China's cultural and related industries recorded steady revenue growth in the first half of 2026, driven largely by emerging business formats, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Thursday.
Revenue of large cultural enterprises, each with annual revenue from principal business reaching 20 million yuan or above, was 7.2026 trillion yuan (1.061trillion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, up 4.6 percent year on year, according to a survey of 82,000 such enterprises nationwide.
The 16 subsectors with notably distinctive new cultural business formats, including digital publishing and internet-based cultural entertainment platforms, generated 3.5239 trillion yuan in revenue, surging 9.6 percent year on year.
By industry, cultural manufacturing revenue edged down 0.4 percent year on year to 1.7851 trillion yuan, while wholesale and retail dipped 0.1 percent to 1.094 trillion yuan.
However, cultural services played a key supporting role. In the first half of the year, the cultural services sector generated 4.3235 trillion yuan in operating revenue, up 8.1 percent year on year.
Revenue from cultural services enterprises accounted for 60 percent of all large cultural enterprises of the kind, rising 1.9 percentage points from the same period last year. Among them, subsectors such as cultural investment and asset management, as well as cultural event services, achieved double-digit revenue growth.
China's cultural industrial sector revenue up 4.6 pct in H1
China's cultural industrial sector revenue up 4.6 pct in H1
