Until now, video content has changed from 4:3 ratio to 18:9, optimized for the horizontal TV screen. But along with the increase in smartphone use, vertical video contents optimized for mobile devices have become popular. According to the Mobile Overview Report (MOVR), 94% of the time mobile phone users are on their phones, they hold their phones vertically. In fact, there is a survey saying many users hold their phones vertically even when watching a horizontal video, which would mean that the video is shown in a smaller size.

 We have become used to consuming content by scrolling down our smartphone screen from top to bottom. To watch a horizontal video or image, you have to turn the phone on its side for it to fit the full screen. But this disrupts the flow of watching or reading something on the phone, making it inconvenient. According to a survey by Snapchat, one of the top social networks in the U.S., vertical mobile content had higher viewer ratings than horizontal videos by 9-fold, while user immersion increased by about 36%.

 Recently, Dong-A Pharmaceutical edited its TV commercial to a vertical video optimized for the mobile screen and posted it on Facebook. The video received positive response, recording 3.6 million views, six times higher than the previous TV commercial, and more than 1,000 comments.

 Facebook's subsidiary Instagram recently launched a vertical video application, IGTV. It is expected to create a new ecosystem in the vertical video content market with its differentiated service, setting itself apart from YouTube.

 Tik Tok, also known as Douyin, is a vertical video application launched in China in 2016. It ranked number one in Apple's App Store downloads by recording 45.8 million in the first quarter, exceeding 35.3 million YouTube downloads, by gaining immense popularity among teens. China's major Internet-related service providers, including Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, also started to provide vertical video services.

 Korean startup Makeus' mobile media brand Dingo reached 1 million subscribers for the first time for mobile media through releasing vertical music video 'SERO live' (the word 'vertical' is pronounced 'sero' in Korean) on its YouTube channel 'Dingo Music'. It currently has 1.36 million subscribers, solidifying Makeus' position as a leader of digital music distribution.

 Vertical screens are becoming popular in mobile games as well. Clash Royale, Supercell's popular game, and Pokémon Go, which was the most popular smartphone game at one point, are both games played on a vertical screen. In April this year, Korean game company Neptune released a baseball management game 'Legend Lineup' in a vertical screen, generating buzz among users.

 We still mostly produce horizontal videos optimized for TV or PC screens. Creating a separate vertical video for the mobile screen may be a burden. In such case, there is a way to compromise between the horizontal video for the TV screen and the vertical video for the mobile screen.

 The horizontal content can be modified into a video for the mobile screen by using platforms like PockeTVC (adapting TV commercial creatives for mobile devices) and optimize product size or model closeup for better focus on the information delivered in the commercial. One example of this is the above-mentioned Dong-A Pharmaceutical commercial of its product 'garglin'. It's a good idea to check if all key elements of the video are inside the frame for both horizontal and vertical format before creating a content.

 There are, of course, advantages the horizontal content has despite the vertical content becoming a trend. Horizontal frame is good to use for landscapes or panoramic view, while vertical frame is better when focusing on the person in the video or image. We will have to choose by considering what type of frame would be effective in delivering the message of each specific content.