters. At least, that's what one startup thinks.
My Drama is a new short-series app with over 30 shows, most of which follow a soap opera format to draw viewers in. The app is now introducing AI-powered chatbots that give viewers a deeper insight into the characters, increasing competition from companies like Character.AI, an a16z-backed chatbot startup.
The short story app was developed by Holywater, a Ukraine-based media technology startup founded by Bogdan Nesvit (CEO) and Anatoly Kasyanov (CTO), whose parent company also operates a reading app called My Passion, known primarily for romance stories.
Since its launch in April, My Drama has rapidly gained popularity, boasting 1 million users and $3 million in revenue. Holywater has a strong track record with its products, generating $90 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) across all its services.
Believe it or not, the short-form TV app market is booming despite Quibi's disappointment: Recent app store data shows that 66 short-form TV apps (e.g., ReelShort, DramaBox) generated a record $146 million in global consumer spending in the first quarter of 2024, according to app intelligence firm Appfigures.
Holywater believes My Drama stands out in an increasingly crowded market thanks to its robust IP library. With thousands of books already published on the My Passion reading app, My Drama has a wealth of content that can be adapted into a film. Additionally, My Passion has an established fanbase that will be eager to see their favorite characters come to life.
My Drama plans to release 100 titles by the end of this year.
Image credit: My Drama/Holywater
The company's next venture is to introduce AI characters that can interact with viewers and create an immersive storytelling experience.
Upon release, My Drama users will have the opportunity to engage with two fictional characters: Jackson, the billionaire lover from “The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast” and Hayden, the fearsome heir to a mob family from “Captive of the Mob Boss's Love.”
After watching a few chapters of the series, viewers are invited to chat with the characters and can even ask them to send them images. (No NSFW content allowed on My Drama.)
In a demo shared by TechCrunch, Nesvit and Kasianov explained what it's like to interact with Hayden: The app guides you through building a relationship with him and earning his trust (he's a fearsome mob boss, after all), quizzing you on events from the series, including asking you about the rival gang you're trying to take down.
At the top of the screen is a meter that measures your ranking on the Hayden Trust Meter, a gamification strategy the company explains is intended to increase engagement on the platform.
The AI companion will also be accessible through a standalone app called My Imagination, currently in beta. The new app will allow users to have more personalized conversations with their characters, and in the future, they'll even be able to create their own characters – Character.AI's speciality.
Image credit: My Drama/Holywater
It's worth noting that the roles of Jackson and Hayden are played by real-life actors Nazar Glover and Bodgan Luban. At a time when actors are concerned about AI's impact on the industry, it's interesting that two actors would be willing to allow a company to use their likeness as AI companions. But it's also somewhat reassuring to know that they're being fairly compensated for it. According to Holywater, their pay as AI companions sometimes exceeds their regular acting salaries.
Nesbitt explained: “The payment system consists of a fixed fee plus additional royalties. Depending on the number of users and the time spent on the chat, actors can earn up to $10,000 per month. The more users they attract to the chat, the higher the royalty payment.”
My Drama's human writers and producers use AI for some of the scriptwriting, localization and voice acting. Notably, the company employs hundreds of actors to shoot its content, all of whom have agreed to allow their likeness to be used for voice sampling and video generation. My Drama leverages several AI models, including ElevenLabs, Stable Diffusion, OpenAI and Meta's Llama 3.
Like many media companies, Holywater highlights the time and money it can save by using AI. For example, the house fire shoot cost about $100 to create the video using AI, compared with about $8,000 without it. Using AI, My Drama can produce content in just one week.
“Our goal by the end of the year is to use AI to reduce costs by at least 40 percent,” Nesbitt said.
Additionally, the company plans to further refine its AI chatbot functionality, adding the ability for new scenes to appear after users interact with characters, allowing users to act as co-creators of the series in a sense.
There will also be video and voice chat features coming in the future. Character.AI recently introduced a feature that lets users voice chat with their characters.
My Drama is available on the web, iOS, and Android devices. While some episodes are free to watch, most episodes are paid for in the app. To unlock premium titles, ad-free viewing, and early access to content, users must purchase one of several coin packs ranging from $2.99 to $19.99 per week.