Chinese mainland AI short dramas targets 24 bln yuan market size

Riding the wave of video-generating artificial intelligence model sparked by ByteDance's Seedance 2.0, Chinese AI-powered animation short dramas - including those featuring hyper-realistic humans - are projected to see their user base grow by 1.3 times to 280 million in 2026, with a market size expected to reach 24 billion yuan (HK$27.2 billion), mainland media reported.

Currently, over 1,000 AI short dramas are released daily, with a significant proportion consisting of hyper-realistic AI content featuring commentary, while some of the most popular titles have even achieved over 100 million views, the report said.

In the Spring Festival season of short dramas this year, AI animated short dramas accounted for nearly 30 percent of the total of 8.67 billion views, of which hyper-realistic AI videos contributed more than 80 percent.

Besides, under the development of AI-generated models, the cost of short dramas will be significantly compressed, making the production process of "one person, one drama a day" a reality. 

Instead of deploying 80 percent of the investment into labor costs, the proportion will be cut to 20 percent, bringing computing power and tokens to be the core expenses.