Four consecutive daily limit ups, the AI application concept sector has exploded again.

On the morning of October 14, Ciwen Media once again hit the 10% daily limit, closing at 8.1 yuan. Calculated from the start on October 9, this stock has recorded a cumulative increase of 46.47% in four trading days.

Speaking of which, the start of this rally of Ciwen Media is not particularly early.

On October 9, the entire media sector saw a wave of stocks hitting their 10% daily limit. A number of stocks including Chinese Online, Shanghai Film, and Longban Media took the lead to surge to the limit. After Ciwen Media secured its first daily limit that day, it did not immediately become the market focus.

The real turning point came after October 12.

On that day, the news that PineDrama, a short drama application under ByteDance, had accumulated more than 100 million downloads about 9 months after its launch spread widely in the market, and its daily active user scale kept rising, which directly ignited the market's imagination for the overseas expansion of micro short dramas and the AI content production chain.

Ciwen Media was quickly targeted by capital thanks to its previous move of signing an agreement with Tongxiang to build the Yangtze River Delta AI manhua drama overseas export base.

The Dragon Tiger List data on October 13 shows that the stock was listed on the board due to a cumulative 20% deviation of increase in three consecutive trading days. Institutional seats made a net purchase of 1.8929 million yuan, while the total net purchase of business department seats reached 13.8317 million yuan.

The participation of institutional capital is not very large, but the active involvement of business department seats indicates that hot money has a high recognition of this round of thematic hype.

The core anchor of the market hype falls on the AI manhua drama track.

On September 27, Volcano Engine launched the Seedance film and television cooperation program, with a maximum incentive of 1 million yuan for a single project.

Bilibili simultaneously upgraded its "Awakening Manhua Drama Program 2.0" to support content production from three dimensions: creation funds, computing power and traffic.

The investment from the platform side, coupled with the continuous breakthroughs of AI video generation models in character consistency and production stability, has made manhua dramas regarded as a pure downstream application scenario that can realize large-scale commercialization of video large models.

Guojin Securities pointed out in a recent research report that the prosperity of the AI manhua drama industry is supported by consumption expansion, supply growth and platform investment. With the continuous upgrading of AI video generation models, content production efficiency is expected to be improved, and the demand for model invocation and creation tools may grow simultaneously.

Ciwen Media's position in this industrial chain is the key to its consecutive daily limit surges.

The company officially launched its self-developed AIGC film and television creation platform "Ciwen TV" at the 2026 Golden Autumn Strategy Conference, which is positioned as a "one-stop AI film and television creation and digital asset platform", covering the whole process from script to finished film.

Four types of business models are planned on the platform, such as the closed loop of school-enterprise cooperation, systematic verification of multi-form content, interactive film and game, and AI Film and Television Art Festival.

In other words, Ciwen Media is trying to build an infrastructure that covers tools, content and IP development.

The signing of the Tongxiang base further strengthens this narrative. During the project cooperation period, it is planned to complete more than 2000 film and television works, mainly AI manhua dramas, targeting the overseas market.

However, despite the excitement, the reality of fundamentals needs to be viewed calmly.

The 2026 mid-term report shows that Ciwen Media's main operating revenue in the first half of the year was only 18.9226 million yuan, a sharp year-on-year drop of 90.02%, and the net profit attributable to shareholders recorded a loss of 33.2307 million yuan.

Behind the cliff-like decline in revenue is the drastic fluctuation of the recognition rhythm of film and television business.

Ciwen Media's total revenue in 2025 was highly concentrated in the first and fourth quarters, with almost no revenue in the middle two quarters, while its revenue in the first quarter of 2026 was only 2.475 million yuan.

As of the end of the reporting period, the company's on-hand orders were about 290 million yuan, and the order conversion rhythm is the core variable for whether the performance in the second half of the year can be repaired.

What is more noteworthy is that on the evening of October 12, Ciwen Media clearly stated that the AIGC platform is still under construction and improvement, and relevant projects are in the process of preparation and promotion, and no relevant revenue has been formed yet. The impact of future construction, operation and business progress on the company's production, operation and financial status is full of uncertainties.

This is not an isolated case —

On the same day, Huanrui Century disclosed that the revenue from its AI short drama business accounts for less than 1% of its total operating revenue, and Jishi Media also warned that its AI micro short drama business is still in the initial cultivation stage and has not generated stable revenue for the time being.

In other words, the entire AI manhua drama concept is still at the stage of expectation pricing. The industrial logic is valid, but the performance realization is not around the corner.

Another easily overlooked background is the change of the regulatory environment.

Since September 1, the Administrative Measures for the Development of Micro Short Dramas has been officially implemented. This is China's first special departmental regulation for micro short dramas, which sets 11 red lines for content and extends the governance reach to the traffic distribution end.

The raised industry threshold is a structural benefit for listed companies with formal production qualifications and content reserves, but in the short term, tightened regulation also means that the rhythm of content launch and the review cycle may be lengthened, which will affect the timing of revenue recognition.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Gelonghui APP" (ID: hkguruclub), written by Gu Zhixin, and authorized for release by 36Kr.