The AI short drama business has emerged as one of the few segments in the content industry witnessing high incremental growth.

According to the latest research report from Zhongtai Securities, a leading Chinese securities firm, the overall AI short drama market size is expected to exceed RMB40 billion in 2026, representing growth of more than 138% year on year, with the core and general user base expanding to exceed 600 million in the first six months.

Content supply is also increasing at a remarkable pace. In the first half of the year, 222,000 AI short dramas were released on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, generating more than 515.7 billion incremental views.

More than 360,000 short and mini dramas went online in the first half of 2026, representing an elevenfold increase over the full year of 2025. Against this backdrop of explosive content supply, the channel distribution capability has become a critical factor shaping the landscape of industry competition. 

According to Duiba Group’s interim results for the six months ending 30 June 2026, its AI short drama business has generated revenue of RMB223 million since its launch in January 2026, accounting for 51.2% of the company’s total revenue. Fueled by this powerful new growth engine, the company recorded total revenue of RMB435 million, up 24.3% year on year. Its gross profit rose 30% year on year to RMB74.54 million, with the gross profit margin improving to 17.1%, while the loss narrowed 5.2% year on year to RMB25.33 million. 

Real value

However, the sheer volume of content also means intensifying competition. In the first six months of the year, only 0.48% of newly released AI short dramas on Douyin became viral hits that garnered over 100 million views. This suggests that content creation is no longer the sole decisive competitive advantage; success increasingly depends on a company’s ability to combine AI industrialization, traffic algorithms and commercialization.

This is the core advantage that has enabled organizations such as Duiba Group to rise in such a short time since tapping into the AI short drama market.

For investors, operating data remains the ultimate indicator of whether a company can sustain growth throughout an industry cycle. According to Duiba Group’s interim results, the company released 74 hit dramas that each generated over 10 million views, including 13 with over 100 million views. Six new hit dramas with over 100 million views were launched in a single month, and the highest views for a single drama exceeded 1.04 billion. Moreover, business revenue in June more than doubled month on month.

These figures suggest that growth is not dependent on a handful of breakout titles or temporary traffic spikes but stems from the simultaneous enhancement of content generation and supply efficiency, as well as commercialization efficiency. Its performance demonstrates the strong growth potential and sustainability of the AI short drama business model.

The Duiba example

Duiba Group’s rapid rise has been underpinned by its decade-long expertise in traffic operations and its strength in advertising systems:

  • Deep-rooted expertise in advertising traffic operations provides an advantage in channel distribution. With years of experience in the Internet and digital advertising industry, Duiba Group has built mature infrastructure and core capabilities spanning traffic operations, advertising systems and data algorithms. Upon entering the AI short drama market, the company has rapidly leveraged these capabilities across distribution and commercialization. By analyzing user preferences with data and enhancing distribution efficiency through algorithms, it can feed market insights back into content production, creating an evolving cycle of content generation, distribution and monetization, as well as iteration and optimization.
  • Full-chain AI industrialization reshapes content production efficiency. Rather than merely applying AI to a single stage of production, Duiba Group has integrated the power across the entire workflow, covering theme selection, planning, scriptwriting, character development, scene generation, video production and final quality control of finished productions. This turns the traditional creative process, which relies heavily on human creative experience, into a standardized, intelligent and scalable production system. It has therefore established a brand new production paradigm for the content industry — one that can produce hit dramas repeatedly with efficiency. In the first six months of the year, Duiba Group released 74 hit dramas with over 10 million views, 13 of which surpassed 100 million views. In addition, combining its channel distribution strength, Duiba Group has fully leveraged traffic distribution to maximize total commercial returns.

Advertising expertise enhances traffic and commercialization efficiency, while AI industrialization boosts content supply efficiency.