Training side is indeed extremely expensive, with very high training costs, but inference costs are already very low compared to traditional video production, and continue to decline with GPU/dedicated chips and inference optimization. However, the difficulty lies in monetization — finding business scenarios that can be practically deployed.

ByteDance is a standout among them. ByteDance has upstream IP, midstream production, downstream distribution and monetization, all of which can be completed within its ecosystem.

Upstream side:
Fanqie Novel provides IP supply. The platform has 3 million resident authors, 700k signed authors, and 1.8 million licensed works.

Midstream side:
Short drama creators, production companies, and AI tools together form a production network. Tools like Seedance 2.0 and the "Little Lark" short drama agent from the Jianying team have been implemented: the production cost per episode can be compressed from the previous 50,000–100k RMB to about 5,000 RMB, with production cycles shortened by 70%.

Downstream side:
Hongguo Short Drama and Hongguo Comic Drama handle traffic and monetization.

Hongguo Short Drama has reached 304 million monthly active users, accounting for about 90% of the independent short drama app market, with an average daily usage time of about 125 minutes; Hongguo Comic Drama reached 24 million monthly active users within four months of launch.

Data source: @FundaAI