China's AI drives cultural infrastructure export

China's evolving cultural export strategy

China is expanding its cultural industry presence in foreign markets by exporting the underlying infrastructure for content creation and distribution, moving beyond the traditional model of simply selling finished entertainment products. This strategy focuses on digital platforms that enable the adaptation, translation, and dissemination of content across various regions.

Key to this shift are what China now terms the “New Three” cultural exports: online literature, games, and micro-dramas. These digital-native formats are inherently suited to being localised and distributed through global digital channels, simplifying the process of reaching international audiences.

This approach signifies a change in how Chinese companies engage with overseas cultural markets, providing the systems and tools that support content development rather than just the content itself.

Lingang's AI+micro-drama overseas service station

On 4 September, the Lingang New Area in Shanghai launched an AI+micro-drama overseas service station, establishing initial service points in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

This initiative aims to support Chinese cultural companies in navigating foreign regulatory frameworks, localising content for specific markets, and establishing connections between production and distribution networks abroad.

The service station offers a comprehensive suite of services covering the entire export process, from content development and production to translation and final distribution.

By integrating these stages into a single system, the Lingang project intends to streamline the export of micro-dramas and other digital cultural products, facilitating a more integrated approach to international market penetration.

Guangxi's FLYTOTO platform for short dramas

Further demonstrating this infrastructure-led export model, Guangxi Publishing & Media Group introduced FLYTOTO in July. This AI-powered platform is designed for short-drama co-creation, linking Chinese production teams and creators with audiovisual institutions across Southeast Asia.

FLYTOTO provides advanced tools for script analysis, automated video production, and multilingual translation capabilities. It also offers computing resources and distribution support for its users. The platform’s launch coincided with the 2026 China-ASEAN Micro-Drama Competition, which features both live-action and AI-generated micro-dramas.

This initiative underscores a focus on collaborative content creation and regional market integration, particularly within Southeast Asia.

China Literature's Webnovel expansion

The shift towards exporting cultural infrastructure is also evident in the expansion of platforms like Webnovel, operated by China Literature, one of the country’s largest online publishing companies. Launched in 2017, Webnovel initially focused on translating Chinese online fiction for international readers.

The platform has since expanded its scope significantly, now hosting original fiction created by writers outside China. Alongside this, Webnovel provides the necessary translation, publishing, and monetisation systems for these international works.

By the end of 2025, China Literature reported that Webnovel had attracted 537,000 international writers and featured 830,000 original works from overseas. This evolution highlights a strategy to provide the tools and business models for content creation and distribution, rather than solely exporting Chinese-originated stories.

Implications for Asian markets and investors

This evolving strategy for Chinese cultural exports has direct implications for Asian markets and companies. By establishing platforms and infrastructure for content production and distribution, Chinese firms are gaining local connections and capabilities that allow them to produce and adapt cultural content specifically for foreign audiences.

This can blur the distinction between exporting Chinese culture and creating culture for international markets, as the infrastructure might be Chinese-owned while the content itself is increasingly local.

For investors and decision-makers in Asia, this shift indicates potential for new partnerships in digital content creation and distribution, particularly as platforms like FLYTOTO target Southeast Asia.

The growth of these infrastructure exports suggests a deepening integration of Chinese digital ecosystems into regional cultural industries, requiring local players to assess how these platforms might reshape content production, monetisation, and audience engagement in their own markets.