In 2023, KANS proved that short dramas could sell skincare at scale. In 2025, over 40,000 new short drama series launched in China, ReelShort generated US$130 million in a single quarter overseas, and AI-powered productions cut costs to one-fifth of traditional methods. The short drama marketing model KANS pioneered has evolved far beyond what its creator imagined. This is the story of how it started, why it nearly collapsed, and where it is heading.

The AI agent craze sweeping China goes far beyond virtual pets. With Doubao shopping across four platforms in 30 seconds and Alipay processing 120 million agent transactions weekly, brands face a new consumer paradigm that demands strategic adaptation.

Since China’s annual shopping festival Double Eleven (11.11) started in late October, one thing is clear: AI is playing a far more prominent role than ever before.

The AI platform Doubao (豆包), developed by ByteDance, has begun seamlessly connecting user queries with direct shopping links on its parent short-video platform Douyin (抖音, the Chinese Tik Tok), delivering a new model for beauty-commerce integration.

With the rise of ChatGPT, Midjourney , and other AI tools, the advertising industry has witnessed an explosion of AI-generated content (...