China’s short drama market boomed in 2025, driven by AI-driven creation, quality content, and a global ‘New Chinese Style’ push bringing the industry 50.44 billion yuan (£5.32B), including 10.84 billion (£1.14B) overseas.
On November 11th, the Third Hangzhou Short Drama Conference officially opened in Linping, Hangzhou. At the same time, the “China Short Drama Industry Development White Paper(2025)” was released.
Compiled by the China Netcasting Services Association, the White Paper views short dramas as a form of “new mass art.” It summarised 14 key findings across five major areas: industry overview, content creation, business models, technological innovation, and global competition. Through detailed data, it presents a comprehensive picture of China’s short drama development in 2025.
Competition for Quality: The Long-Tail Effect Strengthens
In recent years, short dramas have quickly risen as a new growth engine in online entertainment. Their short, fast, and extractive format gives them a strong advantage in today’s fast-paced media environment.
According to Tide News, the White Paper outlined that the industry’s total market size jumped from 3.68 billion yuan in 2021 to 50.44 billion yuan in 2024. Consequently, many high-quality works have emerged, pushing short dramas from a niche format to a mainstream cultural phenomenon.
From January to August 2025, eight major video platforms launched 325 horizontal-screen short dramas, marking a 24.52% year-on-year increase. The monthly release volume stayed steady at 35 to 48 new titles.
Meanwhile, other short video platforms and mini-programs released over 140,000 vertical short dramas. After removing repeated uploads, around 40,000 were independently produced.
Expanding Scale: 100,000 Companies Race Forward
Furthermore, the short drama industry is expanding at a remarkable speed. The White Paper shows that China now has 100,200 short drama-related companies. During the first nine months of 2025, 16,800 new firms registered, a 12.57% increase year-on-year. More than 90% of professionals said their companies’ revenue was stable or rising.
At the same time, audience enthusiasm continues to grow. From January to August, the average daily viewing time per user on short drama apps reached 120.5 minutes, up 25.9% from January. Short dramas have already surpassed long-video platforms in usage time.
In addition, user loyalty is deepening. Nearly 80% of viewers now watch more often than last year. 48.5% watch every day, while 13% watch occasionally. As a result, short dramas have become the main choice for fragmented-time entertainment.
Confidence in the industry is also rising rapidly. Over 87% of professionals expect the market to grow within the next year, and 37.7% predict strong growth. Nearly 90% are optimistic about the industry’s outlook.
Overall, high-quality content, industrial clustering, and cross-industry integration have become the three key growth engines.
AI Empowers Creation: Animated Short Dramas Lead the Way
Meanwhile, business models are undergoing deep transformation. The White Paper predicts that by 2025, free-to-watch short dramas will account for 66.3% of the total market. As a result, creators are shifting focus from traffic buying to storytelling appeal.
Now, completion rate and watch time are the main indicators of success. With the help of AIGC (AI-generated content) tools, creators have improved efficiency by 50%, and their output frequency has doubled.
Moreover, animated short dramas have become the first large-scale commercial AIGC video format. From January to August 2025, platforms launched 2,902 animated short dramas, including 895 in August alone. This marks a major milestone in AI-driven video production.
“New Chinese Style” Goes Global: £1.14B in Overseas Revenue
Today, short dramas are also becoming a new vehicle for Chinese culture to go global. The “New Chinese Style” narrative has emerged as the core strength of this global expansion.
Chinese companies are combining Eastern storytelling traditions with modern expression, supported by mature production systems and popular online literature IPs. Furthermore, AI translation and dubbing technologies have improved localisation efficiency by over 60%, greatly accelerating cross-cultural communication.
From January to August 2025, the global short drama market generated 10.84 billion (£1.14B) in revenue, up 194.9% year-on-year. At the same time, total app downloads reached 730 million, a 370.4% increase from last year.
In overseas markets, Chinese companies hold a dominant position. Among the top 20 short drama apps, 90% are backed by Chinese firms, contributing 91% of total revenue. Apps such as DramaBox and ReelShort saw download growth of 70%-105%, far exceeding the 20%-35% decline experienced by global giants like Netflix and YouTube.
Written by Yi Shen.
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