Physix FrontierPhysix Frontier · News Briefing Card (GeekPark · Oct 16, 2026)
Tencent launches Green Bubble short drama to counter ByteDance's Hongguo
KEY FACTS
- In July 2026, Hongguo short drama reached 168 million daily active users, surpassing the combined DAU of the four major long-video platforms.
- Hongguo users watched an average of 125 minutes of drama per day, exceeding the average daily time spent on Douyin's main app during the same period.
- By October 2026, Hongguo's DAU rose to about 220 million, a net increase of over 50 million in half a year.
- At the end of September, Tencent upgraded its WeChat short drama mini-program into Green Bubble short drama and promoted it on a large scale.
- Green Bubble's revenue-sharing rules require a minimum effective viewing time of 10 minutes per user.
KEY DATA
168 millionHongguo July DAU
about 220 millionHongguo October DAU
125 minutesHongguo average daily time per user
over 1.4 billionWeChat MAU
PHYSIX OBSERVATION
Tencent using WeChat's social graph to push short drama is a key defensive move against ByteDance's erosion of time spent. Green Bubble has low customer acquisition costs, but its content library is far inferior to Hongguo's. If it works, the social plus mini-program model can be replicated for novels and comics; if it fails, it confirms the dominance of algorithmic distribution in the free content arena.
Source: GeekPark report