The rise of online drama in China

All this may appear to challenge the traditional broadcast industry. It may seem a smart business choice for content producers to choose the internet as their means of distribution. But some producers believe China's urbanization actually encourages co-broadcasting on both the internet and television to reach the largest audiences possible.

"China is a unique market because its traditional movie and TV markets are developing rapidly as well, especially with the urbanization. Large cities have different development paths from lower-tier cities. So we do both ways," said Frank Zhu, CEO of Pearl Studio in Shanghai.

However you distribute the content, there is no doubt that China's entertainment industry continues its high-speed growth. There are over 60,000 companies turning out entertainment products of one kind or another. In the first nine months of last year, they earned over six trillion yuan, nine percent more than in the same period in 2017.