(Yicai) Jan. 22 -- "We thought, how can such great products [micro-dramas] only be used by Chinese people? They should benefit the whole world," Tong Zhilei, founder and chairman of COL Digital Publishing Group, said at a special meeting during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, outlining the digital publishing company’s strategy to take China’s micro-drama model overseas.

Chinese micro-dramas now stand alongside Hollywood films, South Korean television dramas, and Japanese anime as one of four major national cultural phenomena reaching global audiences across more than 160 countries, Tong said at a meeting hosted by Tencent Holdings, with Yicai Global as media partner. 

COL Digital-backed short-form video streaming application ReelShort topped global daily download rankings in November 2023, while its micro-drama platform FlareFlow surpassed TikTok and Netflix in North American downloads by September 2025.

COL Digital is currently producing content in Hollywood and using artificial intelligence to cut animation production costs to one-tenth of traditional levels while compressing timelines from three years to three weeks. Tong projected that micro-dramas will eventually surpass the long-form video market’s USD100 billion global valuation.

The company’s international push builds on rapid domestic expansion. China’s micro-drama market reached CNY50.5 billion (USD6.9 billion) in 2024, exceeding the country’s CNY40 billion cinema box office, despite the format having existed for less than four years compared with film’s over century-long history.

COL Digital pioneered the micro-drama format five years ago by condensing traditional 40–50 minute television episodes into one-to-three minute installments tailored for mobile viewing and shorter attention spans. By 2022, the company’s domestic monthly revenue had approached CNY100 million (USD14.4 million), sparking widespread adoption across the industry, Tong said.

The surge has reshaped China’s production landscape, with more than 100,000 companies entering the micro-drama sector and overwhelming filming capacity at Hengdian World Studios, the country’s largest film production base.

Tong described the trend as China’s third wave of outbound expansion, following raw material exports in the first stage and product exports after China joined the World Trade Organization in the second. Companies such as Pinduoduo’s Temu and ByteDance’s TikTok exemplify this shift toward exporting business models rather than just goods.

“Going global with a model is a higher-order approach,” Tong said. “Because it’s a brand-new model, by sourcing its raw materials around the world, its team, its service model, conducting a brand-new integration available to the whole world. So we are very happy that we are also doing this in the cultural field today.”

Editor: Emmi Laine