Shanghai Launches China's First Hub for Micro-Drama Overseas Outreach as Sector Surges With 1.33M Jobs, AI Innovation

China rolled out its first dedicated industrial hub for the overseas expansion of micro-dramas on Friday, following a cooperation agreement between the China Netcasting Services Association (CNSA) and Shanghai's Pudong New Area.

The specialized hub will provide support for firms eyeing cross-border content distribution, including streamlined work permit processes, settlement assistance, and a range of additional incentives to lower entry barriers for cross-border content distribution.

The initiative comes amid explosive growth in China's micro-drama sector. It has spawned more than 1.33 million domestic jobs and is now pivoting to an AI-driven era of mass content creation, according to the CNSA's "2025 Micro-Drama Industry Ecosystem Insight Report," released at the inaugural Micro-Drama Screenwriting Summit.

Defined as snappy, fast-paced serials – typically 1 to 3 minutes per episode – these short-form stories are crafted specifically for mobile viewing and quick binge-watching on social platforms.

The format has rapidly developed from a niche category into a nationwide cultural and commercial phenomenon, said Yu Li, assistant secretary-general of CNSA.

The report underscores that year-over-year job growth in the sector has doubled, with more than 70 percent of traditional film and television professionals now shifting to micro-dramas, driving sweeping improvements in industry standardization, industrialization, and overall content quality.

Yu attributed this seismic shift to online platforms' hunger for new traffic drivers and deeper user engagement.

Micro-dramas have also emerged as a powerhouse for brand marketing. From January to August 2025, short-video platforms released 233 branded micro-dramas, with over 60 percent of advertisers opted to reinvest, the report highlighted.

Unlike traditional film and television in China, which center on directors and stars, micro-dramas place screenwriters at the core. Screenwriting now accounts for 10 percent of talent demand, second only to video editing. A standard script fetches around 20,000 yuan (US$2,829), while top-tier writers can rake in over 1 million yuan annually.

Acting careers are also being reshaped. Hengdian World Studios in eastern China's Zhejiang Province estimates nearly 140,000 micro-drama acting participations this year, almost nine times last year's tally.

Newcomers can go from submitting a resume to stepping on set in as little as seven days, with productions demanding actors master hyper-specific skills like "three-second immersion" and "five-second emotional pivots."

Breakthroughs in AI creation tools are rapidly lowering entry barriers, making making the "one-person crew" a viable reality for aspiring creators.

Animated micro-dramas are also becoming a key growth driver, with over half of surveyed viewers having watched them in the past six months.

Industry leaders also offered insights into the latest trends at the event.

Nan Yapeng, vice president of Crazy Maple Studio, said its platform ReelShort now churns out about one new show daily in North America and is expanding local production capabilities in Latin America, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea.

"We aim to tap into overseas production capacity and partner closely with domestic screenwriters and IP holders to get our content in front of global viewers faster," Nan said.

Romance subgenres such as flash-marriage and post-marital love have already found success overseas, he said, but ongoing innovation remains crucial. New high-school romance titles released since last Christmas have drawn a growing audience of younger Western viewers to micro-dramas.

Cao Rui from Chinese tech giant Tencent urged creators to embrace AI-driven storytelling, noting that Tencent's AI micro-drama competition has already attracted nearly 1,000 submissions.

"We are eager to push the boundaries of tech-content integration – especially for imaginative, interactive, or AI-powered formats," Cao said.

A separate report released last month by CNSA shows the industry's domestic market value soaring from 3.68 billion yuan in 2021 to 50.44 billion yuan in 2024. Overseas revenues are booming as well, topping US$1.5 billion in the first months of 2025. Chinese-backed firms claiming 90 percent of the top 20 highest-grossing global micro-drama apps by revenue.