China's Internet Audio & Video Convention: Officials and industry players upbeat about growth momentum

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The 6th China Internet Audio & Video Convention is underway in Chengdu, where over 300 industry leaders have gathered to discuss market trends. Key highlights this year include: technological innovation, media integration, and AI capabilities. CGTN's Wei Lynn Tang has more.

Chinese officials continue pledging support to the nation's internet audio and visual industry. Statistics show that in 2017, China's online video market reached a scale of 100 billion yuan; with that of online video advertising hitting nearly 50 billion. Experts say the country should strive to be pioneers of new formats and services.

NIE CHENXI, HEAD CHINA'S STATE ADMINISTRATION OF RADIO AND TELEVISION "We encourage and support service innovation, technological innovation and integrated innovation. Competition within the internet audio-visual industry is getting more intense; we need to build differentiated and high-quality services to win audiences."

Officials also call for combining the strengths of radio and TV, and various new media platforms, to better promote the integration of information content. In the first three quarters of 2018, five Chinese companies within the internet audio-visual field were listed. Cases in point, Bilibili, a video sharing site; and iQiyi, dubbed the Netflix of China – both of which floated their shares in New York.

ZHOUJIE, DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL CHINA NETCASTING SERVICES ASSOCIATION "Short videos, paid knowledge and content, and micro-entertainment platforms have the highest business opportunities going forward. There will be more Chinese companies going out. This is the best way to promote our culture."

WEI LYNN TANG CHENGDU "Just to give you a sense of how China's internet video industry is booming. There are now 609 million online video users, accounting for three quarters of the country's internet user base. Also, the latest half yearly growth rate of these video users has outpaced that of China's overall internet users."

Migu, a subsidiary of China Mobile Communications, applied its artificial intelligence video editing system to the 2018 World Cup. Highlights of a full match can be condensed into 1 to 2 minutes video – within seconds.

ZHOU ZHIYIN, TECHNICAL PROJECT MANAGER MIGU VIDEO "We already applied the AI system to football, basketball and other sports programs. Right now we try to extend the system to variety programs like music concerts."

In a nutshell, experts are bullish on the growth momentum of China's internet audio and visual industry. This is driven by an improvement in user experience, an increase in active users and usage time, which have resulted in an uptick in average revenue per user. WLT, CGTN, Chengdu.