Yuewen's 2025 Non-GAAP Net Income Attributable to Mother Company Reached 860 Million Yuan, AI Animated Series Revenue Exceeded 100 Million Yuan

Ask AI · What technological breakthroughs are behind the billion-yuan revenue of AI web dramas?

Southern Metropolis Daily, Reporter Yu Xiaoyu On March 17, China Literature Limited (Stock code: 00772.HK) released its full-year 2025 financial report. Data shows that in 2025, China Literature achieved an operating revenue of 7.37 billion yuan and a Non-IFRS attributable net profit of 860 million yuan. Under the guidance of the “IP + AI” strategy, China Literature’s new business formats such as AI web dramas, short dramas, and IP derivatives have achieved diversified breakthroughs. Among them, AI web drama revenue has experienced explosive growth, surpassing the 100 million yuan mark; GMV of IP derivatives increased by more than double year-on-year, exceeding 1.1 billion yuan.

Chairman and CEO Hou Xiaonan stated: “In 2025, our high-quality content ecosystem continued to burst with vitality. We created two phenomenally successful works with subscriptions exceeding 300,000 for the first time, fully demonstrating the strong appeal of good content. Meanwhile, in IP operation, leveraging our deep IP reserves and embracing new production methods and cutting-edge technologies, we have achieved remarkable results: not only maintaining leadership in traditional fields like film and animation but also making pioneering achievements in emerging areas such as short dramas and AI web dramas. Our short drama premiumization strategy has yielded significant results, with frequent hits; and our AI web drama business has achieved a breakthrough start — since its launch in the second half of 2025, nearly 1,000 AI web dramas have been released, over 100 of which have surpassed 10 million views, 12 have surpassed 100 million views, and revenue in the second half of the year exceeded 100 million yuan. Meanwhile, our IP derivative business continued rapid growth, with annual GMV surpassing 1.1 billion yuan, more than doubling 2024 and setting a new record.”

Diversified Breakthroughs in New IP Business Formats

Explosive Growth in AI Web Dramas and IP Derivatives

Since China Literature announced the web drama track in October 2025, rapid development of AI technology has opened a green channel for the visual transformation of its vast IP portfolio. Currently, China Literature’s web dramas have achieved phased results. In 2025, nearly 1,000 web dramas were produced, with over 100 surpassing 10 million views. Works such as The Ming Xianxu, Shuabu Wudi Simulation System, Demoness Rebel, and Eerie Fate Pattern each surpassed 100 million views, driving explosive growth in AI web drama revenue, successfully crossing the 100 million yuan threshold.

In the short drama sector, China Literature’s short dramas continued to grow in 2025, with over 120 titles released covering modern romance, costume, period dramas, male-oriented genres, and more. More than half received platform “hit drama” certification, forming a matrix of high-quality, multi-genre, long-lifecycle premium short dramas. Besides the phenomenally popular Good Pregnancy Sweet Wife, which has over 3.5 billion views, China Literature’s short dramas also made breakthroughs in male-oriented content: I Really Didn’t Want to Rebirth reached over 1 billion views on a single platform, with nearly 5 million reservations for its second season; This Bodyguard is Too Invincible achieved both paid and free mode success; My Wife is Not Right’s first and second seasons both became hits, setting a benchmark for serialized short drama IP.

In terms of IP derivatives, driven by the strong engines of product, channels, operations, and ecology, China Literature’s IP derivative business has deepened systematic layout and achieved leapfrog growth. The influence and user traffic generated by flagship IPs like The King’s Avatar and The Mystical Lord have continuously boosted business performance. Overall GMV of IP derivatives exceeded 1.1 billion yuan, more than doubling 2024 and reaching a new high.

In the film and television field, Sao Du Feng Bao produced by New丽 Media aired on Tencent Video, with a popularity score exceeding 28,000 and receiving praise from multiple mainstream media outlets. Earlier this year, the dramas Young and Promising and Chu E also launched, both achieving acclaim and popularity.

In animation, sequels such as Battle Through the Heavens, Stellar Transformations, and Ghost Blows Out the Light remain top-ranked on platform charts. Among them, Battle Through the Heavens ranked No.1 on Tencent Video’s overall and classic bestseller charts during its annual broadcast, with related videos exceeding 60 billion views on short video channels, making it the top Chinese animation in the industry.

Furthermore, the market-leading position of China Literature’s high-quality IP continues to be validated, with industry influence steadily increasing. According to Yunhe Data, in 2025, five of the top 10 effective plays on the long-form drama screen were adapted from China Literature IPs; nine of the top 10 in the online animation rankings were also based on China Literature IPs, demonstrating China Literature’s absolute leading position in film, TV, and animation.

Frequent Breakthroughs in Paid Reading Masterpieces

Continuously Breaking Industry Records

During the reporting period, China Literature’s online reading revenue totaled 4.05 billion yuan, showing steady growth. The platform’s high-quality content ecosystem continued to release strong vitality. In 2025, China Literature attracted 400,000 new authors, creating over 800,000 novels with an added word count of 42 billion, providing a continuous stream of high-quality content. Meanwhile, emerging young authors demonstrated remarkable commercial potential, with the number of post-00 authors earning over one million yuan annually increasing by 150%.

The thriving content ecosystem has produced numerous top-tier masterpieces, constantly setting new industry records. The flagship Qidian Reading app’s newly added works with over 100,000 subscriptions increased by 40% year-on-year, with new titles like Xuanjian Xianzuzu, Qingshan, and Gou zai Chusheng Mo Men receiving widespread praise. Additionally, evergreen web novels like The Mystical Lord and Da Feng Da Geng Ren broke through 300,000 subscriptions each, setting industry records and becoming phenomenally popular, with top-tier creative capabilities achieving leapfrog development. High-quality content has significantly boosted platform community activity, with the number of works with over 100,000 bookmarks increasing by 80%, and works with over 10,000 monthly votes increasing by 20%.

The diversification of new IP business formats further feeds back into the performance of online reading works. For example, the web drama Three Thousand Shelters, adapted from the Qidian novel I Build a Sanctuary in Eternal Night and produced by China Literature’s web drama division, has surpassed 300 million views across the internet, and has driven the original novel into the top ten of the Qidian bestseller list, fully demonstrating how new IP formats promote and boost online reading business.

Accelerating Globalization

IP + AI Opens New Growth Space for China Literature

Currently, Generation Z’s emotional recognition and enthusiasm for IP are driving rapid growth in the IP market economy. Data shows that the global IP economy market size grew from 762.6 billion yuan in 2020 to 1,060.8 billion yuan in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.6%. China has become one of the largest IP markets worldwide. The rapid development and deep integration of AI technology are injecting new vitality into the IP market.

Since releasing the Miaobi large model in 2023, China Literature has actively embraced the AIGC wave, deeply integrating AI technology across the entire content production industry chain, gradually building a comprehensive AI solution covering the entire IP lifecycle. In the field of online literature-assisted creation, China Literature’s “Writer’s Assistant” has been upgraded, integrating the AI “Miaobi Tongjian” intelligent engine, capable of deep understanding and real-time analysis of multi-million-character online texts. Based on the open-source intelligent framework OpenClaw, it deploys dedicated AI creative agents for millions of online writers, helping authors focus on creation, improve efficiency, and leading the “全民养虾” (全民养虾) trend as the first to deploy AI tools in online literature creation. In IP adaptation, China Literature launched the “Copyright Assistant,” which deeply mines its vast library of millions of works and accurately links to downstream needs, significantly accelerating the screening and development of high-quality IP. In AI web dramas, the “Web Drama Assistant” supports the entire process from text to visuals by connecting multiple leading multimodal large models domestically and internationally, greatly improving adaptation efficiency and lowering production barriers. Currently, the Web Drama Assistant has helped produce hit works like Reborn as a Snake and Eerie Fate Pattern, earning industry-wide praise.

The deep application of AI technology further promotes China Literature’s expansion into overseas markets. The financial report shows that by the end of 2025, the total number of AI-translated works on China Literature’s overseas reading platform WebNovel exceeded 17,000, with revenue increasing by 39% year-on-year, contributing over one-third of the platform’s total revenue and becoming a key driver of overseas growth. China Literature has also launched over 1,300 published works, more than 2,100 comics, over 80 animations, and over 100 film and television works abroad. For example, the Battle Through the Heavens series animation on YouTube has accumulated 1.18 billion views and 159 million hours of watch time. Twelve China Literature works, including Rebirth of the Poisonous Empress, have been included in the British Library, marking the third time since 2022 that the library has included China Literature works, with a total of 38 titles now collected.

Additionally, through deep collaboration with top global tourism destinations, China Literature’s evergreen IP continues to influence worldwide trends. In July 2025, the Swiss National Tourism Board partnered with China Literature on the The King’s Avatar “IP + Cultural Tourism” project; in September, the phenomenon-level web novel The Path of the Eerie Immortal collaborated with Universal Studios Singapore to launch a themed adventure house that faithfully recreates the original story world.