| Revenue is an important indicator of an enterprise’s operating conditions and level of operations,and is the most integral part of the income statement.As a major accounting indicator in the day-to-day activities of an enterprise,revenue provides a direct basis for managers’ decisions and investors’ judgments.The revenue recognition method has a direct impact on the basis of comparison between enterprises in the industry,and a standardised revenue recognition method can ensure the comparability of revenue information in the industry.As one of the components of the media industry,the online game industry has seized the opportunity of the digital economy and developed rapidly.According to the January-June 2022 China Game Industry Report and the 2021-2022 China Media Industry Development Report,from January to June 2022,the actual sales revenue of China’s game market was 147.789 billion yuan,and among the market segments of the media industry,the online game industry has become one of the five industries with revenue exceeding RMB 100 billion and the revenue has maintained steady growth,and the revenue benefits generated by the game industry have become an indispensable part of the national economic development.Compared with traditional industries,the economic benefits of the online game industry have brought new transaction and consumption patterns to the market while developing at a high speed,and the issue of accounting revenue recognition in relation to virtual commodity transactions has also arisen,and the revenue recognition of online game enterprises has therefore become an important research topic.Therefore,this paper selects Zhong Qingbao,the first domestic online game enterprise listed on the A-share GEM board,as a case study object,collates relevant literature on revenue recognition at home and abroad,introduces relevant concepts and theoretical foundations after outlining the significance of the study,combines the current situation of the online game industry,mainly including the participants,revenue sources,operation mode and revenue recognition rules of the online game industry,and adopts the literature research method and Based on the revenue situation and operation model of Zhong Qingbao,the research studied its revenue recognition method under the new revenue standard and found that Zhong Qingbao had the following problems:(1)unclear recognition point of virtual prop revenue increased Zhong Qingbao’s surplus management;(2)unrecognised sinking revenue caused Zhong Qingbao’s liabilities to be overestimated;(3)improper accounting treatment of promotional activities.The problems were analysed because of the difficulty in recognising the complexity and variety of virtual props,the difficulty in recognising sinking revenue and the difficulty in apportioning promotional activities.As the Revenue Standard(2017)is mostly provision-based guidance,and online game enterprises are a new industry based on virtual networks,with novel profit models and complex business activities,there are fewer specific guidelines,resulting in no uniform guidance for the online game industry in dealing with specific revenue recognition issues,which mostly relies on the professional judgment of practitioners of each enterprise,resulting in the situation that different enterprises interpret and deal with the same kind of business individually.This is not conducive to the improvement of the quality of enterprise accounting information and the comparability of accounting information between industries.Therefore,this paper proposes to refine the industry revenue guidelines,strengthen the regulation of information disclosure,improve the data tracking system,enhance the competence of practitioners and strengthen the role of audit assurance,expecting that the case study of Zhong Qingbao will help to further improve the quality of accounting information of the case enterprises and provide reference value for the subsequent comparability improvement of the revenue standard(2017)for the online game industry. |
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