A Study Of The Development Of China’s Animation-comics Industrial Chain

As an important part of China’s cultural industry and an emerging industry,the animation-comics industry can play a significant role in promoting economic growth,optimizing industrial structure,and protecting Chinese culture.China’s traditional industries are troubled with overcapacity,so a new industrial competitiveness by virtue of the internet-based combination of culture and technology is the main direction of China’s economic development.China is now in the stage of restructuring its industries and gradually transforming its development from the low value-added downstream industrial chain to the high value-added upstream one.With the content and creation as its core,derivative products as its output,the animation-comics industry can achieve industrial restructuring,upgrading and competitiveness by combining with the toy industry,which can also meet the demands of China’s economic development.This paper aims to discuss the following topics: explain the actual market status of the animation-comics industry and the value links of the animation-comics industrial chain through analyzing the constitutions of and the actual data on China’s animation-comics industrial chain;identify how important animation-comics films are to the development of the animation-comics industry by analyzing the output sources of the animation-comics industrial chain;find out what competitive advantages of Chinese animation-comics industry are in the perspective of the global animation-comics industrial divisions and what new industrial competitiveness the content and technological innovation can bring to the animation-comics industry;explore the characteristics and patterns of the animation-comics industry in China,Japan and America by analyzing the actual statuses and formation paths of their animation-comics industries;and discuss the features of the animation-comics industry and formations of the consumer market with respect to social and cultural attributes,explore the formation of consumers in China’s consumer market of the animation-comics industry,and provide a basis of consumer demand for the combination of content innovation in the upstream industrial chain with derivatives production in the downstream.Each link of the animation-comics industrial chain differs,which leads to differences in profits.The high value-added lies in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain,the upstream of which focuses on the developing and updating of original designs,content creation and animation-comics development technologies,and the downstream of which focuses on the sales of brands,copyright and derivatives.The intermediate links share the lowest profits,including animation-comics foundry and related derivatives production.The low value-added links of foundry in developed countries are transferred to countries of lower labor cost.In the trend of globalization,the transnational production system is outstanding,and every country has re-positioned its role in international divisions with its own advantages.Countries with developed animation-comics industry possess excellent core brands,technology and copyright of animation-comics.At the early stage,China participated in the international division of animation-comics industry with its comparative advantages,which are mainly low value-added foundry,while after decades of industrial development,China has accumulated technical strengths through technological spillovers in its participation in international divisions.In terms of innovation of animation-comics content,China,through its interpretation of foreign animation-comics works,is trying to find out consumers’ demands in order to support animation-comics content innovation with traditional Chinese culture.Through research by use of the product life cycle model and on the history of the United States and Japan’s animation-comics industry,the author found that the content output and foundry can accelerate the development of animation-comics industry of importing and foundry countries.In its long-term foundry,China,with the knowledge accumulated in the process,has learned more unique industrial development and business models from foreign countries than animation-comics technologies.The author believes that the animation-comics industry is a technology-intensive,knowledge-intensive and capital-intensive industry which can be upgraded and restructured in the aspects of technological and content innovation.American animation-comics industry has followed the industrial model of taking the Disney animation-comics film as its core,the original story as content output and derivatives sales within parks and theme parks as consumer platforms.While Japaneseanimation-comics are based on manga and the consumer segmentation model,with which they segment natural consumers,make television animation-comics and develop derivatives out of popular animation-comics figures.China’s animation-comics industry,under the influence of American and Japanese animation-comics,are currently taking animation-comics films,television animation-comics and Internet animation-comics as its main content output platform,then is segmented by consumers,and thus creates the whole industrial chain model with the gradually forming special animation-comics consumer market.The author argues that the key link of the animation-comics industry is the consumption influence which can develop animation-comics brands,produce derivatives combined with the toy industry,and eventually form a virtuous circle within the industry.Special animation-comics consumer groups in China are generated under the influence of the animation-comics in Japan and America.For Chinese local animation-comics industry,how to combine the Internet-based content platform with mobile terminals to facilitate direct communication between the contents and consumers,to form ACGN differential consumption and product segmentation;consumption characteristics of the special consumer groups are demonstrated in combination with life cycle of the products.It indicates the process that the consumer is shifting from content recipient to content innovation.The paper holds the view that Chinese original animation-comics is the future development orientation of Chinese animation-comics industry,from content innovation to consumer segmentation,to achieve animation-comics industry extension.The core competitiveness of the animation-comics industry is to explore the value of the cultural contents in depth.Content is the source of the animation-comics industry.For design of role and creation of the story,abundant Chinese traditional culture can be utilized as symbol of the role.The paper points out that China,as a country with profound heritage,has an exceptional advantage in its traditional culture and traditional craftsmanship.How to create new economic and cultural value by integrating traditional culture with current techniques will be an essential condition for forming the soft power of Chinese animation-comics industry.In the empirical section of the paper,the first model is to analyze theanimation-comics movies at the source of the animation-comics industrial chain.The animation-comics movie is an important source for content output of the animation-comics industry.At present,the animation-comics movies in China mainly have two modes of creation: one is the original animation-comics movies and the other is the animation-comics movies adapted from existing comics or cartoons.The former one needs to be supported by rich contents,sophisticated production and powerful marketing while the latter one is to be marketed based on the consumers of the original works.It is presented in the model assumption that original contents,production techniques and on-line reputation are conducive to improve the box office of the animation-comics movie.The second model in the empirical section of the paper is to conduct correlation study on the animation-comics derivatives and box office of the animated movie.The derivative of the animated movie is another section with great economic value of the animated movie after its box office.The derivative is produced on the basis of animation-comics content.From the perspective of the industrial chain,its high additional value is at the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.The upstream industry is original design,development and update of the animation-comics contents while the downstream industry is the brand sales,copyright sales and derivative sales of the comics.The one with the lowest profit is the intermediate section,animation-comics foundry and production of related derivatives.Through correlation study of the animated movie and the derivatives,contents and product section of the animation-comics industrial chain shall be matched to enhance the competitiveness of the animation-comics industry.Main findings in the paper are as follows: first: Starting with the animation-comics industrial chain,applying life cycle model of the product and analyzing competitiveness of the animation-comics industry,finding out the development rules of the animation-comics industry,obtaining the technology spillover effect and knowledge spillover effect brought to Chinese animation-comics industry by involving in the international division of labor,and knowing the influence on technology innovation and content innovation of the Chinese animation-comics industry;second: discovering the formation characteristics of the animation-comicsindustries in Japan and America through analyzing the animation-comics industry in the developed countries,and influence of social culture on formation of the animation-comics consumption market.Combining the internet with smartphone platform,viewing consumption and innovation brought to the animation-comics industry consumption market by Chinese youth sub-culture consumer group;thirdly:animation-comics movies are the key growth for future development of the Chinese animation-comics industry.Chinese animation-comics movies tried to break through the “children” consumption market in 2011 and formally stepped into the all age consumption market combined with “children” and “adult” in 2015 from the“children” consumption market.Through analyzing the positive correlation between box office of the animation-comics movies and original contents,production technique,on-line reputation and the derivatives using empirical models,the conclusion is that excellent original contents are soul of the animation-comics industry,which can lead out invisible consumption demands of the consumers and have emotional resonance between the contents and consumers.Fine production techniques will bring consumers with brilliant viewing experience,which indicates technical strength of Chinese animation-comics industry from the lateral side.Formation of on-line reputation is the process in which consumers choose the brands independently,and good reputation will bring the animated movie with more chances to gain momentum subsequently.Derivative is commercial realization of role symbol for the animated movie,which is also a section with the highest commercial value at downstream of the animation-comics industry.Development of derivative will enable the animation-comics industry to extend its brands.