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

The Yuewen Group, China’s online literature giant, unveiled its first batch of premium AI-produced animated series and a one-stop platform for solo creators on Friday, pressing ahead with a strategy that seeks to turn a library of more than 10 million literary works into videos.

The announcement was made at the 2026 Yuewen Creation Conference in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, which gathered about 400 creators and partners from online literature, film and television, animation, short drama and licensed merchandise under the theme "Yueshang Chaotou," or "riding the crest of the tide."

Hou Xiaonan, chief executive officer and president of Yuewen, said the company will concentrate on three fronts: an AI video matrix, the one-stop platform for solo creators and full-chain operation of intellectual property (IP).

The first AI animation slate includes Legend of Cyber Heroes, a science fiction title whose AI pilot trailer drew wide attention at home and abroad in the second half of 2026, as well as Unscientific Beast Taming and The Demon-Suppressing Museum, spanning genres from creature fantasy and Western fantasy to folk horror.

Yuewen and animation studio YHKT Entertainment have already begun developing Legend of Cyber Heroes into a full AI-produced series. Hou said the company will build a video matrix spanning comic dramas, animation, short dramas that blend live action with AI, and mid-length and long-form drama.

The move rests on the commercial validation of comic dramas, a short, low-cost format that animates comic panels. Revenue from Yuewen's short drama and comic drama businesses exceeded 430 million yuan ($60.6 million) in the first half of 2026, signifying an increase of 230 percent year-on-year.

More than 660 comic dramas have each surpassed 10 million views, 107 of which have topped 100 million. On ToonScroll, its overseas comic drama platform, 50 titles have passed 10 million views, 11 have exceeded 50 million and three have broken 100 million, covering more than 10 languages.

The overseas market for AI comic dramas is expected to exceed $4 billion in 2026, according to industry estimates cited at the conference.

Yuewen has signed more than 5,000 individual creators and personal studios, with the 10 largest each earning more than 1 million yuan a year, Hou said.

"One creator, with the aid of IP and AI tools, can complete the entire comic drama production process. This is the emerging OPC, a one-person company," he said. 

The company is also upgrading DramaBuddy, its comic drama assistant, integrating it into the OPC platform. It will open a large IP library approved by authors, offer full-process production tools, allow finished comic dramas to be redrawn into 10 languages with one click, and generate overseas-native productions directly from scripts when no finished product exists.

The platform will distribute content through Qidian, Yuewen's flagship reading site, ToonScroll, and third-party channels including those within the Tencent ecosystem. A rating system running from A to S will determine tiered incentives, and a leading partner team has already earned more than 6 million yuan ($845,000) in revenue sharing.

Huang Yan, senior vice-president of Yuewen, said DramaBuddy will serve as the single entry point for individual creators into the company's comic drama ecosystem. Support for Qidian comic dramas will shift from top-performing titles toward mid-tier and promising works, and from adapting completed novels toward adapting stories while they are still being serialized.

Yuewen also introduced an "IP committee" model, in which partners form a joint decision-making body with the company. Its first project, Baowei Nanshan Gongyuan, is being developed using Three-Body Universe and will span animation, live-action film, television and offline merchandise.

"In the past, licensing was mostly negotiated deal by deal," Hou said. "By setting up IP committees with partners, we can achieve unified decision-making, a unified style and coordination across the chain, so that creators and industry partners can share in the dividends of an IP's growth."

Gaming is the next frontier. Yuewen plans to launch more than 20 games adapted from its IP over the next three years. Meanwhile, Lord of the Mysteries topped the iOS free chart for several days after release, while The Outcast is scheduled to be released in December with more than 33 million pre-registrations.

Hou drew a clear line between tool and authorship. "The adaptation of literature can use AI, but literature itself cannot be AI," he said, adding that AI should return to being a tool and creation to its human source.

Yang Chen, vice-president and editor-in-chief of Yuewen, said Qidian has been clearing AI-generated filler from its rankings, capping daily word counts and directing traffic toward writers who craft stories with care.

The platform will issue an initial 1 billion Qidian coins along with discount coupons, with the cost borne by the company so that writers receive their full royalties, Yang said. The coins are to be used to subscribe to quality works with low readership.

"We hope writers can fully experiment with self-expression," Yang said. "Even if they do not chase market trends, as long as the content is good, they will have guaranteed traffic and guaranteed income."

Visual adaptation has widened the pool of writers earning from their work. More than 1,500 authors received visual adaptation income for the first time through comic dramas. As of September, more than 300 writers had earned over 10,000 yuan in revenue sharing from short and comic dramas, nearly 100 had passed 100,000 yuan and the highest exceeded 1 million yuan.

Eight of the top 10 animated titles and four of the top 10 long-form dramas by effective plays in the first half of 2026 were adapted from Yuewen IP, according to Yunhe Data.

The company is also preparing to build an IP transformation center with the Shangcheng district government of Hangzhou, focused on Song Dynasty culture and intangible cultural heritage, and to launch an AIGC audiovisual industry base in the district.