Tencent is ramping up its efforts in the short drama sector: the short drama entry is now in internal beta on WeChat's "Top Stories".
WeChat is upgrading short drama distribution from "mini-program" to "platform-level distribution".
On November 12, as reported by CLS, people close to Tencent revealed that the "Look" feature of WeChat is conducting a small-scale test of a short drama entry, through which users can check the short dramas they watched recently. This entry is designed to make it more convenient for users to find high-quality short drama content they prefer, and help excellent works from creators be seen by more audiences. This function is currently in gray-scale testing, and only part of users can find it on the "Discover" page of WeChat.
Over the past year, short dramas on WeChat were mainly distributed through mini-programs and spontaneous sharing by users. On October 14, Tencent quietly launched "Green Bubble Short Drama", which is positioned as "free high-quality dramas, one tap to watch". It is launched by WeChat Short Drama Content Center, and users do not need to download an independent App.
Green Bubble Short Drama is divided into three parts: "Free Theater", "Swipe to Browse" and "My". Under the "Free Theater" section, there are columns including AI dramas, live-action dramas, daily new releases, animation dramas, must-watch of the week, and 1 million+ views. Its business model is to make all content free and realize monetization by inserting advertisements between episodes. The platform itself does not produce content, and all dramas are provided by third-party short drama producers and authorized distributors. Tencent provides the entry and traffic, and obtains the authorization for content playback and display. The "Short Drama Mini-Program User Agreement" shows that the service signing entity is Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd.
Compared with Hongguo Short Drama, Green Bubble has a much stronger social attribute. In addition to the regular ranking list on the homepage, it also has a "Friends Are Watching" recommendation section and a region-marked popular ranking list. Tencent once stated to the media that in order to provide personalized content, the platform will collect users' records of browsing, watching, sharing, liking, commenting, and collecting, as well as the dramas that friends have watched, analyze and predict preferences through programs, and the content that friends are watching will affect the content recommended to relevant users.
Tencent is not a new entrant in the short drama track. In December 2021, Tencent Video launched the industry's first micro-short drama brand "Very Theater"; in January 2025, the first independent short drama product "Mars Short Drama Club" was launched, and later renamed "Mars Drama Watching"; in June 2025, WeChat launched the "Short Drama" mini-program; by October, the entry of the old "Short Drama" mini-program was offline, and the position was taken over by Green Bubble Short Drama.
Information from Tianyancha shows that the "Green Bubble Short Drama" trademark was applied for in June 2026, and the applicant is Shenzhen Wangshijie Technology Co., Ltd., a partner of Tencent. The application covers multiple categories including Class 9 electronic computers, Class 35 advertising and trade, and 42 types of technical services, and the relevant trademark is currently in the registration application status.
At present, the short drama industry is in the stage of scale expansion. The "China-ASEAN Micro-short Drama International Communication Development Report" released by the National Radio and Television Administration on October 20 shows that a total of 33,000 micro-short dramas were launched and broadcast across China in 2025, and the number of launched works from January to September 2026 reached 490,000, 13 times the total number of 2025; the scale of micro-short drama users is 850 million, and the monthly active users exceed 600 million. According to the calculation of DataEye Research Institute, the total market size of China's micro-short dramas, AI dramas and comic dramas in 2026 is expected to exceed 1.21 trillion yuan, of which AI simulated live-action dramas and comic dramas account for about 400 billion yuan.
The free model is the mainstream of the current short drama industry. According to the "China Online Audio-Visual Development Research Report (2026)", the total market size of micro-short dramas, AI dramas and comic dramas in 2025 is about 1 trillion yuan, of which the market size of free micro-short dramas in 2026 is expected to reach 573 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8%. Tencent is also following the free operation path.
Hongguo under the ByteDance system is the biggest competitor Tencent faces. QuestMobile data shows that as of July 2026, the daily active users of the independent App of Hongguo Free Short Drama reached 168 million, a year-on-year increase of 107%, exceeding the sum of daily active users of the four long video platforms Tencent Video, iQiyi, Youku and Mango TV.
Tencent's comparative advantage lies in its entry access rather than content reserve. According to the research report of Cathay Haitong Securities, Tencent's "Green Bubble Short Drama" mini-program, relying on WeChat's huge user base and mini-program ecosystem, is expected to achieve an extremely low user access threshold. In the long run, Green Bubble, relying on WeChat's social ecosystem to open up a brand new distribution channel for short dramas, is expected to create incremental content demand and enrich the monetization options for short drama producers. The multi-platform distribution model can reduce the reliance of content manufacturers on a single platform, high-quality works can amplify communication and revenue through WeChat's social fission, and upstream short drama production companies are expected to usher in development dividends.
This article is from "Jiemian News", author: Li Kefeng, authorized for release by 36Kr.