ReelShort CEO Joey Jia outlines Asia expansion for microdramas after new carrier deals

ReelShort founder and Crazy Maple Studio CEO Joey Jia said he is moving to expand the microdrama video platform across Asia after pursuing distribution partnerships with regional telecom carriers. The company announced at a recent industry event that ReelShort has signed a carriage deal with Thai telco AIS, a step it described as part of its plan to broaden access to its short-form series format beyond initial markets.

Deadline reported that Jia’s next steps include using carrier distribution to reach audiences in Thailand and potentially beyond, with ReelShort also indicating a similar carriage deal for the Philippines. The outlet reported that ReelShort’s announcements were made during the APOS event this week, positioning the deals as part of the company’s effort to scale its microdrama slate through mobile operators rather than relying solely on app-based distribution.

The announcement ties directly to ReelShort’s push to develop and normalize a “microdrama” storytelling format that delivers serialized drama in short episodes. According to Deadline, Crazy Maple Studio has focused on pioneering a new video format in North America through ReelShort, then using that early rollout as a foundation for overseas growth. In this framing, international expansion is not presented as a change in format, but as a distribution and localization step for getting the existing product to new viewer bases.

Jia, who is identified by Deadline as the founder and CEO of Crazy Maple Studio, also discussed the company’s creative direction. The report states that he has interests that extend past near-term expansion, including an ambition to create stories on Mars. Deadline did not provide details on whether the concept is tied to a specific production or timeline, but it presented the goal as a longer-range creative theme that will follow the platform’s rollout strategy.

For carriers, carriage deals can function as a way to package content into operator platforms and drive subscriber engagement, while for studios the arrangements can shift distribution risk from individual app launches toward negotiated access. The Deadline report does not specify financial terms, viewer metrics, or content licensing structure for the AIS deal, and it does not detail what ReelShort titles will be included at launch in Thailand or the Philippines.

ReelShort’s approach, as described by Deadline, places emphasis on partnership distribution and scale at the same time it advances an ongoing creative engine centered on short episodic drama. The company’s next steps following the announcements will likely hinge on how quickly carriage access is activated with each operator and which series are made available to mobile audiences as the deals begin to roll out.