Original · Unique Research · 2026-01-16
Historical edition: This complete January 16, 2026 analysis and all fourteen interview answers retain the original speaker claims and forecasts. “Half a small target” is the source’s colloquial revenue description, conventionally suggesting about 50 million through an allusion to a 100-million “small target”; neither currency nor reporting period is specified in that revenue statement, and it is not a newly verified financial figure. The introduction says the team grew from 3 to 300; the discussion and Q2 describe growth from 100 or more than 100 to nearly 300. Both source baselines are retained, not silently reconciled. The founder’s three keywords differ between Q3 and Q14, as in the original. S-tier is the source’s production-quality label, not an independently certified rating. Plans for 2026 and 2027, cost savings and claims of global leadership remain historical statements. Yuguang Tongchen and Yuguang AI are source-based name renderings, not claims of verified official English names.
INSIGHT
The More Technology Is Democratized, the More Aesthetics Rule: When AI Becomes a Tool, What Are We Competing On?
This is a highly "contradictory" company.
While others were still holding PPT decks and talking grandly about "disruption," it quietly generated “half a small target”. While the whole industry lamented "excess capacity and shrinking budgets," the market pushed it to run faster: the team surged from 3 people to 300 and still said it was short-handed.
This is Yuguang Tongchen. Founder Chen Faling's first impression on me was less that of an AI geek than an old hand with ten years of hard-won experience in film and television. Yet what he said stripped the subject of "AI film and television" completely bare.
Today, we will not discuss parameters or models. We will discuss what this company did right in an AI era when everyone feels insecure, enabling it to build a booming business during this supposed "winter."
01 Do Not Be Fooled by "AI": Technology Was Never This Industry's Barrier
Many people working in AI film and television fail precisely because they take AI too seriously.
"We have always treated AI as a tool." That may sound obvious, but 90% of people do the opposite.
Too many people in the field now carry a hammer in search of a nail: they learn Stable Diffusion first and then ask what they can do with it. Yuguang Tongchen is different. It had the nail first—ten years of advertising and film experience—and then went looking for the best hammer, AI.
The year 2023 was a watershed. While everyone else was still amazed that AI could draw pictures, Chen Faling and his colleagues were already taking AI-generated storyboard images to clients. Clients could not tell they were artificial and bought them on the spot. The seed was planted: technology could not only entertain; it could make money.
Their logic was never "what can I make with AI?" but "what does the customer need, and can I use AI to deliver it faster and better?"
They produced still images in 2023 to reduce costs, creative advertising in 2024 to improve efficiency, and comic dramas in 2025 to expand capacity. Looking back along this path, you find that they were effectively using AI as an "external circulatory system" for traditional film and television. Shots that previously required location filming in Spain or Japan can now be "virtually produced" in the office by a few AI-generation specialists.
How is this an AI company? It is clearly a top-tier advertising company that understands technology.
02 Supply and Demand Reverse: It Is Not That We Run Fast, but That the Market Pushes Us
One detail in the interview is especially interesting. The host asked, "How did you grow from 100 people to 300 in just a few months?" Chen Faling gave an enviably understated answer: "Because demand exceeds capacity; the market is pushing us forward."
Behind that remark lies a harsh industry reality. What is the traditional film and television sector like? "Capacity exceeds demand," so everyone competes on price and on who can go cheaper. But the rules have changed in the new battlefield of AI film and television. Clients line up with money and wait for you to deliver. Whoever works fastest and best has the power.
The greatest dividend Yuguang Tongchen captured was not a technology dividend but a gap in understanding between the two industries. Traditional film professionals do not understand AI and dismiss it as trickery; people who work purely in AI do not understand film, so what they make looks like a PPT deck. Yuguang Tongchen sits precisely in the middle: it knows how to tell stories, which is content, and how to use AI tools.
That explains why it can sell one advertisement for hundreds of thousands, with no currency specified in this passage. Customers are not buying those few images; they are buying a solution that "achieves cinematic quality without location shooting." Technology has been democratized, but aesthetics have not. In an era when everyone can generate images, what is most valuable? The mind that "knows what makes an image good" is the most valuable thing.
03 Reject Fast Food: Slow Is Fast
Many AI series on the market claim to cost only a few hundred yuan per minute and produce several series in a week. That is fast food, disposable digital entertainment. Chen Faling does not make it. He wants to produce S-tier comic dramas, with 6-7 people polishing one series for 3 months.
AI solves the efficiency of "production," not the efficiency of "creation." If the script is bad, generating it faster with AI still produces garbage. Yuguang Tongchen's model is to refine the script, storyboards, and concepts to the limit, confirm that everything is "OK," and only then press AI's fast-forward button.
A traditional animated production starts at tens of millions of yuan and is measured in years; their production cuts costs by 70% and compresses the cycle into a quarter.
That is true "industrialization." It is not a competition over whose hands move fastest, but who can mass-produce "good content" at low cost. In the past, a lack of money prevented people from producing something good. With AI today, a lack of aesthetics is what prevents it.
04 The Next Ten Years: Competing from China to the Entire World
At the end of the interview, Chen Faling discussed going overseas and AI films in 2027. It showed me the company's ambition. China's AI applications are actually ahead of the world, especially in Southeast Asia. Yuguang Tongchen's approach is now very clear: directly replicate abroad the "industrialized AI film and television" model validated in China, taking it to Vietnam,
Malaysia, and the United States.
This is a "dimensionality-reduction strike." Like China's mobile-internet applications expanding overseas in the past, we have the most battle-tested teams and the most mature scenarios for putting AI into practice, and we can earn money worldwide.
Chen Faling gave himself three labels: exploration, globalization, and long-termism.
I believe the most important is "long-termism." In an AI field where everyone wants quick money and plans to cash in once and disappear, the ability to settle down and build tools—the in-house-developed Yuguang AI platform—content, education, and a closed loop for overseas expansion is itself extremely scarce.
Closing Thoughts
As I left Yuguang Tongchen, I considered a question: will AI replace film and television professionals? Chen Faling's answer is embedded in his team structure. A production crew once had a director, art department, and editors; now it has added an "AI-generation specialist."
AI will not replace people, but people who use AI will replace people who do not. Yuguang Tongchen's story tells us: in this era, do not chase technology; it is too exhausting. Instead, mount the fast horse of technology and hold tightly to the reins in your hands—the reins called "content," "aesthetics," and your decade of unwavering industry understanding.
After all, Yuguang Tongchen—"sharing the light and dust"—requires not only light but also a firm connection to the ground.
Selected Interview Q&A
I. Company Positioning and Explosive Growth
Q1: How would you characterize Yuguang Tongchen as a company? What is its current revenue situation?
Chen Faling: The company's character is captured by its name, "Yuguang Tongchen." In revenue terms, as an explorer taking the AIGC industry from 0 to 1, revenue from the AIGC business alone is currently about "half of a small target," a colloquial expression suggesting approximately 50 million, with no currency or reporting period specified.
Q2: Why did the team grow rapidly from more than 100 people to nearly 300?
Chen Faling: We grew because we found the right way to use AI. We regard AI as a tool, while content remains the core. The company has 10 years of experience in film and television, and by combining that foundation with AIGC technology, it has genuinely reduced costs and improved efficiency. The market's supply-demand relationship has now reversed: in traditional film and television, capacity exceeds demand, while in the AIGC commercial market, demand exceeds capacity.
Q3: As the founder, what three keywords would you use to introduce yourself?
Chen Faling: Deep thinking, long-termism, and Yuguang Tongchen.
II. Business Evolution and Core Strategy
Q4: When did the company decide to enter AIGC, and what prompted the decision?
Chen Faling: The opportunity arose in 2023. On one project, we happened to discover that a single-frame art storyboard generated with AI could persuade the client to buy directly, and the client could not tell it was AI-generated. Although the technology was still in the "PPT stage," we foresaw that technological development would make images move and profoundly reshape advertising.
Q5: How has the company's AI business evolved over the past two years?
Chen Faling: Our business path is very clear: we focused on still images in 2023; creative advertising and comic dramas in 2024; AI comic dramas in 2025; we plan to advance AI animated series in 2026; and our 2027 goal is to generate commercial AI films.
Q6: Why does Yuguang Tongchen consistently identify trends and achieve results?
Chen Faling: The core is deep thinking about commercial implementation scenarios. We consider what kind of content customers and markets will pay for, and then reason backward to determine how AI technology can deliver it. This comes from combining our 10 years of industry experience and customer resources with our exploration of AI technology, as well as the company's firm belief in "long-termism."
III. Production Model, Team, and Costs
Q7: How do the capabilities required for AI comic dramas differ from those needed for creative advertising?
Chen Faling: Content remains the core capability. Whether it is advertising or comic drama, creativity must first persuade the customer to buy. The current team structure retains traditional roles such as creatives, directors, artists, and editors, while adding "AI-generation specialists" and "AI animators." AI is like an entire production crew, driven by the principal creators to generate images.
Q8: What are the production cycle and team size for an AI comic drama?
Chen Faling: We do not make "fast-food content"; we insist on polishing premium work. An S-tier comic drama takes roughly three months to produce, with a core creative team of about 6 to 7 people.
Q9: Compared with traditional animation production, what cost advantages does AI production offer?
Chen Faling: Traditional animated series take years to produce and require budgets starting in the tens of millions of yuan. By comparison, the current AI production model can reduce costs by at least 70%.
Q10: In an era when AI technology is democratized, what is the core competitiveness of film and television professionals?
Chen Faling: The future's core competitiveness is differentiated aesthetics. Technology has been democratized, but experienced professionals know what makes a good drama and a good image. Machines struggle to replace that aesthetic judgment and professionalism.
IV. Technology Products and Global Expansion
Q11: Why did the company develop the "Yuguang AI" platform in-house?
Chen Faling: General-purpose foundation models on the market cannot meet our large-volume demand for "industrial-grade" film and television creation. We developed a set of tools for our internal production system that connects assets and workflows while ensuring that corporate assets remain secure and are not lost. In the future, these tools will also provide enterprise-grade services to the market.
Q12: How is overseas expansion progressing?
Chen Faling: We believe China's application of AI across industries currently leads the world. We are focusing primarily on Southeast Asia while also catching up with the US market. We will take commercial advertising, educational scenarios, and AI film-and-television scenarios overseas together.
V. Future Outlook
Q13: What capabilities do you value most in employees joining the company?
Chen Faling: First, core content-creation ability; second, command of tools.
Q14: Three years from now, what labels do you hope the industry will attach to Yuguang Tongchen?
Chen Faling: Exploration, globalization, and long-termism. Next year begins the company's next decade, and we will continue cultivating the field deeply.