In recent years, the discussion of "you're out if you don't go global" has been widespread across all sectors in the Chinese mainland. Going global has become a mandatory question for many Chinese enterprises, and the micro-drama industry and related companies are no exception.
In the view of film and television producer Wang Lei, the current development stage of the overseas micro-drama market corresponds to the early stage of the domestic micro-drama industry in 2022, still a blue ocean market waiting to be developed. "Right now, they are essentially breaking new ground," said Wang.
For micro-dramas going global, the countries chosen by companies also vary: some go to Southeast Asia, some to the Americas. But as cultural content, whether micro-dramas can quickly open up a situation in overseas markets depends on whether the stories can be retold according to local customs and aesthetic preferences.
Content Republic began entering the European and American markets at the end of 2025, focusing on AI micro-dramas going global.
Founder and CEO Zhou Yuan observed that overseas audiences have clearly different preferences in subject matter compared with domestic ones. "For example, werewolf-themed content is a very unique subject matter in overseas markets, somewhat similar to our Chinese costume dramas. The core is not essentially different, but it is placed within an exclusive werewolf worldview, making it easier to win over local audiences."
In the Vietnamese market, where micro-dramas are rapidly booming, the Hangzhou-based film and television production company Yuguang Tongchen (YGTC) has also achieved stable commercial returns through a localization strategy.
Stephen Zhou, the company's Vietnam general manager, said that this profit model is already replicable, and the team is gradually implementing the model of "Chinese technical production + Southeast Asian local IP incubation" in Thailand, Singapore, and other Southeast Asian countries. As of now, YGTC has established branches in Nanning, Thailand, and Singapore, completing its layout in core Southeast Asian markets.
After AI micro-dramas going global have achieved commercial validation through localized adaptation, can micro-dramas, as a content carrier, provide new possibilities for China's cultural going-global efforts? In fact, the industry has already begun exploring a high-quality going-global path of "culture + AI."
The creative team of WAI Studio has always focused mainly on traditional Chinese cultural themes.
The AI short film "Jun" created by its team, based on the story of Wang Zhaojun, not only gained 5 million views on Douyin but also won the Gold Award at the Google Awards, becoming a typical case of traditional Chinese culture going international with the help of AI technology.
Yang Xuan, AI director of WAI Studio, expressed the hope that AI creation can bring out something of Chinese culture and also bring out the younger generation's understanding of Chinese culture. "We need to do some innovation in Chinese culture, to let more people know that Chinese culture is very rich—not only to speak for China, but also to speak for ourselves."
In the view of Terry Lam, dean of the School of Film and Television at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, "cultural characteristics" are precisely the ultimate competitiveness of Chinese AI film and television going global. According to Lam, the industry in the future needs to build exclusive cultural datasets, infuse local cultural genes into AI technology, and achieve deep integration of technology and culture.
The emergence of AI technology has completely reshaped the manpower structure and production efficiency of film and television production. In this process of technological iteration, how to let rich and diverse Chinese stories take root in overseas markets and be remembered by the world requires every practitioner to think about.
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