BytePlus teams up with Soonshot to stream AI-powered K-dramas across Southeast Asia
Soonshot brings short-form K-dramas to Southeast Asia, powered by BytePlus personalization and webtoon IPs
In the battle for mobile screen time, ByteDance’s enterprise tech arm BytePlus has found a new ally: the rising short-form K-drama platform Soonshot.
The two have joined forces to deliver AI-personalized, bite-sized Korean dramas to fans across Southeast Asia and beyond.
This article explores how Soonshot is fusing AI, fandoms, and K-culture to build a mobile-first entertainment and IP platform. It also looks at what marketers can learn from its approach to localization, community-building, and real-time personalization.
Short on time?
Here’s a table of contents for quick access:
- What BytePlus and Soonshot are launching
- Why short-form K-dramas matter now
- How AI personalization and IP assets create scale
- What marketers should know
Patrecia Meliana
What BytePlus and Soonshot are launching
Soonshot is a mobile app delivering 1 to 2 minute K-drama episodes, designed for “snackable” storytelling on the go.
Within just three months of launch, the platform has already drawn in 110,000 users across seven countries, with average viewing sessions hitting 22 minutes.
This isn’t just a TikTok-style content play. Behind Soonshot is Lee Kyung-kyu, a comedy icon in Korea and co-founder of ADG Company, who is tapping into decades of entertainment industry ties. The company holds access to 20,000+ webtoon IPs and 3,000+ production professionals, along with partnerships with big-name broadcasters like SBS, KT, and Kakao.
"Soonshot brings the emotional depth of K-dramas at short-form speed," said Erica Park, CEO of ADG Company. "Inspired by China's short-form boom, we're elevating content with authentic K-flavor, powered by BytePlus tech to deliver what fans crave while building a sustainable, direct-to-fan model for IP value."
Why short-form K-dramas matter now
Soonshot is riding two intersecting waves: the K-drama fandom boom and the global appetite for short-form content. Think TikTok meets Netflix, with a cultural export twist. Its format — 1 to 2 minute episodes — caters to mobile-first audiences with short attention spans but high emotional engagement.
The platform is built on BytePlus infrastructure, including:
- AI personalization, which tailors viewing suggestions in real time
- Global CDN, which enables buffer-free playback on lower-bandwidth networks
- Real-time analytics, allowing creators to tweak scenes based on actual viewer behavior
This positions Soonshot not just as a content app, but as a real-time experiment in optimizing entertainment for mobile-first global youth.
Atikah Amalia
How AI personalization and IP assets create scale
Soonshot’s strategic edge lies in its combination of personalization tech and IP control.
With BytePlus handling the tech stack, including AI-based recommendations and streaming delivery, the platform can adjust instantly to viewing trends across regions. On the content side, Soonshot holds the rights to thousands of webtoons and rising acting talent. This gives it built-in scalability for localized storytelling and rapid adaptation.
In regions like Indonesia, where users spend six hours daily on mobile and K-content accounts for nearly a third of all streams, the app is tapping into established demand. In Thailand, one in three young people watches K-dramas daily.
And in the Philippines, K-related hashtags pull in over 100 million views a month. Singapore, meanwhile, leads in per-capita spending on premium content, making it a natural launchpad.
What marketers should know
Soonshot isn’t just an entertainment app. It is a marketing blueprint for how cultural products can scale using real-time data, localization, and fandom-driven communities. Here’s what makes it worth watching:
1. IP-first strategy with long-term monetization in mind
Soonshot aims to release 100 original titles by 2026, with plans to build out a full K-culture lifestyle platform including memberships, exclusive content, and merch. This direct-to-fan model creates monetization routes beyond ad revenue or licensing.
2. Real-time creator feedback loops
Using BytePlus analytics, creators can refine episodes based on viewer drop-off or engagement. This is an emerging best practice in data-informed storytelling. Marketers testing episodic content or branded series should take notes.
3. Localized UX as a growth lever
Multilingual subtitles, regional content preferences, and culturally attuned formats are central to Soonshot’s SEA expansion. The lesson is clear: don't just localize language, localize format, pacing, and cultural tone.
4. Community over virality
Rather than chasing hits, Soonshot is building fandoms through discussion forums, fan spaces, and exclusives. In an age of declining platform reach, this kind of owned community is gold for sustained brand engagement.
Soonshot’s rise shows that the next generation of entertainment platforms will not just live on social feeds or streaming services. They will be hybrid, AI-powered, fandom-fueled ecosystems. For marketers, it's a signal that personalization, cultural resonance, and IP control are no longer nice-to-haves. They are the new table stakes.
