INTERVIEW
Guillaume Sanjorge, France's duanju pioneer
Guillaume Sanjorge produces vertical series in France, exports them, and edits Duanju News, to our knowledge the only French outlet devoted to the format. First broadcast April 2023 on his own Facebook page, around 700,000 views on the first two episodes. Early 2025, a one-year contract with Stardust TV, a Chinese app past ten million downloads on Google Play. He announces here his own app — twenty cents an episode, half the revenue to the producers it takes in — and a distribution deal in India. He is not at break-even, and says so. His diagnosis: an industry rests on production, distribution and monetisation; in France only the first exists.
2023 · April
First broadcast on a personal Facebook page — around 700,000 views on two episodes
2025 · early
One-year contract with Stardust TV, a Chinese app past ten million downloads
2026 · 16 July
The CNC publishes its first text on vertical series — the word duanju appears nowhere in it
2026 · August
Deal validated with Shortflix India, which will distribute his series in India
2026 · 1 September
China's broadcasting regulator brings in its first rules for the format, licensing series shot in China for release abroad
20–50 k€
a series produced in France — fifteen to a hundred episodes
vs
$100–200k
sixty episodes in Los Angeles, as its line producer books them
Key Takeaways
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Of an industry's three pillars — production, distribution, monetisation — France holds only the first
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Twenty to fifty thousand euros a series; three hundred to six hundred euros a day for an actor
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Twenty cents an episode on the app he announces, and a fifty per cent revenue split for the producers it takes in
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France's automatic support starts from a broadcaster who pays the French levy: he is his own broadcaster, and his buyers are Chinese
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He bought the duanju domain names in thirty countries before the market existed, and is not at break-even
Originally published on Streaming Radar