New types of online cultural consumption sparked by virus outbreak

China has witnessed new growth opportunities in new types of online cultural consumption in fields such as livestreaming, gaming and short videos amid the COVID-19 outbreak, which will reshape the traditional cultural consumption market in the long run, a new report said.

The country's cultural consumption sector will continue to go through profound changes in the post-COVID-19 world, with a wide range of market entities accelerating the push for digital transformation, the Annual Report on the Development of Cultural Consumption Investment in China (2020) released by JIC Huawen Investment Ltd and the Institute of Creative Industries Technology at Renmin University of China said.

Zhang Lulu, general manager assistant at JIC Huawen Investment Ltd, took a rosy view of the cultural industry's future development.

"While the coronavirus has plunged the world into an economic downturn, new media industries, such as online videos, short videos and livestreaming, maintain good growth momentum," Zhang said. "With the orderly resumption of work and production, the cultural industry will gradually go back to normal."

Powered by the internet, big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other new technologies, many new types of online consumption in cultural fields emerged as beneficiaries of the coronavirus outbreak, Zhu Xinkai, vice-president of Renmin University of China, said, citing the new report.

"The new types of online cultural consumption will not only help hedge against the impact of coronavirus, but also foster consumption upgrades. And the traditional cultural industries will usher in a new round of revolution and upgrading in the post-epidemic world," Zhu said. "To meet consumers' growing need for better lives, we also need to offer diversified, personalized and intelligent cultural products and services."

Zhu's views were echoed by Yang Zhe, Dunhong Capital Investment's executive director, who said the coronavirus outbreak may usher in a new round of digital transformation in a wide range of cultural fields.

"We will continue to look for new opportunities in new cultural fields, such as e-sports, which gained a huge following among young consumers," Yang said. "With their growing spending power, Generation Z is on track to become a key driving force in the consumer market. Compared to their parents' generation, the younger generation is more likely to spend more time and money on their beloved fields, such as e-sports, anime, comics and gaming."

Yang also highlighted the big potential of cultural infrastructure, especially in fields related to big data, software, cybersecurity and information technologies, saying the company will continue to invest in those industries.