Where is the No.1 City of AI-generated dramas and animation dramas? Beijing takes the overall lead, and Hangzhou is crowned the Capital of Creation.

On August 11, DataEye Juchacha "2026 H1 China AI Drama & Manhua Industry Comprehensive Strength Urban Data Report" was officially released.

In 2026, AI technology fully empowers the production of cultural and entertainment content, and the AI drama & manhua track has seen explosive rise, becoming the core growth pole of the micro-short drama industry and a major force of digital content innovation. DataEye Research Institute estimates that the annual market size of domestic AI drama & manhua in 2026 is expected to exceed 400 billion RMB, with a year-on-year growth rate as high as 138%.

The overseas market performance is equally impressive. The annual overseas market size of AI drama & manhua is expected to exceed 4 billion USD, accounting for nearly 70% of the total overseas micro-short drama market size (6 billion USD), making it an emerging force of the "Three New Categories" for Chinese cultural exports.

In the first half of the year, considering the monthly unique visitors of AI tool web pages such as Jimeng, Keling, LibTV, and integrating the data of certified AI drama & manhua practitioners and enterprises on Juchacha, DataEye Research Institute estimates that the number of domestic AI drama/manhua related practitioners and individual creators exceeds 500,000, making it an emerging field driving entrepreneurship and employment.

Based on the commercial vertical screen AI drama & manhua industry data in the first half of 2026, this report conducts a comprehensive review and in-depth analysis of the comprehensive strength of AI drama & manhua in key domestic cities, as well as the segmented distribution strength, production strength, and overseas expansion strength.

This report mainly takes commercial vertical screen AI drama & manhua as the main sample. It is compiled based on the data of DataEye Juchacha, ADX Industry Version, and ADX Overseas Short Drama Version. The statistical period is from January 1 to June 30, 2026.

01

Cities with Comprehensive Strength in China's AI Drama & Manhua Industry in H1 2026

Beijing: Aggregation of all elements, leading position in the industry is stable

Beijing ranks first in comprehensive strength with a score of 95.3, which is the superimposed result of platforms, capital, technology, production and overseas expansion. Its advantage lies in gathering the largest number of head internet platforms, AI technology enterprises, cultural and entertainment capital and professional creative talents across the country, with forward-looking and complete policy systems, and leading resource aggregation capability nationwide.

The 2025 Beijing Micro-short Drama Research Report released at the 4th Beijing Online Audio-Visual Art Conference in June 2026 shows that the output value of Beijing's micro-short dramas in 2025 reached 585.7 billion RMB, accounting for 58.6% of the national share, with 46,800 related enterprises, and the industry drove 273,000 jobs. In April 2026, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio and Television issued the Measures for the Support of Key Projects to Promote the High-quality Development of Animation Industry in Beijing, which first proposed to support "animation micro-short dramas".

Beijing is home to leading enterprises including Douyin Group (Hongguo, Fanqie, Volcano Engine, Ocean Engine), Hippo/Dianzhong, Kuaishou, Keling, Kunlun Wanwei, ChineseAll, Maple Interactive (Beijing), iReader, and Tinghuadao, forming a strong ecosystem covering the technical base of AI large models, IP scripts, production and output, and global distribution.

Shenzhen: Hard technology + internationalization, the capital of AI drama & manhua overseas expansion

Shenzhen ranks second with a score of 87, and its core competitiveness is "hard technology base + internationalization capability".

In the first half of 2026, Tencent Video/Huolong Manhua, WeChat Mini Program, Man Sen Culture, Buming Culture & Jingren Technology, Yuhe Culture, and Fengxing Jichuang performed prominently in domestic broadcast/distribution, becoming the main plus points for Shenzhen; while Maple Interactive, Jiuzhou Culture (Shenzhen), Xinyue Times (Shenzhen), Shanhai Xingchen (Shenzhen), Infinite System, Qianhai Yangxiang, Shengying Culture, and Kukan Culture contributed points in international distribution. Therefore, both Shenzhen and Beijing have become "capitals of AI drama & manhua overseas expansion". In 2026, Man Sen Culture and Buming Culture & Jingren Technology continue to expand, with a scale of 600 people only in Shenzhen; ChineseAll, Shike Interactive, Guomai Culture, and the internationally renowned director Stanley Tong have successively settled in Shenzhen to deploy AI drama & manhua. TVB also announced the establishment of its Qianhai headquarters in Shenzhen, and reached in-depth cooperation with Volcano Engine to develop the AI film and television and intelligent short drama tracks.

In 2025, there were more than 500 micro-short drama related enterprises in Shenzhen, with the market size exceeding 7 billion RMB. The AI drama & manhua industry highly matches Shenzhen's scientific and technological innovation strength and internationalization capability, which is expected to greatly promote the expansion of industrial scale. In March 2026, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports issued the Operating Procedures for the Micro-short Drama Support Plan for Projects Promoting the High-quality Development of Digital Creative Industry, focusing on supporting micro-short drama overseas expansion and AI short dramas. In May, the outline of Shenzhen's 15th Five-Year Plan was released, proposing to "cultivate characteristic cultural industry platforms such as creative design, online audio-visual, film and television animation, and digital entertainment. Build a global smart audio-visual innovation capital, and create a national-level micro-short drama overseas export base", which fully demonstrates Shenzhen's emphasis on micro-short dramas and AI drama & manhua.

Hangzhou: Fertile soil for content industry, the capital of AI drama & manhua creation

Hangzhou ranks second with a score of 87, and its advantage lies in the two-wheel drive of "content industry density + AIGC entrepreneurial ecosystem". Hangzhou is the city that released the earliest and most actively iterated incentive policies related to animation and dynamic comics. Hangzhou has the advantages of web novel IP, e-commerce genes, animation foundation and short video operation capability, so it can not only produce on a large scale, but also quickly verify the commercial model.

Hangzhou has now gathered more than 100 well-known upstream and downstream enterprises of micro-short dramas and AI drama & manhua, including leading enterprises such as Jiuzhou Culture (Hangzhou), Maiya Media (Hangzhou), Maple Interactive (Hangzhou), Zhangwan Network, Haiyu Starry Sky, Ganghaoying Film and Television. In the first half of 2026, Jiuzhou Culture (Hangzhou), Aikan Interactive, Lingman Kuai Chuang, Lingju Animation, Xinmeihongxing, Hangzhou Yunfan and other enterprises performed particularly prominently and contributed points. Especially at the creation/production level, many hit works are produced by Hangzhou enterprises, and Hangzhou is well-deserved as the "capital of AI drama & manhua creation".

Guangzhou: GBA fulcrum, core of industrialized production in South China

Guangzhou ranks at the forefront with a score of 79. Relying on the agglomeration advantage of the Greater Bay Area digital cultural and creative industry, Guangzhou has formed differentiated development characteristics of policy empowerment, solid computing power, stable production capacity and track focus. As the hub of South China's cultural and entertainment industry, Guangzhou has mature supporting facilities for digital industry and perfect AI computing power infrastructure, coupled with the continuous support of local governments for digital short dramas and animation innovative formats, which provides solid software and hardware support for the industrialized production of AI drama & manhua.

In the first half of 2026, Mofang Theater ranked second among Hongguo AI drama & manhua producers in the first half of the year with a cumulative peak of 1.337 billion Hongguo heat. Xinghuo Animation ranked 10th with 407 million. In the first half of the year, Mofang, Xinghuo Juneng, Zhanlang Pictures, Guangzhou Jingmeng Culture, Guangzhou Gaiya Culture and other enterprises performed prominently and contributed points, further consolidating Guangzhou's regional core position in the fields of large-scale production of AI drama & manhua and high-quality work output.

02

Cities with Distribution Strength in China's AI Drama & Manhua Industry in H1 2026

Beijing: Strong platform matrix, firmly grasp the channel discourse power

Beijing still ranks first with a high score of 98.7. Beijing has the top and most powerful broadcast and distribution platforms across the country, gathering 39 key domestic and foreign platforms including Douyin, Hongguo Short Drama, and Hippo Theater, among which the monthly active users of Hongguo Short Drama exceed 350 million. Its channel discourse power, technological innovation capability and globalization layout level lead the country, especially the head platforms and AI large models continue to dominate the evolution of industry rules and business models of AI drama & manhua.

Shenzhen: Complete distribution chain, leading commercial distribution nationwide

Shenzhen ranks second with a score of 91.0. With strong scientific and technological innovation base, rich internet platform resources, mature ecosystem of capital, traffic delivery and creator distribution, it has opened up the complete chain of self-made content, creator services and multi-channel distribution. The two-way empowerment of head platforms and local production enterprises leads the country in industrial commercial maturity.

In the first half of 2026, Shenzhen's AI drama & manhua achieved outstanding results: at the beginning of the year, DataEye ADX data showed that "Devour and Evolve from the Spotted Snake" distributed by Man Sen Culture gained more than 2 billion views under Douyin's paid mode, becoming the phenomenal manhua with the first view count exceeding 200 million in 2026. Tencent Huolong Manhua and WeChat Mini Program successively launched a series of incentive policies, among which Huolong Manhua had more than 10 million monthly active users half a year after its launch; in the middle of the year, the four seasons of "Deep Love Invades the Rest of Life" produced by Buming Culture & Jingren Technology had a total of nearly 5 billion views across the whole network. Youbao, the one-stop realization center for creators under Buming Culture, has gathered more than 4 million users and distributed more than 6,000 AI short dramas in total. Fengxing, under Shenzhen Zhaochi Co., Ltd., has operated more than 300 mini-programs of various categories, accumulated more than 400,000 high-quality creator cooperation resources, and built a strong distribution network.

Jiaxing: Undertaking the spillover from Shanghai and Hangzhou, forming an integrated production and sales cluster

Jiaxing ranks fourth with a score of 81.3. Relying on the core location dividend of the Yangtze River Delta, the city has abundant local web literature talent reserves, smoothly undertakes the spillover of the content industry from Shanghai and Hangzhou, and builds an integrated industrial chain of IP source, production and creation, and traffic distribution. The large-scale expansion of head enterprises is significant, and the cluster's commercial potential continues to release. Jiaxing promotes the cultivation of new business formats, introduces support policies for the micro-short drama industry, builds a full-cycle financial support system, and promotes micro-short dramas to become a new engine for displaying the city's image and driving cultural tourism revenue.

In the first half of 2026, the leading enterprise in Jiaxing, Jiuzhou Culture, has expanded its AI drama & manhua business to more than 4,000 people, and AI drama & manhua accounts for 95% of the company's total production capacity. DataEye ADX data shows that Jiuzhou performed prominently in the distribution of Douyin AI drama & manhua in the first half of the year, with a playback increment of more than 66.874 billion, second only to Fanqie, ranking second on the Douyin AI drama & manhua distribution platform. In June, ChineseAll's Yangtze River Delta Headquarters Center for AI Manhua settled in Jiaxing, further strengthening the driving role of head enterprises.

Wuhan: Dual advantages of talent and cost, releasing regional distribution potential

Wuhan ranks at the forefront with a score of 79.6. Its advantages lie in the formed industrial cluster, sufficient supply of university talents, perfect computing power facilities, local web novel IP resources, continuous policy support for the industrialized production of AI drama & manhua, outstanding capability of local production teams to produce hit works, significant cost advantages, and the rapid growth of leading enterprises driving the coordinated development of upstream and downstream.

At present, only in Wuhan Optics Valley, about 80 AI drama & manhua enterprises are gathered, with more than 4,000 practitioners. Among them, in the first half of 2026, the revenue of Duomi Network has reached 300 million RMB, exceeding the whole year of last year, and the annual revenue is expected to reach 600 million RMB. Lingjing Wanwei (Wuhan) settled in Wuhan Optics Valley last September, and expanded from 18 people to 100 people in half a year.

DataEye ADX data shows that in the first half of 2026, Hubei Youyue, Wuhan Yunjing, Lingjing Wanwei (Wuhan), Wuhan Xinghuo Culture, Wuhan Muyilin, Xunguang Animation, Nanquan Huyu, and Lanren Miaomiao produced outstanding hit dramas. Among them, Wuhan Yunjing ranked third among Douyin AI drama & manhua producers in the first half of the year with a cumulative view count of 1.642 billion.

03

Cities with Production Strength in China's AI Drama & Manhua Industry in H1 2026

Hangzhou: Dual drive of IP and creation, continuous output of hit works

Hangzhou ranks first with a score of 96.6, which is well-deserved as the "capital of AI drama & manhua creation".

Hangzhou has now gathered more than 100 well-known upstream and downstream enterprises of micro-short dramas and AI drama & manhua, including leading enterprises such as Jiuzhou Culture (Hangzhou), Maiya Media (Hangzhou), Zhangwan Network, and Haiyu Starry Sky. Its advantage is that it owns the top web novel IP source and complete cultural and creative talent supply across the country, takes the lead in full-domain policies, computing power, and special fund support, and forms a mature industrial cluster integrating IP incubation, AI industrial production, multi-platform full-domain distribution, and overseas expansion.

DataEye ADX data shows: On the Hongguo platform, Lingju Animation and Aikan Interactive ranked first and third among Hongguo AI drama & manhua producers in the first half of the year with cumulative peak heat of 1.511 billion and 1.281 billion respectively; under Douyin's paid mode, Hang