The Chinese online literature market, a giant ecosystem with millions of authors and hundreds of millions of readers, is in shock. The promises of “monthly earnings exceeding 10,000 yuan” and the anticipation of “generating a million characters in 3 hours” fuel a actual gold fever, in which artificial intelligence plays a central role. However, behind the facade of easy income lies a darker reality: a digital deluge of low-quality content that leads to the displacement of authors-people and forces platforms into a desperate conflict for survival.
The scale of the phenomenon is stunning. According to Chinese media, editors working for the platform Tomato Debut (番茄小说), belonging to ByteDance estimation that nearly 40% of the texts sent are generated by AI. It's not evolution, it's a revolution that shakes the foundations of a billion-dollar industry.
Gold fever and content factories
This phenomenon is underpinned by a rapidly developing marketplace for courses and fresh writing tools utilizing AI. The Chinese net is teeming with offers that promise instant enrichment. For the price of respective to respective 100 yuan you can buy access to “models to compose novels with 1 click” which can supposedly make 300,000 characters per day. 1 specified service boasts having more than 100,000 users. Advertisement, enhanced by screenshots with alleged withdrawal proofs, creates an illusion of easy earnings, attracting thousands of willing to become “AI writers”.
The problem is that mass-generated content resembles “ready-made meals without taste”. These novels frequently begin with the same banal motifs – broken engagement, reincarnation, magical worlds – and their quality is grossly low. They are characterized by inconsistent logic, prolonged action, and unnatural, “robotic” language. As 1 experienced author noted, AI frequently “forgets” about earlier feature findings, creating works full of contradictions.
“Silent Cleaning” of Human Authors
The victims of this digital flood are beginners, human authors (how unusual it sounds, isn't it?). Platforms like Tomato work in a free model, earning on ads, and their algorithms advance fresh works to test their potential. The mass influx of AI fresh “steals” this limited promotional movement, making first human works invisible. This phenomenon, referred to as “silent purge”, pushes authors who are incapable to compete with machines producing hundreds of thousands of characters per day.
Stories specified as “Cangshu”, an experienced author who, after moving to Tomato's platform, was forced to resign due to a zero movement at his novel, become increasingly frequent. Young adepts, dreaming of a writing career, collide with a wall of indifference of an algorithm that is incapable to separate their work from mass-produced spam.
Platform War with AI
Literary platforms, initially viewing AI as a supporting tool, were in the state of “defence war”. The flood of low quality content not only spoils readers' experience, but besides impairs the operation of recommending algorithms and leads to the effect of “worser money dispels better”. In response, giants like Tomato implemented a series of remedies:
- Advertising income requirements were dramatically increased, which hit the profitability of mass production of low quality content.
- A more stringent editorial sito was introduced, rejecting novels about “the taste of AI” and blocking authors notoriously publishing spam.
- According to the fresh state regulations that entered into force on September 1, 2025, authors must now declare whether their work was generated utilizing AI.
Two Faces of Artificial Intelligence
While at lower levels of the marketplace the fight against spam flooding continues, in another segments of the AI manufacture is seen as a powerful supporting tool. According to Xinhua, artificial intelligence revolutionizes the process of translating Chinese literature into another languages, reducing costs by over 90% and allowing global expansion. WebNovel platform in the first half of 2025 published over 3400 books translated by AI.
Experienced authors and experts see AI as a “helpful friend” or “secretary” who can aid in research, text editing, uncovering gaps in the plot, or even in creating visual materials specified as portraits of characters. However, the function of man remains crucial – his experiences, emotions and creativity, whose machine, at least for now, is incapable to replace.
The future of Chinese online literature takes place on 2 fronts. On the 1 hand, it is an absolute fight against “content factories” that endanger the ecosystem. On the another hand, a fascinating exploration of the possibilities of human cooperation with the machine. The final result of this conflict will find not only the form of the Chinese but besides the global publishing marketplace for the coming years.
Source:
- 36kr, “番茄小说的AI难题” (The AI problem of Tomato Novel), 9 October 2025.
- China Writer, “AI文泛滥与网文平台“攻防战” (The level of AI texts and the “offensive and defensive war” of web fresh platforms), September 4, 2025.
- 36kr (EU), “AI Consumers Web fresh Traffic: Grassroots Authors Facing ‘Silent Purge'”, October 9, 2025.
- Xinhua, “China Focus: AI in spotlight as Chinese online literature pursues global Reach”, 1 October 2025.
Author: 梁安基 Andrzej Z. Liang, 上海 Shanghai, 中国 China
Email: [email protected]
Editorial: Leszek B.
Email: [email protected]
