The next beachhead for China’s tech companies going global may well be the “short-drama universe.”
Prologue
At 1:30 a.m. in a Chicago apartment, Gina lay under her comforter, eyes locked on her phone.
On TikTok, the heroine had just been thrown out of her mansion by her husband and was shivering in the rain. Suddenly, a row of Rolls-Royce headlights cut through the downpour—doors swung open, five suited men stepped out under umbrellas, and the leader bent down to tell her: “Sister, from today, 54% of Rockefeller Group belongs to you.”
Unlock next episode? $0.99.
When the pop-up appeared, Gina tapped to pay without hesitation—her 33rd short-drama purchase this month. The series that sent her emotions soaring is After Divorce: My Five Brothers Paved My Way to the Billionaire Throne (hereafter, My Five Brothers), produced by Shanghai Jingying Technology Co., Ltd. (CreativeFitting). Launched early this year, it quickly swept overseas markets and is widely regarded as the first AI-generated blockbuster short drama to go global.
Users like Gina—hooked on high-melodrama twists—are fueling windfall revenues for China’s short-drama exporters. According to Sensor Tower, in-app purchases across global short-drama apps neared US$700 million in the first quarter of 2025. A wave of Chinese players—from traditional film/TV giants and MCN agencies to up-and-coming tech firms—are rushing in. Strategies differ, but nearly everyone holds the same ticket to play: artificial intelligence (AI).
01 AI-Powered Backlot, Capital-Fueled Roll-out
China’s short-drama “go-global” push now follows three main models:
- Dub-and-release (translation) model: Completed domestic short dramas are translated into multiple languages and released overseas. This approach has low investment and fast refresh rates, making it the dominant model today.
- IP adaptation model: With licensed domestic novels or series as a base, content is re-written and re-shot for overseas audiences—localizing through cultural rewiring. This tends to rely on rich IP libraries.
- Cross-border co-production model: Chinese and foreign teams co-produce, dividing labor to deliver a short drama for overseas markets. Communication costs are higher, but the result often embeds more deeply in local markets.
Whichever path they choose, AI has become standard kit for almost all producers.
CreativeFitting founder Zhu Jiang says My Five Brothers took just two weeks from production to launch. Director Cui Yi initially used the company’s AI short-drama tool VFS (Visual Fiction Studio) to draft the series outline and the first few episodes solo. After a “test” launch drew strong audience response, he quickly assembled a virtual, online “crew” to co-create the remaining episodes, then consolidated and finalized the cuts as director.
In Zhu’s view, AI has the biggest impact on distribution formats: “Traditionally, you could only release a live-action short drama once it was fully shot. AI creation lets you ‘shoot while serializing’ more lightly, which boosts creator efficiency.” The serialized release mechanism also helps creators assess commercial potential earlier and optimize rapidly based on audience signals.
The scale revenues from My Five Brothers bear that out—“AI-made short dramas can be both critical and commercial successes.” Around AI short dramas, CreativeFitting is building two core modules: the VFS creation suite and Reel.Al distribution platform, aiming to close a full tech loop.
They are far from alone. AI is permeating the entire chain—subtitle translation, script generation, storyboarding, character motion, and channel distribution—helping companies forge a create with AI → localize → distribute globally business cycle.
Based on public materials, we identify ten representative companies deeply deploying AI in overseas short dramas, grouped into four types: full-stack enterprises (end-to-end content planning, AI generation, distribution, monetization—often with in-house tech and production ecosystems), AI toolmakers (providing tools for specific steps to platforms and producers), platform-infrastructure providers (distribution and backbone services/bridges to platforms), and IP-revival players (traditional film/TV giants leveraging legacy IP).
Notably, three A-share-listed companies have stepped up investment in 2024–2025 among the full-stack cohort:
- Kunlun Tech (300418.SZ) declared “All in AI” in its 2024 results strategy note. On Feb 18, it open-sourced SkyReels-V1, a video-generation model for AI short dramas, and SkyReels-A1, an expression/motion-controllable algorithm; on Apr 21, it released and open-sourced SkyReels-V2, supporting infinite-length movie generation. Its Q1-2025 report shows R&D spend of RMB 430 million, up 23% year-on-year, underscoring its determination to remain in the first tier of AI.
- COL Group (300364.SZ) told shareholders that AI is one of two engines for overseas expansion of short dramas. In 2025, the company set up subsidiaries in the U.S., Singapore, Japan, and other markets to accelerate global content operations.
- iReader Technology (603533.SH) announced in early May a strategic upgrade from an “internet-era digital reading platform” to an “AI-era multimodal content production and operations platform,” and said it would deepen focus on North America, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea, gradually increasing the share of locally produced dramas and using AI to drive localization.
02 Ranking Match in a Surging Market: China’s Commanding Lead
As the short-drama market scales up globally, gaps among competitors are widening. A quiet ranking battle is unfolding across platforms, content, and distribution muscle—and Chinese firms are showing formidable dominance.
Leaders blend “build + invest.”
- COL Group not only launched the overseas platform Sereal+, it is also the largest shareholder of blockbuster platform ReelShort under Maple Leaf Interactive. iReader built its own overseas platform iDrama, while DramaBox—launched by Dianzhong Technology, in which iReader holds 4.99%—has performed even better in the market.
- Dianzhong Technology: Winning by “translation dramas.” Drawing on Insightrackr data for January–May, our synthesis shows Dianzhong as the only firm consistently leading on both downloads and revenue in the global top-10 (downloads and revenue charts), demonstrating strong user expansion and paid conversion.
Dark-horse breakouts: room for rising “mid-tier” players.
Although leaders are taking shape, most producers are still testing the waters, with no monopoly in sight—opening space for dark horses.
These newcomers are typically asset-light, iterate quickly, and are AI toolchain-driven. While leaders focus resources at the top, challengers seize regional or genre niches to overtake on corners.
Overseas startups: the window is visible.
Chinese firms currently command the field—70% of the revenue top-10 and 80% of the downloads top-10 are Chinese. Even so, overseas startups are quietly building.
HolyWater, a Ukrainian AI company, co-founder and CEO Bogdan Nesvit has said: “When I saw a large Chinese company bring its domestically popular vertical short dramas to Western markets and scale fast, I knew we could do better.” Firms like HolyWater and Kennedyy are now using AI video generation to break content barriers and vie for the next round of influence.
03 Copyright Minefields and Cultural Gaps: The Achilles Heel
For companies newly entering—or planning to enter—overseas short dramas, speed-to-market and traffic are not enough. Copyright compliance and cultural fit are decisive thresholds.
Recently, Hollywood fired the first major AI copyright lawsuit. On June 11, Disney and Universal Pictures jointly sued Midjourney, a leading text-to-image AI company. They thus became the first heavyweight Hollywood studios to wade into AI copyright litigation. The complaint alleges Midjourney generated “countless unauthorized copies” of Disney and Universal copyrighted works. With 150+ allegedly infringing works listed in exhibits, damages could exceed US$20 million if plaintiffs prevail.
The warning for short-drama exporters is clear: AI reliance must be bounded. Using unauthorized copyrighted material—film clips, novel plots, character images, production design—for model training invites high infringement risk, potentially leading to takedowns, heavy damages, even platform bans.
Many companies are actively addressing this. One approach is external collaboration—vetting tech suppliers and prioritizing partnerships with local AI companies overseas to ensure compliant training data. Another is in-house model R&D—for example, CreativeFitting is optimizing originality in character expressions and motions to reduce dependence on mimicking human performances.
Beyond copyright, AI hasn’t solved cross-cultural hurdles—especially in translation. Much AI dubbing still sounds “machine-like,” with stiff tone and semantic drift that flattens emotion, and can even trip cultural taboos, driving users away.
AI may be an accelerator for cultural transfer, but true breakthrough requires re-encoding for culture. As founder Zhu Jiang notes on genre conversion, the “overbearing CEO” archetype resonates in both China and the U.S., yet U.S. female users tend to prefer two-strong-leads dynamics, while Chinese female users often favor male-lead-forward stories.
My Five Brothers succeeded in part by altering the narrative logic from the original script—shifting from Chinese clan ethics toward a Western arc of individual growth and family bonds—winning over countless “Ginas.” “Short dramas can’t just be translated and shipped,” Zhu says. “There are significant cultural differences.”
Conclusion
Short-drama exports remain a blue ocean, but the window of easy gains is narrowing. China’s leaders are building walls with first-mover advantage and capital, while overseas entrants are accelerating to claim a slice.
For new players hoping to “stake” territory, recognize that going global with short dramas is essentially a redefinition of the entire content-production chain. Three suggestions:
- Position first, then dive in. Tech firms have two paths: (a) toolmaker → content house, building an MCN team and an AI short-drama brand; or (b) double down as a tech supplier, offering modular capabilities to producers/platforms—especially differentiated strengths in translation and copyright risk control.
- Secure capacity before chasing blockbusters. Early on, the priority is to build a stable, scalable content pool for the target market—enough to meet platform launch needs and user consumption, while supplying data for recsys and audience insights. With steady output, keep tuning content strategy; quasi-hits will emerge naturally.
- Embed risk awareness in every decision. Control copyright at the source; avoid the trap of “AI = free creation.” Treat deep localization as a core capability, not an extra cost. Track policy, regulation, and public opinion across target markets and build cross-jurisdictional dynamic compliance.
The globalization of short dramas isn’t a one-off product launch—it’s a marathon across languages, cultures, and platforms. Those who leave their names on the leaderboard won’t be the first to sprint out of the gate, but the ones who best understand content, markets, and boundaries.
