Short dramas have entered winter overnight, and it is not an accident

▤ Summary

This article argues that AI short-drama production is compressing costs, expanding supply, and pushing the market from a growth phase into a profit squeeze. It explains that platform incentives and revenue-sharing models have shifted as major players like Douyin, Kuaishou, iQIYI, Youku, Tencent Video, and Taobao compete for premium short-drama content. The piece also shows how AI lowers the barrier to making content, which increases volume but weakens scarcity and reduces per-title monetization. As a result, platforms are tightening economics on both the supply side and the demand side while creators face heavier competition. The overall message is that AI has changed the short-drama market structure and made differentiation harder.

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