The archive · Consumer Apps · Strategic decision · 2024–2026
Melolo's free-drama bet tops Indonesia: most-downloaded drama app of 2025
ByteDance's free short-drama app Melolo became Indonesia's most-downloaded drama app of 2025 and still held Google Play's #1 entertainment slot in August 2026.
Melolo (ByteDance)
What the business is
Melolo is ByteDance's free mobile short-drama app for Southeast Asia: localized, minutes-long episodes distributed under the ByteDance brand and watched mainly in Indonesia, where it competes for downloads with DramaBox, FreeReels and DramaWave.
How it started
ByteDance began rolling Melolo out overseas in late 2024 as its free answer to the short-drama wave. By the end of February 2025 the app had passed 1.32 million downloads, 99% of them from Southeast Asia and 58.85% from Indonesia, according to Yilantop (2025-03-05); that was roughly one-fifth of rival FreeReels' volume, and Melolo had not yet entered the US. Its early content was mostly dubbed rather than locally produced, and its buying was modest — strengths and weaknesses that defined its first months.
What happened
The bet then rode a category explosion. Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2026, reported by CNBC Indonesia in February 2026, found Indonesian short-drama downloads rose 329% in 2025 and made Melolo the most-downloaded short-drama app of the year, ahead of DramaBox, FreeReels, DramaWave and local OTT Vidio; streaming-video downloads hit 109 million in Indonesia in the last three months of 2025, and Netflix fell to #9 among downloaded streaming apps. By August 2026 Narku's weekly live-chart report showed Melolo holding #1 on Google Play's free Entertainment chart in Indonesia and Thailand for consecutive weeks, #8 on iOS Indonesia, with about 59% of its downloads coming from Indonesia and an Indonesian store presence of roughly 89,000 ratings at 4.88.
How it ended up
Still running and leading: as of August 2026 Melolo held the #1 free Entertainment slot on Google Play in Indonesia and Thailand and remained the reference free-drama app of its region, though it had not entered the US market.
Background
Melolo is ByteDance's free short-drama app for Southeast Asia. The company began rolling it out overseas in late 2024 with dubbed, minutes-long episodes; by the end of February 2025 it had passed 1.32 million downloads — 99% from Southeast Asia, with Indonesia alone contributing 58.85% — while ad spend stayed modest, concentrated on Instagram and Facebook, and the app had not entered the US (Yilantop, 2025-03-05).
The bet then rode a category explosion. Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2026, reported by CNBC Indonesia in February 2026, found Indonesian short-drama downloads rose 329% in 2025 and made Melolo the most-downloaded short-drama app of the year — ahead of DramaBox, FreeReels, DramaWave and local OTT Vidio. Streaming-video downloads hit 109 million in Indonesia in the last three months of 2025, and Netflix fell to #9 among downloaded streaming apps.
By August 2026 the lead looked structural: Narku's weekly live-chart report (2026-08-10) showed Melolo holding #1 on Google Play's free Entertainment chart in Indonesia and Thailand for consecutive weeks, #8 on iOS Indonesia, with about 59% of downloads coming from Indonesia and an Indonesian store presence of roughly 89,000 ratings at 4.88. Early weaknesses — dubbed rather than locally produced stories and conservative buying — had not stopped it from becoming the free-drama default of its region.
What has to be true
- Free, localized episodes removed the price barrier in a market where the short-drama category's first wave sold episodes one by one.
- Riding Indonesia's 329% year-on-year jump in short-drama downloads in 2025, Melolo finished the year as the country's most-downloaded app in the genre.
- Consecutive weeks at #1 on Google Play's Entertainment chart in Indonesia and Thailand by 2026-08-10 show localization plus free built habit, not just a launch spike.
- Its risk is concentration: about 59% of downloads come from one country and it has no US listing, so the lead depends on Indonesian user economics.
What can be applied
In price-sensitive markets, free-plus-localization can out-download per-episode paid apps — but a downloads crown built on one country's ad economics is a fragile moat.
Aftermath
As of 2026-08-10 Melolo remained the free short-drama leader in its core market: #1 on Google Play's free Entertainment chart in Indonesia and Thailand for consecutive weeks, #8 on iOS in Indonesia, with about 59% of downloads from Indonesia and roughly 89,000 ratings at 4.88 on the Indonesian store. The app is not listed on the US App Store, so its crown rests on Southeast Asia — the strategic question is whether a single-market, free-model lead survives as paid and free rivals keep bidding for the same Indonesian audience.
Sources
- Netflix-TikTok Minggir, Aplikasi China Tak Terkenal Nomor 1 di RI
- 免费短剧出海竞品周报 2026-08-10
- 字节短剧App Melolo出海，东南亚市场表现亮眼
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