Yin says the starting point for micro films' popularity was 2010's Old Boys, an uplifting short about two ordinary people striving to become musicians. The flick racked up millions of views on the video site Youku within a month after it was posted on Oct 28.
"The preference for watching TV programs online offers exceptional opportunities for micro films," Yin says.
Wang Yifei, the founder of Herun Media, which produced @Love, calls micro films "a timely solution to people's demand for easy entertainment".
"We're in an era of 'fragmentation'," Wang says.
"In our fast-paced society, our time spent on relaxation is very fragmented, sporadic and limited. It's not as feasible to sit through a two-hour film.
"The micro film has come to our rescue. It has the twists and turns a feature film has but lasts only a few minutes, which is the amount of time we can afford for entertainment."
Micro films still afford time for product placements, which make funding them possible, Wang says.
"But a good micro film doesn't coarsely insert the product in such ways as making it a dialogue focus or including close-ups of the brand logo," Wang says.
"It subtly embeds the brand into the storyline in a way that's not abrasive to viewers."
One @Love episode sponsored by a mobile phone company never shows the characters directly talking about the handset.
"The actor just naturally uses the phone to make calls and take photos when he needs to for the plotline," Wang says.
"The phone's function was demonstrated subtly."
Marketing via micro films is far better than through TV commercials, Commercial Guide magazine editor-in-chief Ling Ping says.
"About 300 million Chinese watch shows on video websites, which are micro films' major platforms," Ling says. "The product image would reach an amazing number of people if placed in a micro film. It's cheaper to invest in a micro film than to produce a commercial and pay a TV station to air it."
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announced last year that TV dramas will no longer break to commercials during episodes to better serve viewers.
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