China Literature drives growth through IP commercialization

China Literature, China's largest digital reading platform, posted a near 28-percent growth in revenue in the first six months of the year, thanks to commercialization of intellectual property in animation, films and dramas. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence adoption boosted the company's overseas expansion, as it significantly reduced translation times and cost, the company said on Tuesday.

In the first six months, the Shanghai-based platform, backed by Tencent, posted revenue of 4.19 billion yuan (US$590 million), a 27.7 percent growth from a year ago, with a net profit of 700 million yuan.

IP operations and commercialization emerged as the key growth driver, contributing 2.25 billion yuan in revenue – a 73.3-percent year-on-year increase.

The success of titles such as "Qing Yu Nian," which transitioned from an online novel to a popular drama broadcast by CCTV-8 and Tencent Video, an online game, as well as collection boxes and cards, exemplifies the company's monetization strategy.

Internationalization is a key growth engine for China Literature as it gains global recognition.

On its WebNovel overseas platform, there were 5,000 novels translated from Chinese and 650,000 originally created in local languages in overseas markets, with languages covering English, Spanish, German and French. Among its top 100 works, 40 percent were translated by AI.

Meanwhile, China Literature's videos also spread worldwide, including "Qing Yu Nian" available on Disney streaming platform; "Yolo," the story of a female Chinese boxer broadcast by Sony, and "The Rose's Tale" now translated into 12 languages, showcasing the growing influence of Chinese IPs on the world stage.