“Vertical stores” rise encountering AI impact; micro-short drama industry seeks new breakthrough path

“Horizontal Store” 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 filming 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 highly competitive micro-short drama industry, the pursuit of quality again seeks a breakthrough.

“Vertical Stores” rise: cultural vitality transformed into economic value
In Zhengzhou Jianye Film Town, several actors just finished emotionally intense scenes and immediately prepared for the next lines.
Unlike long 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 the country, mainly shooting in vertical format, hence the name “vertical stores”.
“Vertical stores” are mostly located in second- and third-tier cities, benefiting from convenient transportation, many practitioners, and improved infrastructure, which effectively enhances filming efficiency and reduces production costs.

“The cost of a 100-episode micro-short drama in Zhengzhou Jingshui District can be controlled between 300,000 and 800,000 yuan, with a return on investment cycle shortened to 3 to 6 months, demonstrating high cost-performance and high profitability potential,” said Cao Zhen, director of the Culture, Tourism, Sports Bureau of Jingshui District.

The rise of “vertical stores” quietly changes the virtual stories on mobile screens into real life outside the screen.
Abandoned buildings, idle exhibition halls, and other venues are the “ideal filming locations” for many cities’ micro-short dramas.
A director explained that because vertical shooting has a limited scope, these spaces can be transformed into “offices,” “hospitals,” or “airports” with slight modifications.

According to estimates by the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, by 2025, the direct employment scale in the national micro-short drama industry 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’ use micro-short dramas as carriers and scene-based production as the core model, building 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 landscape
Challenges also follow.
Since after the Spring Festival, some bases have seen a decrease in the number of filming crews starting work, and many practitioners face the dilemma of having no roles to film.

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.

“If last year we only saw the tide of AI 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 lion’s share, while AI production only costs over ten thousand yuan, with almost zero actor costs.

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

One of the popular forms of AI micro-short dramas 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 2026 Spring Festival micro-short drama season, AI manga dramas account for nearly 30%.

“When generative AI technology moves from the laboratory to application, the technological revolution will greatly break through the high-cost barriers that have traditionally constrained sci-fi film and TV development,” said Sang Shen, vice chairman of Wukong Culture, producer of the sci-fi manga “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, videos generated by AI still have obvious shortcomings in understanding human behavior, often showing incoherent character logic and inconsistent visuals, leading to a lack of ‘human touch’ in the作品,” said He Tianping, associate professor at the School of Journalism of Renmin University of China.
“To truly assist creators in presenting works with ‘human warmth,’ AI must avoid drifting away from ‘human touch’ in the creative process.”

Breakthrough Path: Content as the Key to New Opportunities
This Spring Festival, the AI micro-short drama “Zhanxian Tai AI Live Action” became a hit.
Notably, the focus of audience discussion shifted from criticizing AI video flaws to paying more attention to plot content and visual performance.

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, warm works can be created.

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

Industry insiders believe that promoting micro-short dramas towards “boutique” quality depends on effective policy guidance and industry joint efforts.

Since 2025, the State Administration of Radio and Television has continuously improved industry management, launching action plans like “Micro-Short Drama+,” incorporating micro-short dramas in animation formats into classified review systems, adjusting classification standards, curbing the “adultization” of children’s micro-short dramas, and shifting the industry from “quantity increase” to “quality improvement.”

Micro-short drama creators are actively responding to this trend, adjusting their creative directions.
Many production companies are no longer limited to traditional themes like “霸总” (bossy CEO) or “逆袭” (counterattack), but are exploring topics like rural revitalization, intangible cultural heritage, and character growth, launching a batch of content-rich and well-produced works.

“The core of quality is not about the size of investment, but whether one sincerely observes life, crafts characters with heart, and uses circumstances to show human joys and sorrows,” said Zhu Yangxie, head of Chu’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, encouraging diverse themes and narratives, and jointly creating a market environment more conducive to high-quality works.

“In 2026, we will continue increasing content investment to support innovation,” said Le Li, editor-in-chief of Hongguo Short Drama.
The company plans to increase its total annual content investment budget by over 40%, maintaining consistent investment in 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 and virtual scenes.

“AI empowerment combined with real actors’ support is expected to push the micro-short drama industry towards a more efficient, diverse, and creative new stage,” said Zhang Yongqiang, secretary-general of the Henan Provincial Higher Education Film and Television Education Association.