Media Industry Explores New AIGC Development Track: Analysis of Overall Trends in 2023
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Currently, the media industry and other highly digitalized sectors with strong content demands are actively exploring new AIGC development tracks. Under proper regulation, AIGC will initiate a profound and extensive new model of human-machine collaborative creation, driving digital-intelligent transformation across industries and generating positive social benefits.
Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in the first three quarters of this year, large-scale cultural and related enterprises nationwide achieved operating revenues of 9.16 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%, with growth accelerating by 0.4 percentage points compared to the first half of the year.
The internet industry, particularly the growth in mobile internet revenue, has fully offset the decline in traditional media, thereby driving overall industry growth. Internet advertising and online gaming have become pillar sectors within the media industry, while online video, mobile gaming, digital music, and digital reading represent the fastest-growing segments. Content monetization, fan economy, and cross-border data trade may emerge as new economic growth points for the media industry.
Analysis of the Future Overall Landscape of the Media Industry in 2023
Research data shows that the global media industry reached a value of $2.2 trillion in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. The growth momentum of the global media industry has recovered to surpass the global GDP growth rate, becoming a significant driver of global economic recovery. In 2000, China's total media industry output was only 150 billion yuan, breaking through 1 trillion yuan in 2013 and 2 trillion yuan in 2018. Despite the impact of the pandemic in 2020, the industry still maintained positive growth. Through top-level design and specialized governance, the state has guided the healthy development of the media ecosystem. China's media industry has achieved stable growth, with the digital media economy flourishing amid the expanding media landscape, demonstrating strong momentum in building a cyberpower and digital China. In 2021, China's media industry showed restorative growth, with total output reaching 2,971.03 billion yuan, and the growth rate rising from 8.40% in 2020 to 13.54%, returning to the double-digit growth level of 2019. From a segmented market perspective, internet advertising, internet marketing services, mobile data and internet services, online gaming, and online short video and e-commerce are the five sectors with revenues exceeding 100 billion yuan, all maintaining stable growth.
From the perspectives of market, technology, and capital, the mobile internet market, after experiencing explosive growth in its early stages, will gradually enter a phase of adjustment and segmentation. New technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and autonomous driving will influence the future trends of the media industry. Meanwhile, the strong capital advantages of internet companies continue to become more prominent, ultimately shaping the overall landscape of China's media industry in the future.
The more thoroughly the internet penetrates in the digital age, the more it can capture non-mainstream long-tail demands. Technology can bridge distances, bringing together users with similar personalized needs across vast areas and forming profitable business models. The future trend of continued segmentation in the media market will differ from the past. Building on verticalization and specialization, "personalization" and "community-based" segmentation models will gradually emerge. Future corporate competition will no longer be about traditional price wars, brand battles, or sales channel conflicts. Instead, competition between ecosystems in the internet era will become a critical factor determining corporate survival. In the internet age, platform providers are the most crucial builders of these ecosystems.
Currently, the global media industry is in a period of steady development, with an annual growth rate of around 5% and accounting for approximately 2.4% of global GDP. Particularly in China, the internet's development has largely kept pace with the world, driving the continuous advancement of digital media. Although non-digital media remains the primary revenue source for the global media industry, this landscape is likely to undergo a fundamental shift within the next 3-4 years.
Media Emerges as the Strongest Direction for AI Applications
The digital economy is surging. Although the concept of the digital economy is not new, the first quarter of 2023 saw ChatGPT's sudden rise to fame, the release of the Overall Layout Plan for Digital China Construction, and the establishment of the National Data Administration. The convergence of industrial technological revolution and policy-driven initiatives has created a powerful wave of digital economy.
Since the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the expanding commercialization of 5G has brought new opportunities and growth momentum to the media industry. News and information, especially internet-based video content, have been most noticeably impacted. The live streaming and short video industries are poised for explosive growth. In the short video sector, technical barriers have disappeared, and the high-bandwidth, low-latency features of 5G will further boost the prosperity of short videos and live streaming. This sector is also the most immediately affected vertical by 5G, with new dark horses likely to emerge. In the 5G era, new forms of media carriers, such as VR and AR, are expected to appear. The widespread application of low latency will significantly enhance user experience, making information acquisition through devices like VR increasingly common. News and information content will become more diverse and multifaceted.
China's media industry still faces significant issues in film and television production, not due to technical equipment but the challenge of perfectly integrating high-quality productions with commercial success. In gaming, the main issue is a lack of innovation. The media industry encompasses cultural exports, making the spiritual and cultural essence the most critical aspect. The operation of business models should shed some of their浮躁 (fickleness).
The threats to China's media industry mainly come from two sources: for the book publishing industry, the diversion of audiences by new media has put traditional publishing under considerable competitive pressure, with the retail sector also feeling the challenge from online bookstores like Amazon and Dangdang. For new media sectors (online advertising, film, public relations, cable TV, etc.), being in their early growth stages, they hold vast market potential and can quickly capture market share, while traditional media sectors face new challenges due to higher market saturation.
At the start of the new year, many local governments have set digital economy development goals through their 'First Meeting of the Year,' outlining construction plans tailored to their regional characteristics.
On the industry front, ChatGPT, seen as the 'iPhone moment' for AI, has sparked widespread public interest and a capital race. In February, OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users, becoming the fastest-growing consumer application in history. The concept of AIGC (AI Generated Content) has also gained significant traction. Currently, major Chinese tech companies like Baidu, Alibaba, and SenseTime have launched their own large AI models, marking the beginning of an industry-wide competition.
The digital economy has undoubtedly been a key theme in the first quarter, with many analysts predicting it could remain a main focus throughout 2023. Data seems to support this trend: on April 6, Wang Jun, Director of the State Taxation Administration, reported at a press conference that the core industries of the digital economy grew by 14.1% year-on-year in March, 7.3 percentage points faster than the previous year. Sectors driven by digital elements and digital technology applications grew even faster, at 24.5% and 19.8% year-on-year, respectively.
Regions Kick Off Digital Economy Competition
The "Twenty Data Articles" policy document issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council at the end of 2022, along with the "Overall Layout Plan for Digital China Construction" released in February 2023, have continuously catalyzed the development of the digital economy.
The "Overall Layout Plan for Digital China Construction" clearly states: "By 2025, a horizontally connected, vertically integrated, and strongly coordinated unified advancement pattern should be basically formed, with important progress made in Digital China construction; by 2035, China's digital development level should rank among the world's leaders, with major achievements in Digital China construction."
While central policies establish the top-level design, local governments are also making strategic moves in the digital economy sector. A review of regional government work reports reveals that "increasing the added value of core digital economy industries" is a common working objective. In this digital economy "championship," all regions strive to achieve more outstanding results: Beijing aims for 6.5% growth in digital economy added value in 2023, targeting 43% of GDP, with core industry added value reaching about 25% of GDP; Yunnan seeks to ensure over 20% growth in core digital economy industry revenue; Jiangsu strives to exceed 5.5 trillion yuan in digital economy scale; Chongqing targets over 10% growth in core digital economy industry added value; Hunan aims for over 15% digital economy growth, with the sector accounting for more than 33% of regional GDP.
Current disclosed figures show some cities have achieved corresponding results. In the first two months of the year, Ningbo's core digital economy manufacturing sector added 130 new scale enterprises, achieving 680 million yuan in output value with 29.6% year-on-year growth, driving a 0.3 percentage point increase in overall industry output growth; Chongqing's Yuzhong District reported 31% year-on-year growth in software business revenue.
However, regions should avoid herd mentality in digital competition when making investment layouts. The understanding of digital economy includes digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, as well as data elementization and digital governance. Li Lei, Deputy Director of the Institute of International Economics at Nankai University, explained that industrial digitalization can be understood as the digital transformation of traditional industries. Traditional industries apply digital industrialization technologies to improve production efficiency and further reduce costs. This requires corresponding transformations based on industry characteristics to enhance the productivity of traditional industries, without any herd mentality.
However, for digital industrialization, which refers to products and services brought by digital technologies, such as electronic information manufacturing, information and communication, software services, and internet industries, herd mentality in development will inevitably lead to overcapacity in some areas. "This requires regions to formulate development policies based on their own industrial conditions, preferably forming synergies with existing industries to create industrial chains."
The central government has called for moderately advanced layout of digital infrastructure and optimization and upgrading of digital infrastructure, which has become a consensus among regions. For example, based on its urban positioning, Shanghai proposed in 2023 to promote urban digital transformation, advance the construction of digital twin cities, accelerate the building of an internationally influential digital metropolis, and establish a national data exchange, international data port, and a batch of new infrastructure such as data centers and computing power platforms. Guangdong, on the other hand, will promote the construction of the Shaoguan Data Center Cluster, a national hub node of the integrated national computing power network in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, striving to achieve basic coverage in major urban and rural areas.