On 11 November, the White Paper on the Development of China ‘ s Micro-Sync Industry (2025) was published at the Third Hangzhou Wei-Synthetic Congress. This was the second time since 2024 that the Chinese Networked Audiovisual Association published a white paper in Ping. The Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese Networked Audio-Visual Association (CNAA) has focused on industry, content, business, technology, and five dimensions overseas, to shed light on the underlying causes and underlying logic of the continued development of micro-short dramas.
Policy empowers growth, micro-syncs, “A roll of fine” for users.
In 2025, the National Radio and Television Authority continued to promote specialized governance and regularization, issuing management instructions, developing a stratification system, developing a micro-short play management approach, implementing a “micro-short drama plus” action plan, and promoting the further development of micro-short dramas in the direction of precision, popularization and internationalization. Intensive and targeted policies are being put in place by multiple governments to sustain and scale up support for quality content provision through financial incentives, resource integration, talent development, and technology empowerment. In January-August 2025, the main integrated video platform has been on line 325 screen micro-bliographies (an increase of 24.52 per cent over the same period). There has also been an increase in the number of stand-screens on short-video platforms, small programs and micro-shorts applications, with an estimated 40,000 stand-screens produced independently and online throughout 2025. There was also an explosion of supply growth at the main end of the screen, with 94 micro-short plays broadcast on the National Guard Video Channel as of September 2025, an increase of 261.5 per cent over the same period last year. Almost 60 per cent of the respondents, with large volumes, indicated that they would repeat their favorite series, with high-quality content with high end value.
Enterprise expansion, viscosity, 90% increase in the number of workers, micro-short dramas in the future
The size of the mini-shortfall market has been driven by precision content, industrial clustering, and business-based diversification. There are 100.2 million micro-facility-related enterprises in the country, and 16.8 million new businesses were registered in the first nine months of 2025 alone, an increase of 12.57 per cent over the previous year. A significant leap in content quality has led to a continuous increase in user viscosity, with a single-day per capita time of 120.5 minutes in January-August 2025, an increase of 25.9 per cent over January. In the study, nearly 80 per cent of the users interviewed indicated that the frequency of viewing micro-short plays had increased further than last year. The adhesive growth of users has led to steady growth in business revenues, with over 90 per cent of the respondents indicating that their business income is stable or growing. The industry is dynamic, with nearly 90 per cent of the respondents optimistic about the micro-short play future and over 87 per cent believing that the market size of the micro-short show will remain growing in the coming year.
Free-of-charge dramas account for two thirds of the market, head application accounts for over 95 per cent, and microshort play competition returns to quality improvement
It is estimated that the size of the free mini-shorts market for the whole year of 2025 represents about 66.3 per cent of the total market size. The focus of industry competition has returned from “flow efficiency” to “quality improvement”. The concentration of users has been further increased, with the combined head application of the red fruit short opera and the hippo theatre and the flower theatre accounting for more than 95 per cent of the average monthly active user penetration. As a result of the action plan of the National Radio and Television Directorate “Micro-System Plus”, the integrated development model in areas such as micro-symposia and cultural brigades, sports, brands, non-punishables, rule of law, science and the classics has matured, with the emergence of quality works with social values and commercial returns.
Animated micro-shorts lead to new trends, and AI’s empowerment is the first.
Studies show that over 60 per cent of the respondents see new technology applications such as AI as an important driver for the continued growth of the micro-short theatre industry. The accelerated spread of AIGC technology has led to the emergence of animated micro-syncs, an emerging track in which the number of animated micro-syncs on the line continued to rise in January-August 2025, with 2902 platforms on the line. AI technology promotes real-life micro-shorts to further reduce efficiency gains. Studies have shown an average increase of about 50 per cent in creative efficiency following the introduction of the AIG tool. As smartphone performance increases and AI tools continue to evolve, micro-short dramas will enter the “era of mass creation” and more small teams and independent creators will be able to access opportunities only with good ideas.
Foreign revenues grew almost twice in the first August, with Chinese firms taking the lead, and the New Chinese Narratives round was global.
In January-August 2025, the market for foreign micro-blinds continued to expand, with a total income of $1.525 billion (approximately 10,838 million RMB), representing an increase of 194.9 per cent over the same period; the total number of downloads of overseas micro-blinds applications was about 730 million, an increase of 370.4 per cent over the same period. Chinese enterprises continue to dominate, with 90 per cent of the top 20 applications with Chinese background contributing about 91 per cent of market revenues. Based on a deep web-based IP resource bank and a mature industrial production system, the “new Chinese narrative” expression, which contains Chinese culture and Chinese values, is a global poll. As competition rises in overseas markets, “getting out of the sea” has become a natural option for China’s micro-short show to “learn out” to address cross-border operating risks, consolidate market shares abroad, and continue to expand China’s micro-short play influence through industrial alliances, resource-sharing, etc.
The White Paper on the Development of China ‘ s Micro-Synthetics Industry (2025), prepared by the China Network Audiovisual Association, combines a variety of research methods, such as big data mining, professional interviews, and user surveys. The System tracks new trends in January-September 2025 micro-synthetics. The in-depth analysis is led by policy, and multiple factors, such as user behaviour, market structure and technological development, work together to promote the intrinsic logic of industrial trajectories and to inform the authorities and practitioners of macro-management of industry dynamics.
