What started as bite-sized entertainment for mobile-native audiences in China could now rewire the global content economy and marketers are quickly waking up to its commercial power. China's short-drama industry, once dismissed as lowbrow or fringe, has ballooned into a revenue machine that is now encroaching on advertising budgets, creator economies and even box-office revenues.
The numbers alone tell the story. China’s vertical micro-drama market tripled in 2023 to RMB 37.4 billion ($5.2 billion) and, as per a recent Campaign Asia report, is forecast to break RMB 100 billion ($14 billion) by 2027, according to Statista. More than 660 million people in China consumed short dramas last year, which is more than the population of the EU. A format that reels viewers in with six-second hooks and 60 to 90-second episodes is now becoming a channel brands can’t afford to sit out.
That sentiment was analysed at IAB Hong Kong’s recent C25 event, where the industry gathered to discuss the economic, creative and technological forces propelling short dramas from a mainland China phenomenon to global marketing play.
Moderating the session, Ben Chien, managing director, Greater China at AnyMind Group, charted the format’s evolution from its early days in 2018 to its international breakout in 2022. “Short dramas, or micro TV series, have become a new marketing channel for both Chinese and global brands seeking to drive direct sales via content sharing,” he said. With AI drastically lowering the cost of production, he added, the format is now scaling worldwide at speed.
AI supercharges the content-to-commerce engine
Few companies embody that acceleration more than Light X, the full-service studio that has become TikTok’s leading official partner for short dramas. Executive producer Heidi Liu lifted the lid on how AI is transforming the business from creative hunches into data-driven content franchises.
“Light X now gathers and analyses data to identify future commercial opportunities. The latest LLMs can predict upcoming hit dramas, preferred styles, and genres in different markets, while adapting content for various cultures and languages,” she said.
The company has built an end-to-end model spanning script analysis, audience analytics, production, post-production, distribution and now AI-powered multilingual publishing. Brands are already commissioning bespoke mini-series: “For instance, BMW requested a tailored short drama for the European market, such as Italy,” Liu revealed.
The growth speaks for itself. Light X saw double-digit production increases in Q3, including 19% in the U.S. and a staggering 67% in Europe, while translated dramas surged 77%.
For content producers, AI isn’t just about speed; it’s about unlocking genres once too costly to attempt. John Wang, founder and CEO of Shenzhen Youyuanren Cultural and Technological Co., Ltd., explained the shift.
“China’s film industry took nearly a century to reach a box office total of 70 billion RMB (US$9.8 billion), while AI-powered short dramas have generated over 60 billion RMB (US$8.4 billion) in just a few years,” he said. Live-action budgets for wardrobe, sets and makeup “often face unpredictable costs”, but AI “streamlines these expenses, making it possible to efficiently and affordably produce genres like fantasy, supernatural, magic, and science fiction.”
Cheap to make, built to travel, engineered to sell
The global upside is now impossible to ignore. North America accounted for over 80% of overseas short-drama consumption on TikTok in 2023. In 2024, Light X’s My Cold-Blooded Alpha King topped the U.S. charts with 30 million downloads and more than US$10 million in revenue all from a mobile-native fictional series designed for fast consumption.
Beyond the US, Asia-Pacific is catching up fast and now accounts for 29% of global downloads from Q2 2023 to Q1 2024, with Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea emerging as the next battlegrounds. North America, meanwhile, still dominates time spent (49%) and app-store revenue (61%).
For marketers, the model is enticing because it blends content, community and commerce. Short dramas launch cheaply, travel quickly, and plug directly into social sharing and conversion. Their low-risk, high-velocity nature is particularly attractive to performance-oriented brands.
Wang described the monetisation runway ahead: “Once a Chinese-language version is produced and aired in the Chinese mainland, the content can be adapted for global distribution using technologies like AI-powered face-swapping and multilingual translation.”
And it doesn’t stop there. The same IP can be “repurposed into various formats and released in international markets”, including animated versions in multiple languages without a single additional shoot. The repeatability is the ecosystem’s superpower: one story becomes a multi-market, multi-format revenue stream.
“By using AI to produce high-quality content tailored to potential consumers, brands can drive engagement that leads to consumption, organic user-generated content sharing, and exponential viral reach,” Wang said. He called this “one of the most effective ways AI fuels content-led growth in China today, extending beyond the short drama ecosystem.”
