The Hidden Side of China’s 20-Billion Yuan Manhua-Drama Market: PPT-Style Productions, Rock-Bottom Rates, and a Serious Lack of Breakout Hits

The year 2025—hailed by many as the “first year of manhua-drama”—is experiencing a powerful surge in momentum, especially in the second half of the year.

According to data released by Ocean Engine in August, the supply of manhua-drama content grew at a staggering compound rate of 83% from April to July. The market is now expected to surpass 20 billion yuan in value, while the number of related enterprises is expanding exponentially, with projections suggesting the figure could reach into the hundreds of thousands.

Back in July, Blue Whale Technology interviewed several AI-driven short-drama creators. At the time, professionals from all sectors were racing into the field. Just four months later, those same creators say the industry is even more vibrant—but the pricing system has descended into chaos. A typical expression-pack manhua-drama is normally priced at around 300 yuan per minute, yet once an order passes through layers of subcontracting, some so-called “middlemen” drive the price all the way down to 40 yuan per minute. During this early-stage, volume-driven phase, the quality of manhua-drama varies widely, and many studios operate on a simple logic: produce hundreds of titles and hope for one breakout hit.

Capital pours in—along with aggressive price-cutting

“The current pricing ecosystem for production companies is still in a ‘free-for-all’ stage, like watching eight immortals cross the sea—everyone has their own way,” said Chen Xing, co-founder of Beijing Yudong Future and a Way to AGI collaborator.

Interviews reveal just how scattered the real market quotes have become. Chen explains that a proper expression-pack manhua-drama should cost at least 300 yuan per minute, with about 100 yuan allocated to scriptwriting and 200 yuan to production. Yet he has personally seen quotes plunge to as low as 40 yuan per minute. Dynamic manhua-dramas typically command prices starting in the thousands, but Chen has seen bids as low as 400 yuan per minute. Another AI director, Luo Qiu, agrees that around 1,000 yuan per minute should be the minimum, though the going rate often sits between 500 and 600 yuan—prices he believes are far too low for the industry’s long-term sustainability.

Luo elaborates: “Generating a single minute of footage in a large model can cost several hundred to over a thousand yuan in compute alone. For any serious company to run this as a business, even with low margins, they still need revenue in the thousands per minute. Otherwise they barely cover compute costs, and if human labor isn’t factored in, then what’s the point of doing it at all?”

Every interviewee agrees that ultra-low pricing emerges from layers of subcontracting. Wang Tianhai, founder of Shaanxi Blockbuster Film & Tech, explains that as manhua-dramas heated up this year, many capital players entered the market without traditional film or animation backgrounds. Many were simply chasing the investment trend. “Their only logic is to seize market share—fast and massive. As long as one or two hits come out of their spread, they consider it a success.”

Ironically, although AI technology has greatly reduced the need for frame-by-frame hand-drawing, the label “AI-assisted” has become a convenient excuse for aggressive price-cutting. Luo argues that the market carries a misconception that AI manhua-dramas are something a single person with a laptop can create cheaply. In reality, quality productions still demand directors, writers, animators, and professional editors. AI accelerates production—but it does not replace core creative value.

Since the second half of the year, major video platforms and transitioning web-novel platforms have launched support programs for manhua-dramas. Luo has been in talks with several platforms, where the platforms provide IP and the teams handle production. However, he notes that these offers are still more like “subsidies” than true funding. “Most platforms talk about revenue sharing because their upfront budgets are low. Revenue-sharing attracts smaller teams to try, even if the chances of meaningful returns remain uncertain.”

A producer interviewed also pointed out that in the history of film and TV supply chains, the more mature the industry becomes, the more precisely platforms control costs. For vendors signing annual delivery frameworks, profit margins will be slim—but “platforms will still make sure you can survive,” the producer said.

All interviewees emphasized that today’s disorderly pricing is temporary. Standardized pricing and delivery benchmarks will emerge, binding higher prices to higher-quality content. Ultra-low-priced work will naturally be eliminated. Chen believes the trend toward premiumization has already begun—his team currently quotes 4,000 yuan per minute as a high-end production standard.

Low prices fuel “assembly-line sweatshops”—but creativity remains the true currency

Manhua-dramas are not new, but the integration of AI has reshaped workflows. While capital has driven quantity, interviewees consistently raised the same concern: is the low-price model turning the industry into a “sweatshop”?

Wang recalls that manhua-drama should fundamentally be a creative field, yet some companies now behave like labor-intensive factories, hiring large numbers of “card pullers” while neglecting key roles such as directors and editors. “We had similar issues before, and we’re still optimizing. People assume card-pulling is low-skill, easy to train, and good enough to push content through. They pull assets, hand them to editing, and that’s it—that’s the core logic behind low-price production.”

But without proper storyboarding, Wang explains, the pulled assets lack visual language and become little more than a “PPT slideshow.” Scenes may be missing, transitions broken, axes crossed, and momentum lost. Without redoing the work, quality suffers—but if they redo it, costs rise again.

“Some believe all they need is a big office, a lot of cheap staff, and the idea that manhua-dramas ‘aren’t that hard.’ This is a misunderstanding. This industry is absolutely knowledge-intensive. What we will lack in the future is core creative talent—writers and directors,” Wang said. All three creators interviewed also doubt whether low-cost mass-produced titles truly deliver results through traffic investment. As a result, they remain committed to creating premium, high-quality works.

Chen echoes this view, adding that the biggest bottleneck today is the shortage of strong scripts and bold ideas, which is why true breakout hits are rare. But he also sees this as the perfect moment for talented writers to break into the field.

Platforms entering the space are leaning toward high-quality output as well. Hongguo, the largest short-drama platform, announced in November its premium manhua-drama incentive plan: top-tier titles can receive guaranteed rewards ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 yuan per minute. For a 150-minute series, that means up to 4.5 million yuan in guaranteed income, with additional revenue sharing beyond the floor.

In ByteDance’s official manhua-drama update group, TikTok/Douyin’s Short Drama Copyright Center recently revised its revenue-sharing parameters: AI realistic-digital-human dramas have a coefficient of 60, 2D/3D animation has 50, dynamic expression-pack manhua has 10, and static manhua has 1. The formula for free-to-watch revenue sharing is “new monthly effective watch time × unit price × content category coefficient × copyright coefficient.” Many creators interpret this as the platform’s strategy to prioritize and reward high-quality work.

Luo stresses that his team will only accept premium-level projects. If pricing cannot be aligned, they are willing to pause development. “We firmly believe premiumization is the core direction, and that a market for high-quality content absolutely exists. Traditional anime fans have accumulated for years—they have broad stylistic acceptance and stable audience attributes. Many are more than willing to pay for truly great content.”