AI cat and dog short dramas become a real money-making business on Douyin and Xiaohongshu

Zinc Depth (锌刻度) reports that AI-generated cat and dog videos have evolved from simple lip-sync clips into serialized short dramas that are now a monetized business. Douyin's #AI pet topic has reached 2.64 billion cumulative views with over 124,000 creators. New video tools like ByteDance Seedance 2.0, Kling AI and Jimeng let animal characters express emotions near human-actor level, fueling hits like the palace-drama series featuring an AI bichon, with The Fat Orange Story reaching 190 million views across 103 episodes. Creators monetize via brand deals (one top account charges up to RMB 80,000 per custom ad), merchandise, paid tutorials, and e-commerce commissions, while homogenized content is squeezing smaller accounts.