Shanghai's advertising industry to enjoy increased support

Shanghai will be turned into an international digital advertisement hub with efforts increased in a number of areas, according to a guideline released on Tuesday.

The guideline, the first of its kind targeting the development of the digital advertising industry in the nation, was jointly released by the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation and the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information.

By the end of last month, Shanghai had registered 558,000 advertising businesses, including 8,403 foreign-funded ones, according to the administration.

They recorded a combined revenue of nearly 200 billion yuan (US$30.76 billion) through the year with that from Internet media accounting for over 60 percent.

The city will develop new digital advertisement business models, step up technology applications, create an innovation design hotspot, promote intellectual property rights' standard implementation and international exchange and cooperation, and fuel the development of the digital advertisement industry with financial services, according to the guideline.

The development of vlog, webcast and social e-commerce networking platforms will be accelerated.

The city will draft a batch of digital advertisement standards and enhance monitoring in the area at the same time.

Advertising companies are encouraged to apply digital technology in their creation of original works.

Leading digital advertisement companies in the city with outstanding innovation performance and science and technology advantages will be delivered support, and small-and-medium-sized companies with development potentials will be nurtured, according to the guideline.

Cross-border trade services in the advertisement industry will be promoted.