China's short-drama producers flood the market with cheap bets — and let audiences pick the winners

Surging artificial-intelligence capabilities and declining attention spans have Chinese producers flooding the zone with short-drama films to see which ones take off.

Vertical-title producers gauge audience interest before committing heavily to distribution and audience acquisition. Compared with traditional entertainment models, which commit much more capital to production, short-drama firms can test demand with less money at risk.

"A platform or producer can test a vertical serial's opening clips with a defined audience and expand promotion when it converts," said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of ChoZan. That allows companies to put more money behind titles that drive engagement and quickly pivot away from those that do not — a fail-fast approach.

Generative AI has accelerated this high-volume production strategy by reducing the time and cost required to make new titles. About 128,000 short-dramas were released in China in the first quarter of 2026, over 95% of which were AI, according to estimates published by China's Netcasting Services Association. CNSA estimated China's microdrama and manju market at about 100 billion yuan (US$15 billion) in 2025. The format overtook long-form video in average daily use, ranking second among audiovisual categories.

Vertical titles can generate strong advertising revenue, with opt-in video ads earning about 11 times Mintegral's Android benchmark in the first half of the year, according to the report.

However, heavy distribution and audience-acquisition spending can erode some of the margins created by cheap production.

While making a short drama may cost only a few hundred thousand yuan, "making the right audience see it can cost far more," Dudarenok said. She estimated that the cost of buying 1,000 promotional ad impressions rose from 50–80 yuan in 2023 to around 150–200 yuan in 2025, sometimes exceeding 300 yuan during competitive periods.

High volume and low production costs do not necessarily translate to commercial success.