Tencent launches WeChat ‘Green Bubble Short Drama’ to rival ByteDance

Tencent has launched ‘Green Bubble Short Drama’, a new official mini-program within the WeChat ecosystem. The platform offers free content, including live-action, AI-generated, and animated short dramas. This move is seen as a direct challenge to ByteDance’s ‘Hongguo Short Drama’, which reported 168 million daily active users as of July 2026.

Unlike standalone apps that rely on algorithmic ‘guess you like’ models, Green Bubble leverages WeChat’s social graph. It features a ‘Friends are watching’ section that provides personalized recommendations based on the browsing, liking, and sharing activities of a user’s contacts.

This social integration has sparked privacy concerns among users. Many netizens have expressed reluctance to have their viewing preferences—particularly for niche or exaggerated content—exposed to friends and family, comparing the experience to having one's private habits monitored by social acquaintances.