The Zhitong Finance App learned that Southwest Securities released a research report saying that in 2026, the bank is mainly optimistic about three directions: 1) AI film and television: With the release of Seedance 2.5, MiniMaxH3, and Keling 3.0 models, model performance has made major breakthroughs in length and image quality, and AI comics and AI skits are gradually expanding to AI long dramas and AI movies. Related targets: AI medium and long drama Mango Supermedia (300413.SZ), AI movie Bona Pictures (001330.SZ). 2) AI marketing: Focus on Huiliang Technology (01860) AI Infra launch catalyst; 3) Focus on recommending Kaiying Network (002517.SZ) and Giant Network (002558.SZ). Other targets: NetEase (09999). The company's subsequent self-developed new game launches are expected to contribute incrementally.
The main views of Southwest Securities are as follows:
AI movies and TV: 1) AI short dramas. In 2026, the market size of Chinese short dramas and AI comics is expected to exceed 121 billion yuan (of which AI comics will exceed 40 billion yuan), and the number of users will reach 851 million. Overseas domestic purchases in the first half of the year will be about 1.27 billion US dollars. More than 90% of the new series on the leading platform DramaWave in July were generated by AI, and downloads increased by 39.82% month-on-month. Hongguo's free skit MAU reached 357 million, surpassing many long video platforms. In September 2026, the WeChat Short Drama Content Center launched the free skit applet “Green Bubble Short” to gather skit content within the WeChat ecosystem through free viewing and advertising monetization models. 2) Medium and long dramas: Mango Supermedia produced the first gold-starred all-AI long drama “Journey to the West” on August 31. On the night of the first broadcast, real-time ratings peaked at 0.3384%, with a market share of 1.7862%, taking the top spot in provincial TV ratings at the same time. AI production costs and cycle have been drastically reduced: The production cycle is 4 months, and costs have been drastically reduced, and virtual shooting, setting, digital people, and special effects have all been greatly reduced. 3) AI film: The first AI hyperrealistic theatrical film “Sanxingdui: Future Past” was officially scheduled for October 23, 2026. “Unplanned: Operation Guanghan” was approved by the National Film Administration in April 2026. It has now been launched and is in production. 4) Interactive drama: On September 29, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced the filing information for the first interactive drama “Dinosaur Kombat: Secret Land of China”, indicating that interactive dramas have officially entered the standardized development stage.
AI marketing: The AI model has penetrated deeply into the marketing field. AIGC has achieved mass production of copywriting, images, and videos in seconds, and marketing agents independently complete research, strategy, delivery and customer service interaction. In the first half of 2026, the AI marketing agent circuit entered the large-scale commercial implementation stage, and the product architecture of leading manufacturers was upgraded from a “single point tool” to a “multi-agent collaboration system”. Maifushi launched the AI-AgentForce 3.0 smart platform, which integrates 500+ smart applications, covering the entire marketing, sales and service chain; Quzhi Group released a “full-sensing physical AI agent” system to evolve offline terminals into end-side agents with the ability to sense the environment and generate content. Huiliang Technology is focusing on subsequent catalysis. AI Infra has entered the sprint stage and is expected to launch in October. The usage ratio of GPUs with the new architecture has increased significantly, and they are used for model training. The original CPU-based training architecture data base was unable to train complex user behavior data. The addition of timing characteristics to the new architecture facilitates training complex models, and can greatly shorten the IAP model data accumulation time.
Office AI Agent: In 2026, the domestic desktop AI native office intelligence industry entered a stage of explosive scale expansion, leading manufacturers initially emerged with traffic and big model advantages. 1) Tencent: 2026Q2 report released by Yiguan showed that WorkBuddy had 20.97 million monthly visits in June, ranking first in the industry; 2) Ali: On July 27, 2026, Ali fully integrated the three products QoderWork, MuleRun, and Goku to launch the new Agent office product “Thousand Questions Office”. After one month, the number of users exceeded 30 million, accounting for more than half of enterprise users. 3) Byte system: The product team integrating the AI agent tool “Button” and the AI coding tool “Trae” was merged into the “Doubao” system, and the corporate office collaboration tool “Feishu” was also incorporated into the “Doubao” team.
Games: Edition distribution continued to grow. From January to July, a total of 1,110 domestic online game versions and 36 imported versions were distributed, for a total of 1,146; of these, 193 domestic versions were released in a single month in July, a record high for a single month since 2024. Driven by high-quality content and IP, it enables the steady development of the game industry. In the first half of 2026, the actual sales revenue of the Chinese game market was 188.450 billion yuan, up 12.17% year on year, and the number of users was 684 million yuan, up 0.82% year on year. Overseas sales revenue for self-developed games in the first half of 2026 was US$12.372 billion, an increase of 30.22% over the previous year. Follow the release of new game releases and new game launch expectations: NetEase focuses on “The Sea of Forgotten”, “Infinity” (2027.1.15), and “Hidden Shadow”; Tencent follows “Rock Kingdom: World” and “Wang Zhe Chess”; Perfect World's “Different Ring” reached 1.4 billion in the first half of the year, and follow the release of subsequent results.
[Investment advice]
In 2026, the company is mainly optimistic about three directions: 1) AI film and television: With the release of Seedance 2.5, MiniMaxH3, and Keling 3.0 models, model performance has achieved major breakthroughs in length and image quality, and AI comics and AI skits will gradually expand to AI long dramas and AI movies. Related targets: AI medium and long drama Mango Supermedia (300413.SZ), AI movie Bona Pictures (001330.SZ). 2) AI marketing: Focus on Huiliang Technology (01860) AI Infra launch catalyst; 3) Focus on recommending Kaiying Network (002517.SZ) and Giant Network (002558.SZ). Other targets: NetEase (09999). The company's subsequent self-developed new game launches are expected to contribute incrementally.
[Risk Reminder]
There are risks such as stricter industry policies, insufficient R&D related to multi-modal models, falling short of expectations, underperforming new game products, falling short of expectations at the box office, and intensifying market competition.