Cover Story: China’s Micro-Dramas Steal the Show and Momentum Seems Unstoppable

Empty malls are turned into studios, AI drives animation and regulators race to keep up

By the time Le Li took to the stage at a national media forum in late October, the room was already overflowing. Attendees packed the aisles with smartphones raised and eyes fixed on the editor-in-chief of ByteDance Ltd.’s Red Fruit app — or Hongguo in Chinese — now the country’s largest micro-drama platform. With a calm but confident tone, Le delivered a bold projection: China’s micro-drama industry, barely five years old, is fast approaching the 100-billion-yuan ($14.05 billion) mark.

The figure was far more aggressive than most analysts expected. Many thought the sector, fueled by mobile-first storytelling and rapid production cycles, might reach 60 billion yuan by 2025. Even that would represent an annual growth of about 30%. But industry sources close to the China Netcasting Services Association told Caixin that new data already puts the 2025 forecast nearer 90 billion.