The 7th Beijing International Comics & Animation Festival (BICAF), organized by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture, closed in the Beijing National Convention Center on Aug. 12. About 100,000 attendees joined the four-day festival, which reported total sales of over 50 million yuan (US$7.26 million) in animation, comic and game (ACG) products. The event also produced several cooperation projects between companies worth 15 million yuan.

According to an official from the culture bureau, the festival has scaled up thanks to the growth of the ACG industry. In 2017, the output value of Beijing's ACG industry reached 62.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20 percent, while the export value was about 11.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 93 percent. As of 2017, 48 ACG companies from Beijing were listed on China's "new third board."

With a growing number of well-known ACG companies and products, Beijing has witnessed a complete industry chain from creating, to publishing, operation, distribution and product development. This May, five projects from Beijing-based companies won the Chinese government's animation awards for culture and arts, the highest prize in the field of animation and comic in China awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The number accounted for a quarter of the animation awards all over the country.

In addition to the regular exhibition, this year's BICAF also organized three forums and a one-to-one promotional meeting to build a service network for the industry.

Meanwhile, China's e-sports industry is also developing quickly. In 2017, the national market size of e-sports was 77 billion yuan, and it is estimated to exceed 88 billion yuan this year. In the past three years, the e-sports user growth rate has continued to maintain at more than 20 percent, with an increase of 100 million new users over three years. The number of users in 2018 is on target to reach 430 million.

E-sports was recognized by the State General Administration of Sports as the 99th sport event in as early as 2003, but its rapid development has only begun in recent years. In 2017, several big e-sports competitions, such as the Asia Invitational Tournament, the 2017 Jingdong Cup China E-sports Carnival, the "League of Legends" Final and the "Glory of Kings" Final, etc. were held in Beijing. Since e-sports has become an important part of the ACG industry, leading organizations in the industry including the Beijing ACG Industry Association and the China Cultural Industry Development Corporation have jointly founded an e-sports alliance to promote e-sports.

The rapid development in the derivative product market is equally compelling. The estimated number of ACG customers in China is 190 million. The output value of the ACG derivative product market, with an annual growth rate of over 20 percent in the past five years, was estimated at 45 billion yuan in 2017.

To gather resources, form business clusters and promote the development and production of ACG derivative products, a professional service platform for the design and manufacture of ACG derivative products has been launched and operated by the Beijing ACG Industry Association with the support of the Municipal Bureau of Culture and the Municipal Commission of Science and Technology. The platform provides services regarding IP and copyrights, as well as design and manufacture services for derivative products. The platform also provides other value-added services such as targeted marketing, custom design, crowdfunding and copyright management.

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