Soccer icon Neymar Jr. has signed a 16-title AI-powered live-action microdrama franchise deal with COL Group’s FlareFlow platform, with the first six titles to debut globally from June 19th.
The partnership was announced before Timothy Oh, chief marketing officer of FlareFlow and general manager of COL Group, appeared on the Microdrama industry panel at the APOS conference. The development comes in line with heightened global attention during the Soccer World Cup season, with an opening wave of six titles starting until June 22nd.
Produced using an AI-powered live-action production workflow, the series spans a wide range of genres, from sports redemption dramas to science fiction. The six debut titles are The Way Back to Glory, The Playboy System: Scoring the Goddess, Score or Die!, Fake Neymar, Real God, Project to Legend: NEY 10, and The Limping Janitor Is the True World Football King.
James Wang, CEO of FlareFlow, said: “This partnership represents a defining moment for the global entertainment ecosystem.” “Neymar is one of the most commercially attractive athletes on the planet. Combining his global star power with our advanced AI creative workflows will allow us to push the boundaries of storytelling on an unprecedented scale.”
As part of the distribution agreement, the slate will also be rolled out in mainland China through Xiaohongshu, a digital lifestyle platform with a daily active user base of over 200 million people.
“The announcement of this franchise at APOS marks the true dawn of our Vertical 2.0 strategy,” said Oh. “We are expanding our premium vertical storytelling far beyond that first wave into scalable genres like sports, perfectly timed to capture the world’s attention during World Cup season.”
Neymar has a total of more than 220 million social followers, which the company characterizes as a key testament to the vertical entertainment category. FlareFlow, which operates under COL Group, which is listed on the ChiNext Board of Directors of Shenzhen Stock Exchange, has released approximately 5,200 series to date, has 33 million registered users, supports 14 languages, and is deployed in more than 200 countries and regions.
