Current Status, Trends and Investment Value of the Digital Content Industry in China

This paper selects the core contents of the upcoming book Market Layout and Investment Observation of Digital Content Industry in China (2017–2018), which is a continuation of the Market Layout and Investment Observation of Digital Content Industry in China (2015) with updates in contents and methodology. Keeping an eye on the latest developments of the digital content industry, we specifically studied 12 hot segments that are widely concerned and recognized in the market, including online gaming, online education, animation, online video, live streaming, We Media, news APP, online literature, online music, short video, paid knowledge and online periodicals. We made structured and systematic assortment and analysis of the developing status, competition layout, investment and financing heat and relevant policies of these segments, and summarized the ten major trends of Chinese digital content industry. We also built an investment evaluation system to objectively evaluate the investment value and the advantages and disadvantages of each segment, with investment advice and directions. As far as the general trend is concerned, the digital content industry has kept expanding in scale, competition concentrates among the industrial leaders that carry out crossover integration, investment is more rational and contents more social and vertical, IP is the hotspot, and regulation is tightened. Besides, the segments display different developing situations. For example, short video will remain under the spotlight, but the surge of paid knowledge has subsided to reveal the pain spots, online gaming will develop in a more standard way with tighter control, and the application of 5G and VR/AR technologies in vertical contents has blazed new space for tapping the existing market. Popular directions of investment include R&D of original contents, content community or socializing, IP incubation and operation, and vertical segments.