El auge de las "tiendas verticales" enfrenta el impacto de la IA, la industria de micro-series busca una nueva vía para romper el estancamiento

“Horizontal stores” are only in Dongyang, vertical stores are everywhere.” The explosive growth of micro-short dramas shot in vertical format has led to the rise of many “vertical stores,” significantly reducing production costs for micro-short dramas and injecting new vitality into the industry. However, since this year’s Spring Festival, artificial intelligence (AI) video technology has been impacting this emerging sector at a lower cost.

When the wave of technology sweeps in, is it the replacement of real people or a new life for the industry? In the fiercely competitive micro-short drama industry, the pursuit of high-quality content is once again exploring ways to break through.

“The rise of ‘vertical stores’: transforming cultural vitality into economic value”

At Zhengzhou Jianye Film Town, several actors just finished a passionate scene and are immediately preparing their lines for the next shot. Unlike long-running drama crews, micro-short drama crews can quickly change scenes and start filming again.

Since 2025, a batch of micro-short drama filming bases have flourished across many parts of the country, mainly known as “vertical stores” because of their vertical shooting format. “Vertical stores” are mostly located in second- and third-tier cities, benefiting from convenient transportation, numerous practitioners, and well-developed infrastructure, which effectively improves filming efficiency and reduces production costs.

“Producing a 100-episode micro-short drama in Zhengzhou’s Jinshui District costs between 300,000 and 800,000 yuan, with a return on investment cycle shortened to 3 to 6 months, demonstrating high cost-effectiveness and high profit potential,” said Cao Zhen, director of the Jinshui District Culture, Tourism, Sports Bureau.

The rise of “vertical stores” is quietly changing the virtual stories on mobile screens into real-life experiences outside the screen.

Ruined buildings, idle exhibition halls, and other venues are the “heart disease” of many cities, yet they are revitalized into “ideal filming locations” for micro-short dramas. A director explained that because vertical shooting requires a limited scope, these spaces can be transformed into “offices,” “hospitals,” or “airports” within micro-short dramas with some modifications.

According to estimates by the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, by 2025, the direct employment scale in the micro-short drama industry nationwide will reach about 690,000, with a total employment pull of 2.03 million. The rapid influx of labor has become an important driver for the booming development of the micro-short drama ecosystem.

“‘Vertical stores,’ using micro-short dramas as carriers and scene-based production as the core, have built a linkage mechanism between cultural content production and local economic growth,” said Kan Ping, president of the Micro-Short Drama Committee of China Radio and Television Association. “‘Vertical stores’ are becoming an important means to promote the transformation of cultural vitality into economic value.”

AI Impact: Technological Revolution Reshaping Industry Patterns

Challenges have also emerged. Since the Spring Festival, some production bases have seen a decrease in new drama crews, and many practitioners face the dilemma of having no scripts to shoot.

Industry insiders point out that rapidly iterating AI models can now generate professional camera movements and realistic characters with one click, profoundly changing the landscape of the micro-short drama industry and raising concerns about potential replacement of practitioners.

“Last year, we only saw the tip of AI’s wave approaching from afar; now, AI has swept through every corner of the film and television industry like a tsunami,” said Feng Shengyong, director of the Drama Department of the National Radio and Television Administration, at the 2026 Chinese Drama Production Industry Conference.

It is understood that the actual usable rate of AI-generated materials with good effects has exceeded 90%, greatly reducing the production costs of micro-short dramas. A head of a production company in Xi’an explained that a similarly timed micro-short drama shot by real people costs tens of thousands of yuan, with actors taking the largest share, while AI production only costs over ten thousand yuan, with almost no actor expenses.

The high usability is driving more companies to transform into AI micro-short dramas, aiming to complete the entire process from generation to release in a shorter time and at a lower cost.

One of the popular forms of AI micro-short dramas currently is “AI manga dramas,” which are AI animated micro-short dramas often adapted from popular novels, comics, and other sources.

DataEye, an authoritative industry monitoring platform, estimates that in 2025, the annual market share of AI manga dramas will reach 16.8 billion yuan; since 2026, over 10,000 AI manga dramas have been launched each month; in the nearly 9 billion plays during the Spring Festival micro-short drama season in 2026, AI manga dramas account for nearly 30%.

“As generative AI technology moves from the laboratory to practical application, the technological revolution will greatly break through the high-cost barriers that have traditionally constrained the development of sci-fi films and TV,” said Sang Shen, vice chairman of Wukong Culture, producer of the sci-fi manga drama “The Bookstore at the End of the Universe.”

This advantage is also reflected in genres such as xianxia, fantasy, and history. AI can break the limitations of real scenes and present visual spectacles that were previously difficult to achieve at low cost.

However, it is undeniable that the quality of current AI micro-short dramas varies greatly, with fierce competition among low-end products and serious homogenization. “Due to technical application limitations, AI-generated videos still have obvious shortcomings in understanding human behavior, often resulting in incoherent character logic and inconsistent visuals, leading to a lack of ‘human touch,’” said He Tianping, associate professor at the School of Journalism at Renmin University of China. “To truly assist creators in producing works with ‘human warmth,’ AI must not drift away from ‘human touch’ in the creative process.”

Breaking Through: Content as the Key to New Opportunities

This Spring Festival, the AI micro-short drama “Zhanxian Tai AI Real Person Version” became a hit. Notably, the audience’s focus shifted from criticizing AI video flaws to paying more attention to the plot and visual quality.

This change further reflects the trend in the micro-short drama market: the future competition will not be between real people and AI, but whether high-quality, emotionally resonant works can be created.

“AI can calculate viewers’ preferences, but it’s hard to gauge their resonance. Works that stay in people’s memories for a lifetime are often not the most ‘exciting,’ but the most ‘genuine,’” Feng Shengyong said.

Industry experts believe that promoting the “high-quality” development of micro-short dramas depends on effective policy guidance and industry joint efforts.

Since 2025, the State Administration of Radio and Television has continuously improved the management of the micro-short drama industry, launching action plans such as “Micro-Short Drama+,” incorporating animated micro-short dramas into a classified review system, adjusting classification standards, curbing the “adultification” of children’s micro-short dramas, and shifting the industry from “quantity increase” to “quality improvement.”

Micro-short drama creators are also actively responding to this trend, adjusting their creative directions. Many production companies are no longer limited to traditional themes like “tycoons” or “revenge,” but are exploring topics such as rural revitalization, intangible cultural heritage, and character growth, producing a batch of content with solid themes and high-quality production.

“High-quality development is not about the size of investment but about whether we sincerely observe life, craft characters with heart, and use circumstances to reveal human joys and sorrows,” said Zhu Yangxie, head of Guo’er Media, producer of works like “Day and Night.”

Platforms also play a guiding role by adjusting support and revenue-sharing policies, curbing homogenized content, and encouraging diverse themes and narratives to create a market environment more conducive to high-quality works.

“By 2026, we will continue to increase content investment and support innovation,” said Le Li, editor-in-chief of Hongguo Short Drama. The company plans to increase its annual content investment budget by over 40%, maintaining its commitment to real-person short dramas.

Meanwhile, “vertical stores” across various regions are actively embracing technological change, building holographic studios and other facilities to achieve seamless switching between real scenes and virtual environments.

“AI empowerment combined with real-person backing holds the promise of pushing the micro-short drama industry toward a more efficient, diverse, and creative new stage,” said Zhang Yongqiang, secretary-general of the Henan Provincial College Film and Television Education Association.