4000 companies crammed onto the same boat—is there still easy money to be made in AI short dramas going overseas?

In the past, Chinese companies shipped clothing, home appliances, and daily necessities overseas in bulk. Now, that export list has gained a new item—AI short dramas.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 4,000 AI film and television production companies in China have joined the overseas expansion wave, with over 100 AI short dramas and AI comic dramas going live on overseas social and video platforms every day.

An industry once dominated by professional teams has now had its barriers completely leveled by AI, with a large number of players flooding in.

Image source: Internet

The domestic market can no longer hold it all

In this round of content going overseas, there is indeed overseas demand, but the more direct reason is—the domestic market can no longer contain the rapidly increasing number of AI short dramas.

AI has drastically lowered the barriers for actors, venues, and filming equipment, allowing many companies to gain mass production capabilities in a short time. In the first quarter of this year, approximately 128,000 micro-short dramas were launched across the industry, of which 122,000 were AI micro-short dramas, accounting for over 95%.

The number of works has increased, but audience time has not grown, and the money platforms can allocate to each individual work has instead decreased. A content director from an AI film company revealed that in 2025, an 80-episode AI short drama with over 10 million views could earn about 200,000 yuan in revenue sharing, enough to cover the roughly 70,000 yuan production cost; now, the revenue share for the same number of views has dropped to less than 30,000 yuan. What's worse, some platforms' revenue-sharing mechanisms have become like 'blind boxes'—you receive a sum of money at the end of each month, but no one knows the calculation formula.

The domestic hit rate has fallen to less than 0.5%, forcing production companies to seek new markets overseas.

Image source: Internet

Just swapping in a foreign face? It's not that simple

The overseas market did initially produce some hits. An AI short drama titled "The Persian Revenge" with a production cost of only 3,000 yuan generated $500,000 in total user payments within 72 hours of going live on an overseas platform. A post-95s creator hand-made an AI short drama that also earned $500,000 in paid revenue within 72 hours.

These cases led more companies to see opportunities, and they rushed to move domestic works and production methods overseas.

Image source: Internet

The result? The number of domestic AI short dramas going live daily increased to hundreds, and the blue ocean quickly became crowded again.

Where's the problem? The good days of simply swapping a domestic show into a foreign face and harvesting traffic are nearly over. Audiences ultimately still watch for the story; visuals are just supplementary. The popular domestic theme of a delivery rider's counterattack has failed to resonate overseas—whereas a security guard's counterattack is more likely to strike a chord. Without redesigning character professions, family relationships, conflict sources, speech tones, and life scenarios, even AI actors who look foreign are merely performing a translated version of a Chinese story.

To truly fill in these localization details, AI's low-cost advantage is also weakened. The money saved on actors and venues has to be spent elsewhere. One company estimated that the token cost for an 80-episode domestic AI short drama is around 60,000 to 70,000 yuan, while the overseas version may exceed 200,000 yuan, and some premium works can even reach 400,000 yuan.

Image source: YouTube

At the end of the day, you still have to understand your users deeply

The AI short drama track quickly becoming crowded overseas is a path cross-border e-commerce already walked—early on, people relied on mass listings and rapid product testing to find winning products; once competitors increased, simply translating product pages and copying popular products became harder and harder to make money from.

AI can accelerate content production, but core elements such as character realism, emotional expression, and story appeal still have shortcomings. During the Spring Festival period this year, the output of live-action micro-short dramas was only one-fiftieth that of AI micro-short dramas, yet their total playback volume was 25 times higher. The data shows that audiences are still more willing to spend time on stories that move them.

The procurement logic of overseas streaming platforms is also changing—they are no longer just buying rights to finished works, but are proactively coming to China to request localized customization. The share of locally original dramas is expected to rise from 21.37% in the first half of 2025 to 44.14% in 2026. Content that 'understands the locals' is gaining a premium.

Whether it's selling slippers or short dramas, the days of making quick money through information gaps and mass distribution are always short-lived. What truly endures are the companies that refine their products and deeply understand their users. With 4,000 companies crowding onto the same boat, not many will reach the other side in the end.