Tencent has recently introduced Lüpaopao, a free short-drama service inside WeChat, offering AI-generated series alongside live-action and animated titles. The mini-program adds another distribution channel to China’s expanding market for serialized mobile entertainment.
ByteDance’s Hongguo reached 168 million daily active users in July, up 107% year on year, according to QuestMobile figures cited in Nomura research and reported by TechWeb. That exceeded the combined app-level daily audiences of Tencent Video, iQiyi, Youku and Mango TV—four of China’s leading services for professionally produced dramas and variety shows. Hongguo’s scale puts free, advertising-supported short dramas in direct competition with established streaming services for everyday viewing time.
Why it matters: Dedicated drama apps and social platforms are both expanding the format. China’s growing supply of AI-generated series is developing alongside rising international demand for short, serialized viewing.
- Average daily usage of short-drama apps reached 25 minutes globally in April 2026, up 85% from January 2025, Sensor Tower reported. Traditional streaming usage remained broadly flat at around 35 minutes, while short-drama usage in Southeast Asia approached 40 minutes.
Details: Platforms are combining free viewing, social discovery and AI-produced content through different products and distribution channels.
- Hongguo offers a standalone destination for free dramas. Lüpaopao places viewing inside WeChat, adding recommendations based on friends’ activity and floating-window playback that lets users continue watching while replying to messages.
- AI dramas are also attracting viewers within short-video feeds. DataEye’s September ranking recorded 76.46 billion additional plays across its top 100 AI and animated dramas on Douyin. Nineteen titles added more than one billion plays each, compared with five in August.
- Overseas, Ukraine-founded Holywater Tech operates live-action service My Drama, AI-series platform My Muse and advertising-supported Freebits. Its lineup shows AI programming developing alongside filmed productions, with free viewing also forming part of the international market.
Context: Global short-drama downloads are increasing faster than consumer spending, with emerging markets accounting for most downloads.
Sensor Tower estimated that worldwide short-drama app downloads rose 140% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, while in-app purchase revenue grew 20%. Southeast Asia, Latin America and India together accounted for more than three-quarters of downloads.
- Paid consumption remains substantial: DramaBox and ReelShort each generated close to $140 million in first-quarter in-app purchase revenue. Advertising-supported services are also expanding, with Melolo building an audience in Indonesia, according to Sensor Tower.
- Social video remains part of the distribution chain. Ampere Analysis’s 2025 survey found that 44% of social-media mini-drama viewers watched on YouTube and 38% on TikTok. Producers use these platforms both to distribute complete series and to promote episodes that direct viewers toward dedicated drama apps.
0 Commentaires