Hou Xiaonan, CEO and president of Chinese online literature company the Yuewen Group Photo: Courtesy of the Yuewen Group

Hou Xiaonan, CEO and president of Chinese online literature company the Yuewen Group, announced multiple business upgrades covering areas such as micro-drama series, trendy toys, and AI application enhancements at the Yuewen Creation Conference on Thursday in Wuhan, Hubei Province. 

According to Hou, these moves aim to address four key future trends: the dominance of compelling narratives, the AIGC era, trendy toy IPs, and global co-creation centered on Chinese stories. 

Emotional economics is accelerating IP commercialization. In the first half of 2025, Yuewen's derivative product GMV reached 480 million yuan ($67.36 million), nearly matching the full-year figure of 2024. Beyond nurturing its own IPs, the company actively collaborates with external IPs like Honor of Kings and Ling Cage. For example, Ling Cage's Baiyuekui Space Suit Miniature developed with YHKT Entertainment sold over 10,000 units within 17 hours of launch, generating GMV exceeding 10 million yuan. The trendy toy market holds immense potential, with China's industry projected to reach a total scale of 110.1 billion yuan by 2026, growing at an average annual rate exceeding 20 percent.  

Hou emphasized, "Looking ahead, we see four pivotal trends. In an era of content explosion, compelling stories remain the cornerstone. In the AIGC era, originality fuels creativity. In the new consumption era, IPs act as supercharged levers. In the global co-creation era, Chinese stories become a universal language. The next decade will be a golden age for Chinese super IPs." 

This strategic pivot underscores Yuewen's commitment to leveraging AI, cross-industry collaborations, and global IP ecosystems to drive growth in the evolving digital content landscape.

Against the backdrop of the rising emotional economy, the Global Trendy Toy Co-Creation Program was also released. This initiative centers on two key pillars: First, collaborating with top 100 global artists to drive the incubation of original trendy toy IPs and the visual creation of China Literature's IP characters. Second, opening up Yuewen's full industrial chain capabilities to partners, spanning artist signing and support, product design, production supply chains, global marketing and distribution, as well as multi-format IP integration.

In 2025, Yuewen's content ecosystem continued to push boundaries: For the first time ever, two works consecutively surpassed 300,000 average monthly subscriptions, shattering the previous ceiling of the online literature industry. By September, the number of new works reaching 100,000+ average monthly subscriptions in 2025 had already matched the full-year total of 2024. 

In terms of diverse genres, subscription growth for popular works in seven categories exceeded 30 percent. In the first half of the year, eight of the Top 10 animated works on Yunhe Data's All-Network Cumulative Effective Playback Dominance List were adapted from Yuewen IPs.

Empowering the IP ecosystem with AI technology remains a key focus for Yuewen's ongoing development. Huang Yan, senior vice president of the Yuewen Group, announced three upgrades to its AI applications at the event. These tools collectively cover distinct segments of the IP lifecycle, including creation support, copyright development, and comic-drama adaptation.

"This suite of AI tools, built by us, spans the entire IP lifecycle. All of this converges on one goal: to make it easier for great stories to come to life, circulate more efficiently, and shine even brighter," Huang said. 

In addition, Yang Chen, vice president and chief editor of the Yuewen Group, announced a series of incubation and support initiatives, including accelerating the growth momentum of mainstream works, providing more testing opportunities, and explicitly committing that at least 70 percent of the company's full-year buyout and guaranteed projects will be earmarked for distinctive genres such as science fiction and suspense. Additionally, diverse promotional services will be rolled out to support hit works and expanding their reach. Furthermore, the College Student Story Entrepreneurship Program will be launched to foster young creators.