News Reporter |
News Editor | Wen Shuqi
On August 17, NUPIAO learned from multiple industry insiders that Baidu’s AI comic drama creator revenue-sharing grew 88% quarter-over-quarter. Over the past quarter, a total of 170,000 AI comic dramas generated income, with some creators pulling in over one million yuan.
NUPIAO reached out to Baidu for comment on the above figures, but as of press time, the company had not yet responded.
Right now, the competitive landscape in the short drama space is pretty much set. ByteDance’s Hongguo Short Drama, with its first-mover free strategy, has locked in a massive advantage—so much so that most top-tier production houses run content exclusively on Hongguo. One insider at a competing platform told NUPIAO that Hongguo’s monthly active users are closing in on 400 million, making it the undisputed industry behemoth. Meanwhile, platforms like Kuaishou, Baidu, and Tencent are also pouring serious resources into short dramas, but they’re still firmly in the second tier, trailing Hongguo by a wide margin.
But here’s the twist—the rise of AI comic dramas is shaking up the old order. Not only are short drama creators going through a rapid reshuffle, but those second-tier platforms are also finding a fresh lease on life thanks to their differentiated approach to AI comic dramas.
The head of one short drama production company told NUPIAO that while Douyin and Hongguo haven’t lost their market dominance, the traffic growth on Baidu, Kuaishou, and Pinduoduo’s AI comic drama sections has been explosive. “Loads of creators who used to make content exclusively for Hongguo are now flooding onto these other platforms,” he said.
That same production executive pointed out that compared to live-action short dramas, AI comic dramas skew toward an even more down-market audience. “Hongguo’s review process is stricter, so the platform tends to favor polished, high-end AI comic dramas and premium content. That squeezes out a lot of the emotion-driven, less-refined stuff. So production houses are increasingly gravitating toward second-tier platforms that are more forgiving,” he explained.
According to NUPIAO’s research, the second-tier platforms are using very different playbooks to woo AI comic drama creators. Kuaishou, for instance, is going all-in on supporting AI-powered virtual human short dramas—the return on investment there can match or even beat mid-tier titles on Hongguo. It’s a sweet spot for grassroots rise-up stories and family melodrama content that thrives on emotional hooks. Baidu and Pinduoduo, on the other hand, offer slightly lower revenue splits but make up for it with cheaper traffic acquisition costs, which makes them ideal for production teams running high-volume, lightweight operations.
Another short drama producer who’s been in talks with Baidu told NUPIAO that the platform is actively pushing creators toward romance and fantasy-themed AI virtual human dramas, as well as AI comic dramas in the commentary and comedy genres.
That producer also revealed that Baidu’s Jiahao (Baijiahao) platform is sending a clear message to creators: the short drama ecosystem isn’t just for the big fish. Newcomers can absolutely rake in solid returns too.
This AI comic drama-driven reshuffle is hitting the production side hard. NUPIAO’s sources say that even a heavyweight like Tinghuadao, a top-tier live-action short drama producer, hasn’t released a new title in ages and has fallen out of Hongguo’s TOP 10 rankings. Meanwhile, production houses that once boasted teams of hundreds have been forced to pivot entirely to AI comic dramas, shrinking down to just a few dozen people.
In stark contrast, newcomers who spotted the AI comic drama opportunity early are cashing in fast. One producer told NUPIAO about a creator who jumped in at the start of this year and has already banked several million yuan—and get this, he’s doing it all solo.
The ebb of top-tier producers and the rise of fresh faces means the short drama content supply is being redistributed right now. And that leaves a wide-open window for second-tier platforms—which haven’t yet cemented any real dominance—to fight for creators and rebuild their content ecosystems from the ground up.
