Free content still covers two-thirds of China's microdrama market

The figure or the record

On 11 November 2025, the China Netcasting Services Association (中国网络视听节目服务协会, CNSA) released the main findings of its 《中国微短剧行业发展白皮书（2025）》 (China Micro-Drama Industry Development White Paper, 2025) at the third Hangzhou Micro-Drama Conference. The whitepaper states that 100,200 microdrama-related enterprises existed in China at the time of writing, that overseas microdrama revenue reached US$1.525 billion (about RMB10.838 billion) in January–August 2025, up 194.9 per cent year-on-year, and that free-to-watch microdramas made up an estimated 66.3 per cent of the full-year 2025 market by size. This record was read in the original Chinese, with figures translated directly from the association's own text.

What the documents establish

CNSA names its method: the whitepaper 'comprehensively uses big data mining, expert interviews, and user surveys' (综合采用大数据挖掘、专业访谈、用户调查等多种研究方法) to track trends from January to September 2025 — an industry estimate, not a government census. The 66.3 per cent free-content share is explicitly labelled a forecast for the full year (预估). A separate, government-run source, CNNIC's 55th Statistical Report, put national microdrama users at 662 million as of December 2024 by household survey — a different method, but a similar order of magnitude to the audience CNSA describes.

Scope and caveats

The enterprise count (100,200) measures registered companies, not active studios or working productions; a share may be shell entities or small distributors rather than producers. The overseas revenue figure covers eight months only (January–August 2025), stated in US dollars with an RMB conversion alongside it, and cannot be annualised without assuming the same growth rate continues. CNSA states that two leading apps together captured more than 95 per cent of monthly active user penetration among top overseas apps, meaning the sector the enterprise count describes is far more concentrated at the top than 100,200 companies suggests.

What to watch

Editorially, the number to track is whether the free-content share stays near two-thirds as platforms push toward what CNSA calls quality-led competition rather than user-acquisition spending, since a falling free share would be the clearest sign of a shift from downloads to paying subscribers.

• Is an industry-association figure labelled as measured, surveyed, or forecast, and for which part of the total?
• Does an enterprise count distinguish active producers from registered shell companies or distributors?
• Does a revenue growth rate cover a full year or a partial period stated in the same sentence?

An association's whitepaper naming its own method beside its headline numbers is more transparent than many market-sizing claims in this sector, but 'more transparent' still means an estimate built on interviews and panels, not an audited count.