Chinese Cultural Content, Generative AI, History, and Convergence Platforms Trending This Year

Rapid Growth of Cultural Industry Despite Economic Recession
Cultural Content Companies Achieve Sales of 2409 Trillion Won

Generative artificial intelligence (AI), historical themes, and hybrid platforms were identified as trend keywords in China's cultural content market this year.

The Korea Creative Content Agency's Beijing Business Center published the 'China Content Industry Trends' report on the 6th, presenting ten major forecasts related to China's content industry this year. The report was prepared by referencing interviews with experts in China's cultural entertainment sector and in-depth reports.

Despite the economic crisis, China's cultural content market continues to grow rapidly. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the total revenue of Chinese cultural enterprises last year reached 13 trillion yuan (approximately 2,409 trillion KRW), an 8.2% increase compared to the previous year. The operating profit of related companies surged by 31% to 1.15 trillion yuan.

The Beijing Center expects that creative content production based on generative AI will be activated first in the related market this year. AI technology not only enables low-cost, high-efficiency production but also leads a revolution in the content ecosystem across various fields such as interactive content, generative image apps, and AI agents.

It also anticipated the emergence of domestically produced animation and historical-themed film content, as well as various hybrid platforms. This forecast considers the recent trend in China where entertainment content combining 'long-form + short-form + immersive live broadcasting + live shopping' plays a key role in the membership operations of major platforms.

Short-form dramas are expected to face issues related to traffic acquisition costs amid industry stabilization. While the short-form drama market size is expected to exceed 30 billion yuan this year, content production segmentation and traffic acquisition costs are predicted to increase.

Additionally, the trends for this year include ▲ AI emotional marketing emphasizing emotional connection ▲ expansion of diverse cultural consumption demands centered on three core groups: Generation Z, emerging middle class, and silver generation ▲ immersive cultural tourism experiences through the fusion of culture and digital technology ▲ expansion of digital cultural industry talent development ▲ lowering of the age range for well-being travel and healthcare consumption.

The Korea Creative Content Agency's Beijing Center has completely revamped the structure of 'China Content Industry Trends' starting this year by abolishing the Chinese neologism corner and supplementing issue analysis. In particular, it newly established sections such as 'Market & Expo of the Month' and 'Introduction to Chinese Cultural Industry Complexes.' Yoon Hojin, head of the Beijing Center, said, "We hope that the biweekly published 'China Content Industry Trends' will be of great help to Korean content companies and industry-academic-research stakeholders."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.