Blue Book of New Media： Ten Trends Forecast of New Media Development in China

Event site (Liu Chunyu/photo)

CCTV News (Reporter Tang Shiying Liu Chunyan) On June 25th, the Institute of Journalism and Communication of China Academy of Social Sciences and Social Science Literature Publishing House jointly released the Blue Book of New Media: China New Media Development Report No.10(2019).

The Blue Book predicts ten trends of new media development in China.

First, the digital economy has become the core driving force for China’s high-quality economic development.

According to the data in the White Paper on the Development and Employment of Digital Economy in China, the scale of China’s digital economy reached 31.3 trillion yuan in 2018, with a nominal increase of 20.9% in terms of comparable caliber, accounting for 34.8% of GDP. Digital economy is an important measure to achieve sustainable and high-quality economic development, in which the Internet and new media industries show great development potential. The development of China’s new media will be closely related to digital life and digital economy, grasp the dividend of digital economy and enhance the core competitiveness of the country.

Second, artificial intelligence and 5G commercialization will open a new era of intelligent interconnection.

Driven by 5G and artificial intelligence technology, the video industry, Internet of Things and industrial Internet will all be upgraded in a new round, and people’s information acquisition, working methods and living habits will also undergo subversive changes. Internet technology is more closely related to people’s lives, and "intelligence+"has greatly improved people’s sense of network acquisition and happiness.

Third, the network video industry represented by short video has a strong development momentum.

In the next few years, online video will continue to maintain a strong development momentum. In order to meet the needs of users, the online video industry will continue to develop some new business forms, such as streaming video services. The rise of short video platforms will drive the rapid development of related industries and innovate information dissemination methods. For example, the Tik Tok platform will make the city image more flexible, diverse and humane, and will also provide more ways for users to participate.

Fourth, the industrial Internet is booming, and traditional industries are accelerating digital transformation and upgrading.

In 2019, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) officially released the first international standard "Methodology for Building Sustainable Competitiveness in the Process of Digital Transformation of Enterprises". According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, nearly 14,000 enterprises in China have acquired new capabilities in building an information environment according to the methods provided by this standard. It can be expected that on this basis, traditional industries such as China’s manufacturing industry will accelerate the digital transformation, and the industrial Internet will flourish.

Fifth, the Internet giants are multi-directional, and the competition boundaries are blurred.

In 2018, the Internet industry ushered in a wave of listing. According to the statistics of iResearch, as of December 14th, 2018, there were 64 domestic Internet companies listed, including iQiyi, Meituan Dianping, Xiaomi Group and Pinduoduo. After BAT, today’s headlines, Meituan and Didi are called the new three giants of the Internet industry, abbreviated as TMD. In 2018, the brilliant performance of Pinduoduo, Fun Headline and Aauto Quicker in the "sinking market" also accelerated the pace of foreign investment and mergers and acquisitions of Internet giants. With the comprehensive business acquisition and multi-directional layout of large Internet enterprises, the competition boundary among Internet enterprises will become increasingly blurred.

Sixth, the construction of mainstream ideology in cyberspace will be further strengthened.

Major conferences such as the National Conference on Propaganda and Ideological Work held in August 2018 made top-level design and long-term planning for ideological work. When presiding over the 12th collective study in the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that we should accelerate the development of media integration, make the mainstream media have strong communication, guidance, influence and credibility, form concentric circles online and offline, make all the people closely United in ideals, beliefs, values and moral concepts, and make the positive energy stronger and the main theme higher. This puts forward fundamental requirements for the construction of Internet content, and also provides guidance for the construction of Internet content.

Seventh, information consumption will become one of the most dynamic consumption fields.

According to the China Internet Industry Development Report (2018), in 2018, the scale of China’s information consumption market continued to expand, and the scale of information consumption was about 5 trillion yuan, up 11% year-on-year, and the proportion of information consumption in GDP increased to 6%. In August 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Three-year Action Plan for Expanding and Upgrading Information Consumption (2018~2020)", proposing that the scale of information consumption in China will reach 6 trillion yuan by 2020. In 2019, China’s information consumption will maintain a rapid development momentum, continuously improve the quality of new information products and information technology services, and promote economic transformation and development.

Eighth, the new retail is developing towards deep digitalization.

With the continuous application of Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies in the retail field, new retail digitalization will continue to advance. At present, some new retail stores or business areas have achieved some results, but the whole industry still lacks deep changes such as the transformation to digital management. The new retail emphasizes the intelligence of retail, which puts forward clear requirements for the intelligence of the whole chain of product procurement, sales and service. The new retail needs to open up the chain of product supply, logistics and sales, iterate the business model, and provide users with quality service experience.

Ninth, the fan economy has become an important business model of the Internet economy.

In April 2019, Ruhan Holdings, known as the first share of online celebrity e-commerce, went public in the United States. The economic power of fans created by the Internet is enormous. Although the channels for realizing cash are constantly expanding and changing, the core of the fan economy still maintains a high vitality. The Internet magnifies the individual value, and different platforms such as Weibo and Tik Tok have created the comprehensive ecology of idolize, and this online traffic can be quickly realized offline. Relying on precise operation and good user experience, the ways to realize the fan economy will be more diversified.

Tenth, online poverty alleviation continues to deepen.

In May 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Internet Poverty Alleviation (2018~2020)", which made clear arrangements for promoting broadband access in poor villages and strengthening network application in poor areas, and proposed to improve the effectiveness of online poverty alleviation through rural e-commerce, distance education and telemedicine. With the approach of building a well-off society in an all-round way in 2020, the process of network poverty alleviation will be further accelerated, and the role of enterprise entities represented by Internet companies in network poverty alleviation is becoming increasingly prominent.

(See Blue Book of New Media: China New Media Development Report No.10 (2019) P26-28, Social Science Literature Publishing House, June 2019).