Start with a timeline — it is Part 1’s “the window changed its price of admission” made concrete. Late January 2026: interactive photo-real scripts get up to ¥80k guarantee + 20% perpetual share. February: coefficients differentiate to photo-real 60, 3D 50, 2D 40, and the industry cheers. April 7: a special purge of low-quality AI titles, over ten thousand taken down. April 30: coefficients slashed to 40/40. July 29 — yesterday — another round of new rules: double for long content, double for sequels, the explainer genre’s coefficient from 1 to 10, exclusivity threshold cut from 120 minutes to 60.
Four changes in six months. People who memorize rules go crazy; people who read levers don’t — because what changes is parameters, and what stays is design intent. This part lays the board open: three levers, five baskets, one compliance red line, and a matrix play that never bets on a single point.
The platform logic: three levers
Douyin’s short-drama copyright center — this track’s de facto rule-maker — holds exactly three levers, and every “new policy” is one or two of them moving:
- The guarantee: a cost floor for creators. Under the July rules, a completed series with ≥60 minutes of runtime and heat ≥5000 earns cash — dialogue dramas at heat 7000+ get ¥200k, at 5000+ get ¥40k; explainer/sticker formats get ¥50k and ¥10k. Check against cost: premium photo-real runs about ¥1,500/minute, so 60 minutes ≈ ¥90k — the ¥200k guarantee exists to cover production cost and make long-form worth your risk.
- The coefficients: the steering wheel of supply. The free-tier formula is “monthly new valid minutes × unit price × type coefficient × copyright coefficient” — whatever the platform wants more of gets a bigger coefficient.
- Exclusivity: partner selection. The threshold dropped from 120 minutes to 60, with higher coefficients for exclusives — the platform is locking in capacity.
Keep this reading habit: when a rule changes, ask first “which lever moved, and what does the platform want” — and the next change stops surprising you.
The four signals of the July rules
Reading yesterday’s rules through the levers, the platform’s wants are legible:
- It wants long content: titles over 120 minutes get a 2× duration coefficient (60–120 minutes gets 1.2×). Short-form supply is saturated; what retains users is long narrative.
- It wants serialization: part two of a series gets a 2× scale coefficient — capped at three installments, which also kills the “split one drama into many to farm coefficients” trick.
- It wants quality explainer dramas: the explainer/sticker coefficient went from 1 to 10. The genre once dismissed as “trash comics” is rehabilitated — but note it’s quality being rehabilitated; low-effort content-laundering is still inside the April 7 purge’s blast radius.
- It wants exclusive binding: the exclusivity threshold dropping from 120 to 60 minutes extends the olive branch to small and mid-size creators.
And hear the background tone: the pass rate has fallen to about 20%, and Hongguo’s editor-in-chief publicly cited “over ten thousand titles taken down on review.” The entrance is narrowing while the coefficients differentiate — the platform-side narrative and the supply-side narrative of this track are the same word: quality.
Five baskets: the platform map
- Douyin system (Hongguo): the main battlefield. Biggest traffic, most complete revenue system, most frequent rule changes. Onboard through Douyin’s short-drama copyright center by signing the motion-comic licensing agreement.
- Tencent system (Huolong + Tencent Video): opened to individuals in February 2026, exclusive coefficient up to 200%, backed by the China Literature IP library — first stop if IP adaptation is your plan.
- Bilibili: the anime home for 10–30 minute story-driven long form; incentives + tipping + brand deals, with the most precise audience of any platform.
- Kuaishou / RED / WeChat Channels: trailers, serialization, persona accounts; ad share + traffic incentives, no review wall — a natural funnel layer.
- iQiyi / Youku / Baijia + overseas: premium channels (iQiyi exclusive up to 100% share), the IP shortcut (Baijia integrates the Qimao and Baidu novel libraries), and the TikTok/ReelShort overseas window.
The compliance red line: filing requirements (since April 2026)
Read this paragraph word for word: since April 1, 2026, individuals may no longer publish comic dramas directly — only registered entities (sole proprietorship and above) may publish, with a filing required; previously published titles must complete retroactive filings. The broadcast regulator runs a three-tier review by “investment + subject matter”: ≥¥3M investment or sensitive subjects go to the national regulator, ¥1–3M to provincial regulators, under ¥1M to platform self-review.
The practical meaning for a solo creator: a registered business entity becomes a precondition for entry — which connects neatly to this site’s One-Person Company Operations series; registering an entity is this track’s hidden ticket. The other red line is material copyright: the commercial-license clauses Part 2 told you to read get genuinely checked in revenue-share review.
The matrix play: one battlefield, one funnel layer, one long tail
The never-bet-on-one-point structure: a main battlefield (full episodes on Hongguo, earning guarantee + share) + a funnel layer (trailers on Douyin/RED/Channels, hooks driving viewers back to the full cut) + a long tail (Bilibili as the archive for precise fans, TikTok/ReelShort for the overseas window).
Think hard before signing exclusivity: the coefficient is higher, but you’re handing a title’s fate to one platform’s rule stability — reread the six-month timeline at the top of this part. The prudent play for a solo creator is launch new titles non-exclusive on the main battlefield, then negotiate exclusivity at a premium once the data is in — signing with leverage and signing without it are two different prices.
Finally, two cold showers that are also two shots in the arm, both real data: someone hand-made 11 comic dramas and settled ¥9.60; someone else made At the Execution Platform, I Stunned the Gods and hit ROI 110+ in 30 days. The matrix amplifies quality; it cannot replace it — Part 3’s “topic > script > production” holds just as true on the revenue side.
Action items, then Part 7
- Walk the onboarding: complete entity verification and sign the motion-comic licensing agreement at Douyin’s short-drama copyright center (if you don’t have a registered entity, register one first — it’s this part’s most expensive action item, and the most valuable).
- Do one coefficient calculation: using “valid minutes × unit price × type coefficient × copyright coefficient,” estimate your planned first title under different shapes (one 60-minute film vs a 3-part series vs an explainer cut) — the answer will probably change your topic choice.
- Draw your matrix: fill in one platform each for battlefield, funnel layer, and long tail, annotate the content format you’ll premiere on each (full cut / trailer / mashup), and pin it above your desk.
Part 7, the finale: ROI and agent-ification. The complete per-episode cost teardown (tools, hours, rerolls, platform take), moving the five-stage pipeline into an agent workflow (linking back to this site’s agent-foundations), the one-person SOP for 20 episodes a month, and the whole seven-part series compressed into a one-page decision checklist.