Axis AI Studios releases language guide for vertical drama prompt engineering

The transition from horizontal to 9:16 vertical drama requires a fundamental shift in AI prompting from cinematic direction to mobile-first composition. This shift concretely affects the technical stack, as creators must route specific scene types to different models—Seedance for nuance and Kling for fidelity—to maintain the emotional intensity necessary for monetization. As vertical drama apps move toward higher production value to battle 50% weekly churn rates, proprietary prompt architectures are becoming critical IP. Watching whether this standardized language reduces the currently high cost-per-second of high-end vertical generation will signal the next stage of market consolidation.

The vertical drama market, often referred to as 'duanju,' has grown into an $11 billion global industry as of 2025, according to Omdia data. By mid-2026, revenues are projected to climb to $14 billion, with major platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox leading the shift toward mobile-first serialized content. Per TechCrunch in July 2026, ReelShort alone has generated roughly $1.2 billion in cumulative revenue, while DramaBox reported a $10 million net profit for late 2024, demonstrating that the format has achieved sustainable unit economics outside its origin market in China.

Technical competition between Kuaishou and ByteDance intensified significantly in early 2026. Per The Decoder, ByteDance released Seedance 2.0 in February 2026, featuring a unified multimodal architecture that supports up to 12 reference files. This launch followed Kuaishou's unveil of Kling 3.0 just three days prior. Kling 3.0 introduced its 'AI Director' paradigm, allowing for up to six individual shots within a single 15-second generation. These models are designed to compress traditional one-week filming schedules into hours, significantly lowering the $150,000 to $300,000 average production cost for a full vertical series.

Market penetration is expanding rapidly in Western territories. Omdia and Sensor Tower reported in May 2026 that users in the United States now spend more daily time on vertical drama apps than on established streaming services like Netflix or Disney+ on mobile devices. This shift has prompted major studios, including Disney and Paramount, to explore native 9:16 content. In April 2026, DramaBox became the first short drama app to integrate global programmatic ad inventory via The Trade Desk, signaling a shift from pure coin-based monetization to a diversified advertising model.