On the afternoon of April 24, the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) held Press Conference of Copyright Publicity Week 2017 in Beijing, where the China Academy of Press and Publication released the latest results of the research on the economic contribution of China’s copyright industry. According to research results, the increased value of China’s copyright industry exceeded 5 trillion yuan in 2015, reaching 5,004.14 billion yuan, accounting for 7.30% of the national GDP, and increased by 0.02 percentage points compared to the value in the previous year; the number of employed persons in urban units reached 16.6690 million, accounting for 9.23% of the total number of employed persons in urban units throughout the country; the amount of commodity export reached 263.336 billion dollars, accounting for 11.58% of the total amount of commodity export. Research data showed that the proportion of China’s copyright industry to the national economy was gradually increasing, which played an increasingly important role in promoting economic development and optimizing the economic structure, as well as become a new engine for China’s economic development.

Over the past decade, the increased value of China’s copyright industry showed a steady increase

Since 2007, the NCAC has delegated the China Academy of Press and Publication to carry out research projects in terms of the contribution rate of the copyright industry to national economy in accordance with the concepts and methods provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the economic contribution over the past decade from 2006 to 2015 has been calculated.

Over the past decade, in addition to the national research from 2006 to 2015, the China Academy of Press and Publication also carried out research in Guangdong, Shandong, Shaanxi, Guangzhou, Dongguan and other provinces and cities. The research showed that the contribution of China’s copyright industry to the national economy continued to grow over the past decade, and the increased value of the industry nearly doubled, with an average annual nominal growth rate of 15.68%, 2.19 percentage points higher than the growth rate of GDP. The proportion of China’s copyright industry to GDP also increased by 0.91 percentage points, which became a new engine for China’s economic development.

As the most important part of the innovation-driven concept, the role of the core copyright industry became more prominent.

Over the past decade, the structure of China’s copyright industry was improving, and the proportion of the increased value of the core copyright industry most closely related to innovation to the overall copyright industry increased from 48% in 2006 to 60% in 2015, reaching 3 trillion yuan in 2015, accounting for 4.41% of the national GDP. Obviously, the contribution of the core copyright industry to economic development became more prominent, which had made an important contribution to promote the development of China’s copyright industry.

The commodity export scale in the copyright industry has expanded

From 2006 to 2015, the commodity export amount in China’s copyright industry fluctuated, the proportion of which to the national commodity export amount decreasing from 15.40% to 11.58%. But as a whole, the export scale has expanded, nearly doubling in the past ten years. The amount of commodity export in 2015 reached 263.336 billion dollars.

Narrowing gap with the US copyright industry

From an international perspective, there is still a certain gap between China’s copyright industry and the US copyright industry. But after 10 years of development, the gap has been gradually narrowing. In 2006, the increased value of China’s copyright industry accounted for 6.39% of GDP, while the increased value of the US copyright industry accounted for 11.04% of GDP, with a gap of 4.65 percentage points. In 2015, the proportion of the increased value of China’s copyright industry to GDP reached 7.30%, while the proportion of the increased value of the US copyright industry to GDP reached 11.69%, with a gap of 4.39 percentage points, which was 0.26 percentage points lower than that of 10 years ago. This also showed that compared with the developed countries in the world, China’s copyright industry has made significant progress.

Update: April 25, 2017