Number of online audio-visual users in China exceeds 944 million

China has seen its audio-visual sector flourish over the past few years. The number of online audio-visual users in the country stands at 944 million, while the value of the pan-online audio-visual industry in 2020 exceeded 600 billion yuan ($92.58 billion), according to a recently released report.

A volunteer from Dongying city, east China's Shandong province, brings science knowledge to students through live streaming. (Song Xinggang/People's Daily Online)

Online audio-visual content mainly includes short videos, live streaming, online audios and integrated videos (which refers to online movies, TV dramas, variety shows, and so on.).

According to the 2021 research report on China's online audio-visual sector development released by the China Netcasting Services Association (CNSA), as of December 2020, the utilization rate of online audio-visual services by Chinese netizens reached 95.4 percent.

Among them, the user utilization rate of short video is the highest, exceeding 88.3 percent, with a total number 873 million users. The user utilization rate of integrated videos reached 71.1 percent, with a total number of 704 million users, while the utilization rate of live streaming has reached 62.4 percent, with a total 617 million users.

This large number of users has contributed to the huge success of the online audio-visual industry. Data indicated that the number of premium subscribers on mainstream video websites is growing. Nearly half of the users paid for online video programs, of whom 20.2 percent opted for advanced on-demand services.

It is also interesting to note that the market size for short videos has grown markedly, reaching 205.13 billion yuan in 2020, an increase of 57.5 percent over the same period last year. In addition, short videos have also emerged as a vital marketing platform for other online video programs.

In another striking example, more than 60 percent of users revealed that highlights of programs on short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou inspired them to further search for and watch complete video programs online.

An executive from Kuaishou believes that short video platforms played a major role in the success of surprise box office hit "My Sister" released in April this year.

"A lot of people went to the cinema because they watched touching video clips from the film on Kuaishou," the executive pointed out. So far, short video clips related to this film garnered more than 3.95 billion views on Kuaishou, while the film itself grossed more than 860 million yuan.