COL Group (Chinese Online)
Category: AI in Media / Gaming / Entertainment
COL Group (中文在线, 300364.SZ) is a Beijing-based digital content and IP group. It applies its in-house Xiaoyao (逍遥) LLM and AIGC tools to web-novel creation, AI short dramas and global content distribution. COL Group (Chinese Online) was founded in 2000. The company is led by Tong Zhilei (童之磊). Based in Beijing, China. Latest round: Post-IPO. Key investors include Tencent, China Literature (阅文集团) — reported as shareholders.
- Founded
- 2000
- Headquarters
- Beijing, China
Value proposition
COL turns a large licensed content library into AI-produced derivative content. The library holds 5.6M+ digital works, 4M+ contracted authors and 600TB of text, audio and video data. Outputs include AI short dramas, comic dramas, AI-narrated audiobooks and multilingual novels, distributed in China and overseas.
Products and solutions
Xiaoyao / 中文逍遥 fiction-writing LLM (launched Oct 2023, supports content creation in 14 languages). AIGC multimodal content platform. AI-anchor text-to-speech audiobooks. Literature platforms: 17K小说网, 四月天小说网, 奇想宇宙 (sci-fi), 谜想计划 (suspense). Overseas short-drama apps: FlareFlow, Sereal+, UniReel. AI short dramas and comic dramas. IP derivatives (audio, animation, live-action film/TV). Copyright protection services.
Unique value
COL pairs one of China's largest licensed original-literature copyright libraries with a proprietary creative-writing LLM and AI video pipelines. This lets it convert IP into AI short dramas at industrial scale: about 150 AI dramas per month, targeting a 3,000-per-year annualized run-rate by end of 2026.
Target customer
Online readers and short-drama viewers in China and overseas; content licensees, film/TV producers and platforms buying IP and copyrights.
Industries served
Digital publishing, online literature, short drama / micro-drama, audio content, animation, film/TV IP, overseas content distribution
Technology advantage
Its proprietary training corpus (600TB) and copyright ownership address IP provenance for AIGC. It also has an in-house Xiaoyao LLM and was an early mover in AI short dramas. It is a key customer of ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 video model. Its overseas distribution runs through FlareFlow (37M+ registered users by May 2026), and it holds a 49% stake in Crazy Maple Studio (ReelShort).
How they differentiate
COL owns copyright IP and a self-developed fiction LLM, and uses both to mass-produce AI short dramas. It also holds an equity stake in ReelShort's developer. FlareFlow reached monthly operating breakeven in H1 2026. Short drama has become its largest revenue source (>50% in 2025).
Main competitors
China Literature / 阅文集团 (772.HK, WebNovel), iReader / 掌阅科技, DramaBox and ShortTV (overseas micro-drama apps)
Key partnerships
ByteDance / Volcano Engine (key customer of the Seedance 2.0 video model for AI short dramas). Crazy Maple Studio / ReelShort (49% equity stake). Tsinghua University (company origin). Citi (sole sponsor of the HK IPO application).
Major milestones
2000: founded at Tsinghua University., Jan 2015: listed on the Shenzhen ChiNext board (300364)., 2021: entered the micro-drama market., Oct 2023: launched the 中文逍遥 LLM., Aug 2025: terminated the A-share placement it had launched in 2023., Feb 27, 2026: filed for a HKEX Main Board IPO as COL Global Co., Ltd., with Citi as sole sponsor, the application is under review., Sep 30, 2026: proposed an A-share private placement of up to ¥2.833B (about $398M), its largest refinancing since listing. Planned uses:, ¥864M copyright purchases, ¥575M IP derivative content, ¥479M Xiaoyao LLM R&D, ¥339M AIGC multimodal platform
Growth metrics
H1 2026 results: - Revenue: ¥578M - Attributable net loss: ¥43M, narrowed 81% YoY - Q2 2026: small profit of about ¥2.8M - Operating cash flow: +¥127M - Gross margin: 49.6% - Short drama and IP derivative revenue: ¥411M (+108.7% YoY) FY2025 FlareFlow: revenue ¥352M, net loss ¥473M. Balance sheet and long-run figures: - Attributable net assets: about ¥263M as of Jun 30, 2026 - Cumulative equity financing since IPO: over ¥3.2B - Cumulative deducted net losses 2015-2025: over ¥3.8B
Market positioning
Billed as China's 'first digital publishing stock' (A-share listed in 2015). COL is repositioning as an 'AI-driven digital entertainment platform' under an 'AI + globalization' strategy, but has been persistently loss-making.
Geographic focus
China plus global; overseas short-drama and web-fiction expansion run through a Singapore international hub, FlareFlow, and a Korean localized adaptation.
Patents and IP
Licensed copyright library of 5.6M+ digital content works. Patent counts are not verified.
About Tong Zhilei (童之磊)
Founded COL in 2000 as a Tsinghua University student entrepreneur. Founder, Chairman and President of COL Group. Deputy Chairman of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association. Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative 2025 Fellow. Beijing Municipal People's Congress deputy.
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Official website: https://www.col.com