Weekend Long Read: Two Takes on China’s $14 Billion Micro-Drama Machine

On a rainy September morning in Xi’an, China, director Wang Jing and her crew worked furiously to complete 22 scenes of a micro-drama for ByteDance’s Red Fruit (Hongguo) app, reflecting the immense pressure and rapid pace of China’s booming micro-drama industry. Wang moved from filming on sidewalks with minimal equipment just three years ago to now leading productions backed by viral hits, like a male-centric fantasy that earned over 50 million yuan. Xi’an and Zhengzhou have become China’s micro-drama capitals, with Xi’an producing up to 60% of the country’s output and Zhengzhou generating 400 shows per month, supported by massive workforces and thousands of companies. The industry emerged from online advertising, exploding as local ad agencies realized full series yielded greater returns and pandemic-related business slowdowns redirected talent into drama production. Production models range from contracted studio work to independent content development, and revenues for leading studios now top 100 million yuan annually. The motivation is to “hook the viewer,” focusing on efficient, viral content over traditional aesthetics or star power. Investors and officials are flocking to this rapidly scaling industry for its growth potential [para. 1][para. 2][para. 3][para. 4][para. 5][para. 6][para. 7].

Production techniques and business models have rapidly evolved. Zhuoyuan Film, for instance, grew from a 20-person startup to 200 employees after pivoting from internet advertising to serialized vertical dramas, doubling down on mobile-centric formats. What started as low-budget, high-ROI ventures swiftly turned into a robust pay-per-view model—the industry’s “golden age”—where some 150,000-yuan dramas brought in more than 30 million yuan in a day. Crackdowns on vulgar content and a shift by Red Fruit to a free-to-watch approach in 2024 squeezed margins for many, pushing studios like Zhuoyuan to expand output massively, rising from five to 40 dramas per month. Meanwhile, the cost for talent and production has surged—top actors now earn as much as 20,000-30,000 yuan daily, and budgets often exceed 500,000 yuan per show. The market has become more discerning, favoring higher-quality, more creative scripts over formulaic, click-bait content [para. 8][para. 9][para. 10][para. 11][para. 12][para. 13][para. 14][para. 15][para. 16][para. 17].

Efforts to globalize the micro-drama phenomenon have met with both promise and obstacles. Companies like Yefang Culture in Zhengzhou initially sought to build their own international platforms and produce English-language content but found the logistical and creative challenges significant. Costs for authentic overseas shoots are prohibitive, and attempts to replicate foreign settings within China require extensive prop and set reconstruction. However, China’s advantages in cost, speed, and flexibility are attracting Western actors and platforms, and Xi’an and Zhengzhou are now sought-after locations for international production, offering Hollywood-level spectacle for a fraction of the budget. The overseas market is still small and quality is uneven, but rapid growth and innovation continue [para. 18][para. 19][para. 20][para. 21][para. 22][para. 23][para. 24][para. 25][para. 26][para. 27].

The micro-drama ecosystem is industrial in scale. Production relies on fast-turnaround teams and a division of labor: producers, directors, writers, and editors, with specialization often outsourced. Studios are grappling with talent shortages and have started partnering with universities to create pipelines for new hires—Rixin Yueyi, for example, trained 140 students in a summer boot camp, producing over 150 scripts. Sets are reused and repurposed at frantic speeds, with even former tourist attractions converted to filming bases to keep up with demand [para. 28][para. 29][para. 30][para. 31][para. 32][para. 33][para. 34][para. 35].

Despite its booming scale, industry insiders warn of structural risks: contractor margins are thin (5-15%), the power lies with Beijing- and Hangzhou-based platforms (like ByteDance’s Red Fruit), and Xi’an and Zhengzhou remain production hubs rather than value-chain leaders. The business is exhausting and fiercely competitive—platform algorithms, marketing, and word of mouth are increasingly decisive, and burnout is widespread, as countless crews work long hours to feed the insatiable demand for fresh content [para. 36][para. 37][para. 38][para. 39][para. 40][para. 41][para. 42][para. 43][para. 44][para. 45][para. 46][para. 47][para. 48][para. 49].