CHANGSHA – Douyin Group, operator of the popular Chinese social media platform Douyin under ByteDance, plans to increase investment in live-action micro-dramas, an executive with the group said at a micro-drama industry summit held in Changsha, Central China's Hunan province, on Monday.

The group would pour in over 1.5 billion yuan ($219.08 million) to support live-action micro-drama making this year, with a 60 percent increase for each creation on average, said Hua Yuesheng, head of the content partnerships department at the short drama copyright center of Douyin Group, at the summit.

Boosted by a maturing ecosystem and evolving AI models, China's micro-drama industry is entering a rapidly growing phase with sustained popularity.

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Data from Douyin showed that the average daily viewing time for live-action micro-dramas has nearly quadrupled within a year, with more than 1,100 live-action micro-dramas each posting more than 1 billion views. The number of micro-drama genres has expanded from 44 last year to 65.

Against such a backdrop, Douyin has released multiple supportive projects for live-action micro-dramas to encourage broader participation and innovations in the industry, said Le Li, editor-in-chief of the micro-drama platform Hongguo under Douyin Group.