To understand why a video format smaller than a postage stamp became highly popular, one must look at the infrastructure of Myanmar in the late 2000s and early 2010s. 1. The Mobile Boom and Legacy Devices

This changed dramatically in 2013 and 2014 when the government opened the telecommunications market to international operators like Telenor and Ooredoo, alongside the state-owned MPT. The price of SIM cards plummeted to less than two dollars, and affordable, often low-end smartphones flooded the market from neighboring China.

One user with internet access or a physical media source would download a batch of compressed 128x96 videos.

In Myanmar, popular media within this category typically encompasses several distinct genres: Thangyat and Traditional Comedy