Consumer Protection

A trending topic weighed heavily on the heart: “My mom spent RMB 220,000 in two years just to watch short dramas.” Don’t dismiss this as unbelievable. According to a report by IT Times, an elderly person in Xinjiang, nearly 70 years old, made a total of 4,887 payments amounting to RMB 225,800 for short dramas between January 2024 and April 2026, involving 365 drama venues. The 39.9 yuan tier alone appeared 1,310 times. Only after her child checked the bills page by page could he believe that this much had really been spent in two years. ...

“The elderly person at home loves watching short dramas — money gets deducted bit by bit, and by the time anyone noticed, it had added up to a large sum.” According to reports by IT Times and other media, as told by the family members of the person involved, a senior in his late sixties made 4,887 short-drama top-up transactions over more than two years, totaling about 225,800 yuan, of which 1,857 transactions occurred late at night between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. the next day. In Hebei, another senior born in the 1950s topped up more than 50,000 yuan over a year and a half — these figures come from the family members’ account and the billing statistics; they are not official statistics. Today we won’t talk about the industry or blame anyone; we’ll just clarify two things: how the money for short-drama top-ups gets deducted bit by bit, and what we can do to help the seniors at home. Keywords in this article: short-drama top-ups, auto-renewal, password-free payment. ...