The hit of *Good Girl* has gained great popularity, Green Bubble has entered the sector, and one-person companies are springing up, which is continuously expanding the boundaries of the micro-short drama industry.
Two exciting cases emerged in the short drama industry in October.
One took place in the hinterland of long-form video platforms. Recently, the horizontal-screen Chinese drama version *What a Good Girl* was launched on Tencent Video, with its in-platform popularity exceeding 20,000, topping both the soaring popularity chart and the hit short drama chart, and related topics immediately rushed to the hot search list.
This drama is remade from the vertical-screen short drama of the same name launched in 2025. The vertical-screen version once recorded over 5 billion views across all platforms, and its plot and classic clips were widely spread. However, the horizontal-screen version has also sparked extensive discussions and attracted new loyal audiences. The influence, life cycle and hit-generating capacity of short drama IP have exceeded the imagination of many practitioners.
The other case happened in WeChat mini-programs. In October, WeChat renamed its official "Short Drama" mini-program to "Green Bubble Short Drama", and simultaneously launched the joint distribution incentive activity for Green Bubble Short Drama: from October 16 to December 31, high-quality new dramas with user viewing duration of no less than 10 minutes can enjoy up to 100% revenue incentive, including 90% cash share and 10% advertising fund matching.
According to official WeChat disclosure, the per capita viewing duration of users watching through Green Bubble Short Drama is about 5 times the industry average, and the retention rate is more than 2.5 times the industry average. According to 36Kr reports, this new move has also driven the share prices of many short drama-related companies including Shenwan Media and Chinese Online to rise.
Both events have released quite encouraging signals: the boundary of short dramas is being expanded simultaneously from the content end and the platform end.
Previously, QuestMobile released the *2026 Short Drama Marketing Industry Report*, which showed that as of May 2026, the number of unique users of short dramas reached 851 million. This was once regarded by many practitioners as the inflection point where the user scale "hit the ceiling".
However, if you only focus on the single dimension of user scale, you will miss the real changes taking place. The figure of 851 million only indicates that the domestic user group that has not been exposed to short dramas is shrinking. Conversely, it also shows that more and more people are willing to spend time on short dramas, and the content space of short dramas is constantly expanding.
The emergence of the new form of horizontal-screen *Good Girl* and the aggressive posture presented by WeChat also mean that the short drama market is transforming from a traffic chess game to a lasting content business. Traffic may hit a phased ceiling, but the ever-changing content trends and the growing overall market represent unlimited possibilities.
A typical example is the overseas market. According to the *China-ASEAN Micro-short Drama International Communication Development Report* released by the National Radio and Television Administration on October 20, the overseas micro-short drama market size outside China will exceed 6 billion US dollars in 2026, a year-on-year increase of 67% compared with 2025. From January to September 2026, the top 10 micro-short drama apps by downloads in overseas markets all have Chinese backgrounds, and 9 of the top 10 platforms by in-app purchase revenue also have Chinese backgrounds.
In the view of Entertainment Capital, the short drama industry is far from the time to be defined as a "stock market", and producers in all links still have unlimited opportunities and various possibilities.
1
High-quality content and differentiated narratives gain widespread popularity, the short drama content ushers in the era of "individual creation"
Analyzing the success of the horizontal-screen version of *What a Good Girl* on Tencent Video, the core reason is that it did not carry out a simple and crude "vertical to horizontal" remake, but combined the narrative logic, viewing scenarios and user expectations of horizontal-screen works to present a brand-new content expression.
The original vertical-screen work presents the story with fast pace, high conflicts and strong narrative hooks, and finally attracts users to stay by its outstanding CP chemistry and strong plot twists. The single-episode duration of the horizontal-screen medium-length drama is extended to 20 minutes, so more character backstories are laid out, more psychological details of the heroine are added, and the character motivations are more in line with the viewing habits of users of medium and long content.
The results show that users have a good acceptance of this model. In a large number of social media feedbacks, "atmosphere" is a frequently mentioned word. Whether it is the exploration of the heroine's changes, the presentation of the multi-faceted struggles of human nature, or the intensified tension and ambiguity between the hero and heroine, it meets the in-depth immersive viewing needs of many users, and also derives a new wave of CP fans.
This also precisely illustrates the value of exploring diversified form adaptations of short drama IP. Short dramas no longer only remakes long drama IP, but can feed back to long video platforms through proven good performance. It is reported that at present, projects including *Summer Fendela*, *The Real Daughter is a Top Student*, and *A Family of Three in the Same Class* have all started their film and television version adaptations.
"Facts show that people don't care whether the story is new or not, it all depends on whether you shoot it well." A comment from a viewer of *Good Girl* on Xiaohongshu more or less reflects the audience's voice. Stories that have been verified by a large number of real short drama users have their own set of "formulas" for gaining popularity. Through adaptation, remake and more sophisticated production, the preferences of different groups can be met. Under the trade-offs in creation, both the original and the adapted work have found their own audiences. And the core of success or failure still lies in content.
To some extent, this also confirms with the recent market feedback. *The Fragrance of Orchid* became popular with its camera aesthetics and solid narrative, triggering a large number of long drama creators to think about "real user needs". Obviously, it is not that the medium of medium and long dramas has lost its audience, nor that live-action dramas have come to an end. It is just that under the explosive production capacity, users are unwilling to pay for any shoddy creation. It can be predicted that in the future, no matter the length of live-action dramas, it will definitely be an era for high-quality creators.
Similarly, in the explosive AI short drama track, differentiated production and high-quality content also show greater advantages. A typical example is a number of "foreign language dramas" recently created by domestic creators with AI that have aroused a lot of discussions. Taking *Pretty Malice* launched in August this year as an example, this Korean-language drama telling the story of a Sichuan girl bravely breaking into a Korean chaebol school has been growing in popularity. Its five episodes have exceeded 150 million views, and the account has accumulated more than 1.75 million fans. Using the difference between the two campus survival logics of China and South Korea, *Pretty Malice* tells the story of a girl who speaks Sichuan-Chongqing dialect breaking through the dark Korean campus in an anti-routine way, attracting a large number of users to follow the drama.
In addition, other content in the same track such as *Zi Han from Northeast China Breaks into a Japanese High School* and *Daily Life of Swapping Bodies with a Sakura Girl* have also attracted a lot of attention by relying on such misaligned narratives.
It can be seen that even in a track like AI short dramas with explosive production capacity and extremely fast iteration speed, there are more segmented success codes. It is worth noting that in addition to broadening the content track by relying on differentiated narratives, the upgraded modeling of these dramas also creates a more delicate and smooth viewing experience. Ke Tong, the director of *Pretty Malice*, mentioned that after the launch of Seedance 2.5, directly entering "Korean revenge movie style" can get a relatively mature effect, but what really determines the quality of the finished film is still the judgment of repeatedly selecting, splicing and eliminating the outputs of several models.
It is reported that in order to create better and more fresh faces, many creators currently adopt the method of mixing multiple models and finally choosing the optimal solution when making manhua dramas. Among them, tools such as Doubao and ChatGPT assist in conceiving action storyboards, mainstream models such as Seedance, Keling, MiniMax and ChatGPT generate video content, and models with outstanding special performance in the graphics field such as MidJourney and NanoBanana provide assistance. These careful considerations in creation also help the final work break through the disadvantages of specific faces and single APPs, bringing more freshness to the audience.
Obviously, explosive production capacity does not mean automatic distribution of attention, it only means that rough processing will be submerged in the content sea faster. The teams that finally stand out are those who find a differentiated entry in narrative and are willing to debug repeatedly in production.
"We can clearly feel that although the supply of short dramas is increasing, the demand of users for differentiated and high-quality content is far from being met. Especially this year, we feel that the era of quick money is over, and creators who are willing to deeply cultivate expression and seriously study users have more space." Short drama screenwriter Xiao Bai told us.
Taking IP adaptation as an example, for a period of time before, there were a large number of scripts in the market that copied hit online novels and spliced popular elements. But now, as the adaptation process of official authorized IP becomes more and more smooth, the optional IP works on the market are constantly enriched, and the participation threshold of online novel IP adaptation has decreased significantly. "In addition to Fanqie, the openness of platforms such as Yuewen and Jinjiang and the short drama adaptation process have gradually run smoothly this year. Online novel platforms themselves are also making more diversified attempts. As a screenwriter, whether it is adaptation or original creation, we have more and more ways to participate in creation. Many original small and medium-sized online novel writers have also joined the adaptation ranks to get income." Xiao Bai said.
This also confirms with the data disclosed by Yuewen. It is reported that in the first half of this year, Yuewen's short drama and manhua drama business revenue exceeded 430 million yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 230%. Up to now, Yuewen has more than 660 manhua dramas with over 10 million views, and 107 with over 100 million views. Major online novel platforms are increasingly actively participating in the production of the short drama chain, opening more resources and windows to the industry.
At present, Xiao Bai and his friends have formed a three-person studio to try AI manhua drama adaptation of online novel IP. "We have achieved positive operation, and next we will try to further expand the themes."
His case also represents an important change in the current industry — The profits of short dramas are no longer highly concentrated in the hands of a few companies that have produced single hit dramas as in the past two years. The "intermediaries" that rely on platform guaranteed payment and production fees are shrinking, and the creator end that directly faces user judgment has gained greater living space.
Just as Hou Xiaonan, CEO of Yuewen, judged at the 2026 Yuewen Creation Conference: "One creator plus IP and AI tools can complete the whole process of manhua drama creation, which is the emerging OPC 'one-person company'. In the future, content production capacity will come more and more from OPC and UGC, from every super individual with creative ability."
This kind of profit redistribution is expected to promote the short drama industry to usher in a real "era of individual creation", realizing creative equity in another dimension.
2
Social and local APPs enter the market, the short drama playback platform ushers in the era of diversified competition
On the other hand, from the perspective of playback platforms, the entry of Green Bubble also shows new opportunities at the distribution platform end. Content parties have brand-new distribution channels and the possibility of reaching more audiences. Relying on WeChat's social fission window, short dramas may achieve another round of long-tail reach in the acquaintance circle.
According to the current Green Bubble mini-program, it attaches great importance to content recommendation under the acquaintance social logic chain. On the homepage of the mini-program, the content of "Friends are watching" and "Regional Popular" sections are even placed ahead of the overall ranking and reputation ranking. Obviously, what WeChat friends are watching will directly affect the recommendation of a drama, and regional popularity even brings regional labels into the drama selection decision. To some extent, such acquaintance social interaction can extend the life cycle of a short drama, making high-quality works with high reputation, circle attributes or regional characteristics have the possibility of slowly penetrating and fermenting along the relationship chain.
This logic is also an attempt by Tencent system to rely on acquaintance social interaction to improve the efficiency of content distribution.
The incentive rules can further show the assessment standards of Green Bubble at this stage: the core of the joint distribution model focuses on per capita viewing duration rather than total playback volume, which means it pays more attention to user stickiness and retention, and therefore emphasizes high-quality content and immersive viewing. This also means that content parties need to go through accurate user research and batch work attempts to explore the content preferences of drama viewers in the WeChat ecosystem.
WeChat's move is not an isolated case. In fact, since last year, Internet platforms have launched attempts to embed short dramas into their main APPs. Alipay has established a short drama channel and proposed a plan for 50 exclusive short dramas; Meituan has placed the short video entrance in the bottom Tab bar, and Taobao, Pinduoduo and JD have followed up synchronously with highly consistent logic; Xiaohongshu hides the short drama entrance deep in the content square, trying to use exclusive short dramas that match the community's aesthetic and expression habits to make differentiated supply.
Obviously, in the minds of major Internet platforms, short dramas can turn users from "leaving immediately after use" to "staying for a while longer" at a relatively low cost, which is a highly efficient user retention solution. This approach has also achieved remarkable results. According to the data released by Alipay at the end of last year, the DAU of its short drama channel exceeded 10 million, and the per capita viewing duration was nearly 60 minutes.
But this year, the real watershed of platform competition has emerged: there are more and more places to watch short dramas, why do users want to watch them on your platform?