China's State Council Information Office held a press conference in Beijing on September 17, revealing that 430,000 micro-dramas were launched nationwide in the first eight months of this year, a 13-fold increase compared to the entire previous year, with AI-generated productions accounting for over 90 percent of the total.

Wang Xiaoliang, director of the Network Audiovisual Program Management Department of the National Radio and Television Administration, stated at the event that the number of micro-drama users in China has surpassed 800 million, and the market size of micro-dramas is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan in 2025. He noted that artificial intelligence technology has been widely adopted in micro-drama creation, opening new possibilities for innovative expression and cost reduction while also introducing challenges related to content quality and rights protection.

According to Wang,真人 dramas remain the primary force for high-quality creation and must be strongly supported. The administration has been implementing a plan to promote premium micro-drama production, guiding platforms to establish dedicated sections for live-action dramas and providing substantial financial incentives to ensure that quality works gain market traction and profitability. At the same time, the approach balances encouraging innovation with maintaining standards, requiring AI-generated dramas to carry content labels and pushing platforms to strictly adhere to regulations regarding portrait and voice authorization.

Wang emphasized that AI serves as a tool while humans remain the core of creation, stating that the faster AI dramas develop, the more crucial it becomes to maintain content quality. The key to ensuring quality lies in standardized governance. Since the beginning of this year, the administration has focused on tackling issues such as harmful or vulgar content, material unsuitable for children, and copyright infringement, removing 68,000 substandard micro-dramas from the internet and overseeing the handling of over 1,200 non-compliant accounts across platforms, with more than 90 percent of the removed content being AI-generated.

Moving forward, the administration plans to strengthen oversight to purify the industry ecosystem. Wang emphasized that regulation is intended to foster better development, and the administration is actively promoting the refinement, popularization, and internationalization of micro-dramas, aiming to increase the availability of high-quality works, broaden participation, and enhance the global presence of Chinese micro-dramas.