China's cultural industry calls for capitals

By Elaine Duan
0 CommentsPrint E-mail China.org.cn, June 4, 2010
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Nine creative teams from the pop-culture industry joined with venture capitals, researchers, and angel investors on June 2 at a conference in Beijing to discuss ways to generate capital and expand profits for the industry.

Li Zhu (Middle), an angel investor and CEO of UUSee.com, addresses the round table meeting at the Promotion Conference on Investment in Cultural Industry Wensday in Beijing. [China.org.cn]

Last July, the State Council approved policies designed to revive the pop-culture industry.

Deng Lili, director of the Animation and Game Research Center, told the conference that the policies led to the creation of more than 500 high-tech business parks, with animation and game companies especially prominent.

Those parks will "create bridges for investors to reach creative companies in need of funds," said Peng Xiang, director of Yongheyuan Technology Park.

Capital plays an important role in China's cultural and creative industry, said Wang Qiguo, a researcher at the Institute for Cultural Industry at Peking University.

"No doubt venture capitals will flow to the profitable areas of the cultural and creative industry with well-structured business models, which is determined by the profit-oriented nature of capital," Wang told the conference.

Despite the industry's accelerated development, investors, especially venture capitals, are cautiously optimistic.

"The cultural and creative companies are asset-light for value assessment, so they get loans more easily than before, but they must accept more intense supervision from regulatory authorities," said Huang Xiangming, chief accountant of Beijing Oriental Culture Assets Operation Corporation.

"Creative arts are personalized, and the user experience can be easily overlooked," said Tu Hongchuan, partner of Highland Capital. "The user's acceptance of creative products is vital for marketing and further profits," he added.

According to Li Zhu, an angel investor and CEO of UUSee.com, current marketing of the industry is far from enough. But regardless, China has stepped forward in marketing games, movies and videos, and animations, especially since Huayi Brothers Media was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2009, Li said.

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