Bogdan Nesvit: "Our goal is to turn every successful book into a vertical series" [Video]

Invited to the Short Drama Forum 2025, organized by Wenwen Han, Bogdan Nesvit, founder and CEO of Holywater (stylised as HOLYWATER), presented his vision of a new creative ecosystem, where data, artificial intelligence and vertical format transform the way stories are produced and distributed.

From reading to vertical series

“We’re building an AI-powered entertainment network with multiple connected products. At the heart of this ecosystem is our book platform, My Passion. We create hundreds of exclusive books every month, test them with our audience, collect a ton of data, and then identify the most promising stories,” explains Bogdan Nesvit.

These stories then become the raw material for MyDrama, Holywater's vertical streaming platform. "We turn the best stories from My Passion into pilot series, often produced with the help of AI. The projects that perform best are then filmed and broadcast on MyDrama. This is how we ensure a success rate above the market average."

A different positioning

Unlike the Asian giants of duanju, Holywater focuses on quality and efficiency over quantity: "We can't compete with ReelShort or DramaBox in terms of content volume, as they have much greater financial and human resources. We have to be smarter, and our method is to make most of our series successful."

It even claims a leading position outside of China: “In terms of revenue and users, My Drama is now the leading vertical streaming platform outside of China.”

For Nesvit, the duanju format is not an end in itself, but a tool serving a larger whole: "For us, short drama is just one format among others to develop the stories we create. It is not our central product, but a component of our ecosystem."

Each story can evolve, first as a book, then into a short series and beyond, in an intellectual property logic that aims to transform a strong story into a scalable brand. This strategy, based on data and artificial intelligence, consists of continuous testing, selecting promising stories and investing in those most likely to become successes: "Our goal is to transform each successful book into a vertical series."

The entire Short Drama Forum 2025 is available on YouTube

Check out an excerpt from Bogdan Nesvit's interview below.

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