Elderly users hooked on AI short dramas: 225,800 yuan in two years
The article says a woman in her late 60s in Xinjiang made 4,887 top-ups totaling 225,800 yuan to several short-drama mini-programs over two years. It reports that the short-drama industry's rapid shift to AI has sharply cut production costs, with the savings redirected to ad buying that pushes clipped, high-hook scenes into recommendation feeds; it cites QuestMobile figures of about 46.53 million senior users of short-drama apps and 168 million daily active users for Hongguo Short Drama. It adds that some apps use a "6 yuan for 5 days" trial with pre-ticked auto-renewal, then charge 29 yuan a week, leaving older users unlikely to check bills and struggling to seek redress.
It shows that as AI drives down content production costs, the savings can also fuel algorithmic ad targeting that deepens payment traps for digitally vulnerable users.