A study on current business performance of Chinese animation industry

Zheng Liu*(Ph.D student)

Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, 17 Charles Babbage Road, CB3 0FS, UK
zl230@cam.ac.uk

Yongjiang Shi
Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, 17 Charles Babbage Road, CB3 0FS, UK
ys@eng.cam.ac.uk

Abstract

As IT infrastructure keeps growing, the digital entertainment, cultural and creative industries including
animation and games are becoming global industries that promote communication and exchanges between
different cultures, playing an important role in the world economy. In recent years, the creative industries have
gown increasingly more important, which have attracted interest from management research. The emergence of
Chinese animation practice with government supporting programs and the ever-increasing complexity of
internet game have called for better understanding of this indsutry from a specific country perspective. The
objectives of this report is to:

- Review the current business performance of Chinese animation industry

- Indentify priority areas as emergying issues
- Suggest areas for future research

Following interviews with a number of marketing practitioners, and review from published documents, this
paper introduce key products, market, development trend, drivering forces, and structure of Chinese animation
industry. Baced on industrial observation, five overaching prority areas which include clusters, outsourcing,
licensing, networking, internationlisation are highlighted. These factors were found predominent in the current
stage of Chinese animation industry. In each topic, one case was provided for a better understanding from
business practice perspective. In the near future, clusters will remain as a management model and infrastructure
support for Chinese animation companies, especially SMEs. More and more outsourcing compaines are looking
for ways to upgrade to OEMs which own brand and can develop character business. International collaboration
also starts in some large companies in China. For further research and study, some potential areas are also
proposed.

Key words: creative industry, Chinese creative industry

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1. Executive summary

In recent years, the creative industries have gown increasingly more important, which have attracted interest
from management research. The emergence of Chinese animation practice with government supporting
programs and the ever-increasing complexity of internet game have called for better understanding of this
indsutry from a specific country perspective. The objectives of this report is to:

- Review the current business performance of Chinese animation industry

- Indentify priority areas as emergying issues
- Suggest areas for future research

Following interviews with a number of marketing practitioners, and review from published documents, the
report introduce key market, drivers, and structure of Chinese animation industry. Cases are studied to
demonstrate business models and strategies from five overaching prority areas:

- Clusters
- Outsourcing
- Licensing
- Networking
- Internationalisation

2. Introduction

2.1 Creative industries and animation

As IT infrastructure keeps growing, the digital entertainment, cultural and creative industries including
animation and games are becoming global industries that promote communication and exchanges between
different cultures, playing an important role in the world economy (2008-2009 annual report). The phrase
creative industries are often defined as those that focus on creating and exploiting intellectual property products;
such as music, books, film, and games, or providing business-to-business creative services such as advertising,
public relations and direct marketing. (Source: en.wikipeadia.org/wiki/creative_industries). As one of the
representatives of creative industry, the animation industry experiences rapid development. In Europe and the
U.S., the animation industry becomes one of the pillar industries, worth more than 10 billion USD annually
(2008-2009 annual report). Typical products include TV animation, movies and related character products.
Game is also animation related industry and share common feature with animation industry, with the products
ranging from PC games, console to internet and mobile games.

The growth of animation industry can generally be divided into five phases. Phase One (1910-1930) is the early
exploration stage of the technology. Phase Two (1930-1950) is the early development stage for animation
movies with the introduction of the first animation movie ‘Snow White’ by the Disney company. The individual
frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings. Phase Three (1950-1970) is the first
booming period for animation industry, leading by the Disney company who expanded operations, moving into
live-action features, television, and theme parks. Full animation technology was adopted widely, meaning the
process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films by regularly using detailed drawings and

2
plausible movement. The European animation industry remained silent after the 2nd world war, whereas in Asia,
both Japan and China began the early development of TV series and movies. Phase Four (1970-1990) is the
declining stage of Disney animation, and the recovering of European and Japanese animation. Phase Five
(1990-) is the second booming stage of animation industry with increasing more cooperation between big
companies and the development of new technology. 2D and 3D computer related skills are used in animation
movies. Pixar released the first 3D animation ‘Toy story’. European and Japanese animation industry kept
growing with more globalised co-operation. In China and India, specialised animation studios developed as
outsourcing studios collaborating with western and Japanese big companies. To summarise, Figure 1 is a
roadmap which indicates the key players, technology and products of each period.

The process of making animation movies (Figure 2) begins with conceputalisation. The production is
undertaken by a prime contractor supported by numerous subcontractors in every phases of production. The
production process of animation film can be divided into three parts: pre-production, mid-production and
post-production. The pre-production stage contains the creation of screenplay, storyboard, visual development,
character design, background design, color design, sound design, story reels and workbook. Normally this part
is conducted in-house or by joint project. The mid-production stage starts with modeling and rigging, followed
by layout, animation, shading and lighting, rending and film recording. Part of it is currently outsourced to
animation studios. The post-production stage includes picture process (color correction and final print) and
sound process (sound effect and musical score, final sound mixed). This is normally conducted in-house or
jointly. For game industry, the production stages include conceputalisation, pre-production, production and
release/operation.

Though mostly similar, the Japanese animation industry is driven by the comic industry, where best-selling
comic books will be further made to animation TV movies. Toy companies join the animation concepulisation
stage and share the investment risk. The comic and animation industry in Japan has long history and complete
supply chain. In USA and many European countries, sample movies are made for shows and exhibition, which
is an efficient way to attract investment. Charecter business including cosummer goods and theme park
consititute the diversity of anmiation industry in USA. In China, comic industry is not profitable, and most
animation produce are made for TV shows only. Charecter business developers do not tend to involve in early
stage of investment. The process and features of producing anmiation products are drawn in Figure 3.

3
Figure 1: Roadmap of animation industry

4
Conceptualisation Pre-production Mid-production Post-production Distribution Sales & services

Anime production Distribution companies Cinemas

Production consortia (prime contractor) (films for theatre release)
for joint production

TV stations & film

TV stations (TV anime) TV stations Retailers
companies
Anime production
(subcontractor)
Ad agencies
Rental
Pre-production Video software makers Sales
Sponsors: toy game (video anime) companies
software companies

Original authors: Character business (toy,

publishers & game game, clothes, food etc)
software

Theme park

Figure 2: The structure and production process of animation industry

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 形象创意
Character c onc ept

广泛传播(网络)
Promotion

形象产品开发
Character R&D

漫画创意 市场检验
Market exploration
动画创意
Animation concept
Comic concept

编辑出版 衍生产品开发 动画制作

Produc tion Produc t Produc tion

发行(线上线下) 消费者 播出
Publicati on Cosummer Broadc ast

Japanese way USA way Chinese way

Figure 3: Process of animation industry from country perspective

2.2 Animation industry in China

The Chinese animation industry can be traced back to 1941 when its first movie ‘princess iron fan’ was released.
In the 1970s there was a blooming period of Chinese anmiation industry by adopting traditional art styles.
However with the Chinese economic reform and open door policy, the previous anmiation companies mostly
SOEs face problems of self-financing. In the meanwhile increasingly more overseas foreign animations,
especially the Japanese, enter Chinese market with competitively low price and diversity of contents. The
domastic animation industry in China declined greatly. Many are trapped by financial problems since there is
no long funds from the government to produce animation movies, and turn into a outourced factory producing
animations for overseas companies. The capability of creating original animation products become limited in
China .

From 2002, the Chinese government realised the importance of preserving national culture through animation
industry. A series studies suggest China's tremendous market and its weak creativity, with over 80 percent of
profits generated from animation industry trapped into pockets of Japanese and Americans (2008 report). The
government decided to promote domastic animation industry. In 2005, Chinese government issued series of
policies to support the animation industry. Private enterprises and foreign-funded companies swarmed into the
area of animation production and animation industry clusters/bases throughout the country came into being.
The total cartoon production for 2004 was only 29,000 minutes, while the market demand was 268,000 minutes,
which left a gap of 230,000 minutes. In 2006 Shenzhen Culture Blue Book revealed China's revenue from
animation industry hit RMB 11.7 billion, and the cartoon resource becomes more with rapid growth of annual
production (Figure 4). In 2007 the industry revenue was more than 200 billion, with the total production was

6
101,900 minutes. In 2008, another important rule was issued that during the golden hours (5pm to 8pm),
overseas animations are forbiden to broadcast on TVs. This policy aimed to encourage the production of
domastic products. Additional policy including awards from regional government and clusters, tax and service
related issues attracted many SME studios and large companies to expand their business range. By the end of
2008, there were 6463 animation related companies and orgnasations national wide with 4 animation TV
stations (Beijing Kaku, Shanghai Xuandong, Hunan Jiying, Guangdong Jiajia) (Figure 5), 34 TV stations for
children and 447 universties providing relvent courses. Clusters grow as a base for SMEs to grow and resource
for large companies. There are 71 clusters/bases, 44 of which are authorised directly by central government
offices (Appedix I), mainly locaded in Beijing, Pearl River Delta, Yangtz River Delta and Hunan province.

Figure 4: Annual productions of Chinese animation industry

Adapted from 2008 Chinese animiation industry report

Province Local
children children
TV stations TV stations

Four animiation
CCTV animation
TV stations

Province Local
children children
TV stations TV stations

Figure 5: Chinese animation TV stations

Besides governent policy, animation products have large market space in China. In the past five years there was
increasingly market demand in China for anmiation products including movies, TVs, mobile games and internet
games. In 2005, the annual sales of children audio & video publication reached RMB 10 billion. The demand
and market scale are increasing (Figure 6). The market for game espectily online game and mobile game is
huge. This is because of the broadband development in China, with tens of millions of new participants joining
the internet world every year (Pew Internet Report, 2007). From 2004 to 2006, the internet population in China

7
grew at double digit rates, rising from 18% in 2004 to 23% in 2006. As of 2007, China had a total of 137
million internet users, with more than 70% them under the age of 30 (So, 2008). The country also established
itself as the world’s largest mobile market with about 565 million users in 2007. In 2006 the scale of online
animation was 10 million RMB, and it is expected to be 100 million RMB in 2010. Online game had more than
33 million users in 2006, and increased by 61.5% year after. The industry now launches more than 200 game
titles to the market annually. Due to internet piracy, major global game companies such as Sony, Nintendo and
Microsoft have kept away from the Chinese market (The Economist, 2008). The absence of console game
players has led to the rise of online games in China. Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, and Vivendi are the three foreign
companies that have entered China by either engaging in mergers and acquisitions or joint ventures with local
game companies. In 2007, 65% of China’s online game market belonged to Chinese local software producers.
The current industry structure shows that there are two tiers of local game companies (Chung and Yuan,2009):
first tier and second tier. Large-scale Chinese companies such as The9, Shanda and NetEase are the first tier
companies, occupying seventy percent of total martket share (Figure 8) (Koo and Waide, 2006). Second tier
corporations includes very specialised companies who serve as distributors or portal operators, or produce local
MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) and casual games. Mobile animation and game
is another profitable area in the industry with more than 10.800 billion RMB in 2007 (Figure 9).

Figure 6: Market demand for Chinese animation industry

Adapted from 2008 Chinese animiation industry report

Figure 7: Market demand for online animation in China

Adapted from 2008 Chinese animiation industry report

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 Figure 8: Market share of major Chinese local online game companies
Adapted from 2008 Chinese animiation industry report

Figure 9: Market demand of mobile game in China

Adapted from 2008 Chinese animiation industry report

The structure of Chinese animation industry can be preseanted as Figure 10. The focal company is the
developer who design concept and product animation movies or games. The production part can be outsourced
to specilised studios who do graph design, anmiation, sound design and testing. Many of these companies
collaborat and co-evolute in industry park and clusters, which are supported by government policy. The
operator level is the downstream of focal developer companies, which contains TV houses, cinemas,
DVD/book publishers, internet and mobile platforms (including game operators), and character manfacturers.
In China, the most active players are focal company, outsourcing studios, industry parks, TV houses and
operators.

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 Figure 10: Structure of Chinese animation industry

3. Method

The themes detailed below were generated from an analysis of interview data with executives/directors and
document reviews from 38 companies (see Appedix II). The selection has covered four active areas of
animiation industry in China – Pearl River Delta, Yangzi River Delta, Beijing, and Hunan province. Companies
include animation studios, game developers, game operators, TV houses, clusters, hardware supplier,
universities and industry associations. Interview questions cover company business model, growth strategy, and
issues in inter-firm collaboration. Five pressing themes emerged for further discussion.

- Clusters
- Outsourcing
- Licensing
- Networking
- Internationalisation

4. Emergent themes

4.1 Clusters

A industry cluster is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated

institutions in a particular field. The animation industry cluster is a unique feature in China. Although not
directly funded by government, they are originally enouraged by the central and regional government to let
anmiation companies gather together, share resources and co-evolute. Six types of clusters can be seen in Table
1. Case One is a typical cluster for SMEs.

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 Table 1: Type of anmiation industry clusters

Type of cluster Feature Location and exmaple

Comprehensive A diverse enviornment animation related companies including movie Shanghai
maker, game developer, services and training schools
SMEs training A platform for SMEs to share informaiton, collaborate and co-evolution Shenzhen, Changzhou
Public service A service platform which providing technology and industry solutions Wuxi
Leading firms Cluster led by large firms who develop orignial anmiation concept Hunan
Software/tech Cluster aiming to develop animation related software and techology Suzhou
Education Train and educate people to be animation expertise Beijing, Changchun, Hangzhou

Adapted from 2008 Chinese animiation industry report

Case One: a national cartoon & animation industry base

Located in Shenzhen City, this industry base is one of the state-level animation bases certificated by the State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television. It is a cultural industry base with focus on cartoon, animation
and internet games. Supported by the strong resources from Shenzhen Media Group, the base has offered
all-around services for all registered 60 companies with infrastructure and administration system. With the
integration of different companies (including IT, diginal content, orniginality, agency, media, communication
service platforms) and establishment of centres (infrastrature, communication, training, production, venture, IT
capital, policy, PTP), the core business of the base is (see Figure 11):

Overseas projects Inside projects

Digital
IT Originality
content

Communication
Agency Media service

Yijing cartoon & animation industry base

Infrastructure communication Training Production Venture IT capital Policy PTP

Non-government capital Government support

Non-government capital

Figure 11: Business model of a Shenzhen-based animation industry base

- By introducing advanced facilities from countries and regions with developed animation industry,
introducing human resources training agencies and introducing Chinese animation companies with original

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 product, it aims to make those Chinese companies produce more excellent original animation and cartoon
products;
- By building up a collaborative network for Chinese TV channels specialized for children, it aims to realise
large-scale sales in Chinese market for original animation and cartoon products manufactured in its base;
- By introducing overseas sales agencies, it aims to explore greater overseas markets.

The registered companies benefit from special polices on technologies, capital, finance, and tax. For example,
the reduced or free rental, interest-free loan, and offering of Shenzhen permanent residence. Up to now, 51
leading companies in the animation and cartoon industry have entered the base, which include 44 Chinese
companies and 7 overseas companies. Among them, there are planning companies for original animation,
cartoon and games, manufacture companies for original animation and cartoons, R & D companies for applied
technologies, programme agency, overseas financing companies, publication and distribution companies, and
distribution agencies, which form an integrated industry chain. All the companies in have their original
products. In 2006，the animation production capability of the base is about 14,000 minutes. There are 26
original movie and TV animations in producing in 2007. It also has established the cartoon, animation & games
Industry training centre, and has close cooperation relationship with universities.

4.2 Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a typicl business model in anmiation industy due to the globalisation of industry and price
competition. From 1980s, Chinese animation began to produce for overseas developers. In the past 20 years
90% of Chinese animation are outsourcing studios. Though orignianl design capability grows, in 2006 there are
still 70% firms in China which do purely overseas project or jointed production (2008 animation report). In
game game production, art and sound are the most common areas for outsourcing, following by animation, and
testing. Case Two shows a good practice of such firms.

Case Two: an Chinese outsourcing studio

Established in 1999, this company is a Nanjing-based outsourcing company delivering high quality 3D art and
animation to the global interactive industry. It is specialised in 3D art and animation production. With 240
full-time employees and is growing rapidly, they are able to produce:

- Concepts
- In-game 3D models for character, objects and environments etc.
- Textre creation
- Animation
- Cinematic movie and special effects
- Flash Game Development
- iPhone Game Development

The company has very clear goal which is to product art and animiation for game developers. Because the
competition for outsourced studio is fierce, it develop several practice to attract clients especially top game
developers globally.

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- Develop product of high quality by investing high-end software and providing training to upgrade employ
knowlege and skills
- Establise IP protection structures containing both hardware (isolation of project teams) and software (IP
protecting database, control of emails). This is one of the base for trust from western partners
- Enhance company competitve advantage from developing 3D anmiation to CG and concept design. Based
on existing collaborated project, it can further expand the project range with high value added activities.
- Attending global conference to form network

So far it has long-term relationship with 10 world top game developers including Sony, E.A. The quality
management, IP protection system, and technique expertise are its core competence to securie the relationship
and establish good reputation.

4.3 Licensing

Licensing is a high value-added practice in animaiton industry supply chain. Licensing business begins in the
western world like Disney, and followed by Japan and South Korea, among which animation related profit
constittute 44% (Figure 12). Children stationary products, foods, beverage, cloths are the most popular
lisencing sectors. It is only recently that most Chinese anmiation companies realise that more than 2/3 profit of
animation comes from licensing. However how to manage the brand and how to license effectively are the
challenges companies face right now.

Figure 12: Liensing business sector

Case Three: a character busniess and licensing company

Since estabished in 1999, this company aimed to develop anmiation and expand its brand across diverse sectors.
It is among the earliest Chinese companies that realised the potiental value of licensing and enter the market
early. While producing its original animation TVs series and broadcast it on TVs, it made every effort to expand
the brand. From 2002 it began to collaborate with manufacturers, and gradually developed more than 600
product types including drinks, stantionery and toys. However the company was too eager to expand the
business to cover the big amount of money of making anmiation TV series. By collaborating with as many
manufacturers as possible, there was lack of the design style, price standardisation and quality management. In

13
this way, problems happened such as price competition, quality failure and distrust between the company and
retailers. The company spent lots of time and money on toy marketing, control and managing retailers,
establishing subsidary as sales agency, and therefore there is few effort focusing on its key competitive
advantage – design and making of anmiation TV programs. The decline of the quality and creativity of its
anmiation eventually break the image of its toy products.

TV house

Sunchime
Sales
Toy Mf g Retailer
Agency

Figure 13: Licensing and chracter business model

The case of this company (Figure 13) suggested a potential business model of licensing in animation industry,
and nurture the whole supply chain. The negative part of its experience also gives further lessons as how to
systematically manage brands, aiming at different market, how to control the quality and IP issues, how to
allocate the resouces, and how to collaborate with partners effectively.

4.4 Networking

The development of TV houses, especially anmiation focused channels needs networking with a variety of
anmiation related companies. For example, Shanghai Toonmax TV holds an animation festival annually to
promote the creative idea from public. Case four company also has a system of network collaboration.

Case Four: a TV house company

This company is one of the four anmiation specilised TV stations in China. Based in Beijing, it was established
in 2007 with the broadcasting range covering Beijing, PRD, YRD of 3.9 billion people. Its focused audience are
children between 4-14 years old. Kaku itself has 30 people who mainly do R&D and marketing. The products
are either proposed by itself and outsourced to production studios, or bought directly outside. In this way it
forms a network of collaborated companines from the resource of BTV and through contacting companies
directly. Some small studio are also partners with the company.

14
 Figure 14: model of a TV house company
The competitive advantage of the company is not on a certain animation product, but for the recoganition of its
whole supply chain. It has expand the business of brand protection, character busienss, toy sales, and theme
park by building up different partners, investing into the areas of production, toy development and children
oriented programs (Figure 14).

The 11’x 100 Cartoon Serial Fuwa’s Olympic Travel is a good example to show how efficiently the company
works as a collaborated network. The project was originally proposed by the Olymic committee, and they
selected this company to lead the project. When it received the project, it was 2.5 years ahead of Beijing
Olymipic. In order to release the products as soon as possible, it operate in the following way:

- In conceputulisation and pre-production stage, get experts (play writing, character design) outside involves.
These expertises are personal friends with Kaku director.
- Make samples as soon as possible, and ask two different types of studio to do it – one traditional hand-paint,
one 2D computer drawing.
- Use the 2D computer drawing sample as benchmark to find 5 outsourcing companies. 4 of them have
network and previous collaborative experience. 1 comes to the company directly, and show full passion of
doing the project with qualified drawing skill.
- Use 3D layout for stadium to save time and be accurate. This result in the collaboration with Crystal CG
who are authorised by the Olympic committee to design the stadium e-model, and has the pictures in hand.
- The mid-production begins along with pre-production, which means companies already start production
without the whole play written. By doing so, time is saved. Also directors get feedback and experience,
which can be used for the rest of production.
- Co-operation between producers/directors and company producers/directors
- Awarding system to encourage companies do quickly and of high quality.
- The production plan and timeline is totally controlled. Computer-based technology save lots of time for
mid-production.
- Invite firm stars as sound cast during post-production. Because they know the importance of Olympic and
want to show public image, everything is done efficiently.

Table 2 shows a comparison of traditional in-house production model with the company model by collaboration.
By running network closely and collobarative under a clear common goal, the project is done successfully
within 1.5 years.

Table 2: Comparison of in-house model and Kaku model

Conceptulisation Pre-production Mid-production Post-production Publish etc.

In-house model 6 months N/A 3-4 years 1 month N/A
Collaborated 3 months - 3 months - 1 year 1 month Mid-production
model - 2 samples - 6 2D companies
- 1 3D companies

4.5 Internationalisation

For most of Chinese animation companies, how to upgrade from outsourcing studios to OEM, and to enter

15
overseas market is a big challenge. Very few have began the internationalisation practice. For example, by
getting experiences from international outsourcing, Fantasia learnt the European animation art style and
enriched its design capablility, which eventually let them create anmiation movies tailored for French market.
Joint project with Japanese firms also proved to be successful in the case of CCTV anmiation. Another example
can be seen from the growth of Case Five company.

Case Five: a way to be internationlised

Since its establishment in 1995, this company has been helping its clients to with applying 3D visualization
technology to creative solutions. From establishment, it focus on using advanced 3D softwards and developing
network with clients from differenct industrial sectors. It has now entered into a new era and expanded into
such sectors as digital entertainment, culture and education with over 2000 employees. The early stage of the
company was to involve in computing effect projects of TV documentary such as 300 episodes ‘Olympic ABC’
(with China Central TV); ‘Imperial Palace’, ‘New Silk Road’, and ‘Rise of Nations’ .

The 3D computing graph technique together with a great passion of participating helped it win the Beijing
Olympics project. The eight years of cooperation with the Olympics was a major contributor to the company’s
rapid and great growth. In 2008 the digital show in Beijing Olympics openning ceremony made the company
known to the world. Its creative design with high quality attracted many overseas clients. Bearing in mind a
strong belief of constantly pursuing excellence, it continued to strive for its leading position in the CG industry,
by improving both the technology and service, and following higher standards. In China, it set up subsidaries in
Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Nanjing, collaborating with local clients from local government, real estate
developers and big conference organiser.

The collaborating with overseas companies including the application of multimedia technology and digital
films to help manufacturing enterprises present products, and project companies to present properties With the
growth of project, it began to establish subsidaries in Dubai, Tokyo and recently in London. Because of the
experience in Beijing Olymic project, the company demonstrated high quality and talent in 3D design, which
let them join the London Olymic project. Now the office in London has 50 employees from both China and UK.
Besides project level 3D effect, it is now joining with a UK animation TV producing, and expand business to
more sectors of creative media industry.

5. Conclusion

This report presented a governal picture of animation industry in China by providing its key products,
development trend, driving forces, and business models. From document and practice review, five emergying
issues were discussed, which include clusters, outsourcing, licensing, networking, internationlisation. These
factors were found predominent in the current stage of Chinese animation industry. In each topic, one case was
provided for a better understanding from business practice perspective. In the near future, clusters will remain
as a management model and infrastructure support for Chinese animation companies, especially SMEs. More
and more outsourcing compaines are looking for ways to upgrade to OEMs which own brand and can develop
character business. International collaboration also starts in some large companies in China.

For further research and study, some potential areas are proposed:

16
- How is Chinese animation industry practice different from western and Japanese way?
- How to reposition and upgrade from outsourcing studio to OEM?
- How to reposition and upgrade from character manufacturer to OEM?
- How to license and develope brand successfully?
- How to develop trust between collabrated partners in internatioal animation products?

References
2008-2009 Annual Report on the Development of Global Animation Industry (General Report)CCID
Consulting Co., Ltd. 2009.

2008 Chinese animation industry development report 中国动漫产业发展报告, 安徽美术出版社，2008.

Chung, P.and Yuan,J. (2009) Dynamics in the online game industry of China: a political economic analysis of
its competitiveness. www.eptic.com.br, vol. XL, n.2, mayo-ago./2009

Koo, S. & Waide, P. (2006). “Pacific Epoch Red Innovation Report Series: 2006 Online Game Report.” Online
Document.<http://www.pacificepoch.com/uploads/docs/20060124_Sample_-_Pacific_Epoch_Online_Game_R
eport_PreRelease.pdf>

Pew Internet Report. (2007). “China’s Online Population Explosion.”

<http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/c/2/topics.asp>. Retried on June 12, 2008.

So, S. (2008). “Burning Crusade Bucks Free to Play Trend in Mainland Game Area,” South China Morning
Post. February 26, 2008. From LexisNexis. Retrieved on May 8 20, 2008.

The Economist. (2008). “Alternative Reality; The internet in China.” February 2 2008. From LexisNexis.
Retrieved on May 10, 2008.

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Appendix I: Animation clusters in China

23 个广电总局授牌基地
基地位置 授牌时间 类型 主管单位 承办单位
北京 中国电影集团 2004-12-6 企业型
中央电视台中国国际电视总公司 2004-12-6 企业型
中国传媒大学 2004-12-6 教育基地
北京电影学院 2004-12-6 教育基地
上海 炫动卡通卫视传媒娱乐有限公司 2004-12-6 企业型
上海美术电影制片厂 2004-12-6 企业型
湖南 湖南金鹰卡通有限公司 2004-12-6 企业型
三辰卡通集团 2004-12-6 企业型
江苏 常州国家高新技术产业开发区软件园 2004-12-6 园区型 常州市政府 常州市广电局（政府）
苏州工业园区国际科技园 2005-6-1 园区型
无锡太湖数码动画影视创业园 2005-6-1 园区型 无锡广电集团、无锡新区、滨湖两区政府 无锡市广电局（政府）
南京软件园 2007-9-2 园区型
浙江 杭州高新技术开发区动画产业园 2004-12-6 园区型 高新区（滨江）党委、管委会、政府
中国美术学院 2004-12-6 教育基地
浙江大学 2007-8-15 教育基地
浙江传媒学院 2007-8-15 教育基地
广东 南方动画节目联合制作中心 2004 -12-6 企业型 前为广东爱威文化发展有限公司，现为广州
市达力影视文化传播有限公司
深圳市罗湖区（深圳怡景国家动漫产业基地） 2005-5-19 企业型 深圳广播电影电视集团
湖北 江通动画股份有限公司 2005-6-1 企业型
辽宁 大连高新园区动画产业园 2005-6-1 园区型
吉林 长影集团有限责任公司 2005-6-1 企业型
吉林艺术学院 2005-12-6 教育基地
重庆 重庆南岸区茶园新区 2007-8-15 园区型
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 个新闻出版总署授牌基地
10

基地位置 授牌时间 类型 主管单位 承办单位

四川 成都高新区数字娱乐软件园 2005-4-26 园区型 成都高新区政府 园区管委会（协会）
广东 广州天河软件园 2005-8-18` 园区型 市国家网络游戏动漫产业发展基地建设领导 市新闻出版和广播电视局（政府）
黄埔园区（广州国际玩具礼品城） 2005-10-28 企业型 小组
番禺天安科技节能园 2007-2-12 园区型
越秀园区 2007-7-15 园区型
上海 上海张江高科技园区 2005-11-9 园区型 上海市政府 文新集团和上海张江（集团）
北京 中关村科技园 石景山园 2006-5-31 园区型 石景山区政府 北京领步科技（公司）
海淀园 2006-5-31 园区型 海淀区政府 园区管委会（协会）
雍和园 2006-5-31 园区型 东城区政府 园区管委会（协会）
河北 石家庄市动漫产业发展基地 2007-6-13 城市型 石家庄市政府 动漫产业领导小组（政府）
辽宁 沈阳浑南新区（国家动漫产业发展基地） 2007-6-29 园区型 沈阳市政府 浑南动漫产业办（协会）
山东 青岛市国家动漫创意产业基地园区和人才培养 2007-9-15 园区型 +教 青岛市委宣传部 青岛慧谷软件园、青岛科技街、青岛创业园、
与研发基地 育基地 青岛科技大学传播学院、青岛农业大学传媒
学院、新未来文化产业人才培训学校、市北
区劳动就业培训中心和青岛本色高级设计
培训中心
烟台芝罡区（国家动漫产业发展基地） 2007-12-12 园区型 烟台市政府
安徽 合肥市高新技术开发区（国家动漫产业发展基 2007-11-30 园区型 合肥市政府
地）
芜湖软件园（国家动漫产业发展基地） 2007-12-1 园区型 芜湖市政府

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 5 个文化部授牌基地
基地位置 授牌时间 类型 主管单位 承办单位
上海 华东师范大学 2004-7-27 企业型 上海宽视网络电视有限公司、华东师范大学
辽宁 大连高新园区 2006-8-7 园区型 高新园区科技发展中心和大连软件园股份有 大连动漫游产业基地开发有限公司
限公司
湖南 长沙市高新区麓谷园区 2006-12-22 园区型 长沙市政府
四川 成都高新区天府软件园 2006-12-29 园区型 四川省文化厅 基地办公室（公司）
江苏 无锡新区 2007-2 园区型 无锡新区政府 基地办公室（协会）

6 个科技部授牌基地
基地名称（位置） 授牌时间 类型 方向
北京 北京大兴新媒体产业基地 2005-12-31 园区型
国家数字媒体技术产业化基地（石景山区） 2005-5 园区型 建立无纸动漫公共技术服务平台
山东 青岛市南软件产业基地（青岛慧谷软件园） 2004-12-31 园区型
成都 国家数字媒体技术产业化（四川成都）基地 2005-6 园区型 搭建“网络游戏引擎研制”、“网络游戏测评”等平台
上海 国家数字媒体技术产业化（上海长宁）基地 2005-5 园区型 建立动漫和影视基地主题园
长沙 国家数字媒体技术产业化（湖南长沙）基地 2005-5 园区型 以卡通动画为主要特色

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Appendix II: Participated companies for this study

Participated companies for study

Location Company name Type of Business Interviewee

Hong Kong Hong Kong City University Accademia Research/teaching fellow
Hong Kong Activision Blizzard Game developer/publisher Senior director
Hong Kong Imagi Animation Document review
Hong Kong Opus Game developer Marketing director
Shenzhen Toonring Animation General manager/producer
Shenzhen Shenzhen Yijing Animation Cluster Director
Shenzhen Original Force Animation Document review
Shenzhen Animate China Animation Licensing manager
Shanghai Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Accademia Research fellow
Shanghai Toonmax TV TV house Marketing department supervisor
Shanghai Shanghai Zhangjiang Animation Cluster Marketing director, Vice president
Shanghai Shanghai Animation Film Studio Animation Document review
Shanghai Fantasia Animation Document review
Shanghai Youth Animation Art director
Shanghai Great Dreams Animation Sales manager
Shanghai Shanda Game developer/operator Marketing director
Shanghai Mystone Game developer Document review
Shanghai Zhixian Animation General manager
Nanjing Nanjing Ditigal Cluster Director
Nanjing Crystal CG Animation Vice general manager
Nanjing Winning Music Music studio Art director
Nanjing Orignial Force Animation COO
Hangzhou China Mobile Mobile platform Product manager
Hangzhou Kangde Software Animation General manager
Changsha Sunchime Animation Document review
Wuhan Jiang Toon Animation Document review
Beijing CCIF Association CEO
Beijing CCTV TV house Marketing director, product manager
Beijing Kaku BTV TV house Vice president
Beijing Crystal CG Animation Total director
Beijing Glorious Animation General manager
Beijing Sanshan Digitao Animation Art director, COO
Beijing Qimingxing Animation General manager
Beijing Sohu Internet platform Product manager
Beijing Wanmei Game developer/operator Project manager
th
Beijing The 9 City Game operator Marketing director
Beijing Mgame Game developer Product manager
Beijing Hanwang Hardware supplier Product manager

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