Documentary Industry

New media platforms are reshaping China’s documentary industry, ushering in a new era of vigorous development, Zhang Tongdao, Director of the Documentary Center of Beijing Normal University, said.

There is rapid growth of new media companies in the documentary market, according to an annual study of the development of Chinese documentaries in 2020, which was released on April 18 by the center, the China Intercontinental Communication Center and other institutions.

China’s total investment in documentary production was 5.04 billion yuan ($710 million) last year, and the total output value stood at 6.66 billion yuan ($941 million), according to the report.

“More and more documentaries are broadcast on the Internet, which complements those aired on television,” Zhang said.

Some documentaries, including Flavorfulorigins:chaoshancuisine by Tencent video and the second season of Thestoryofchuaner by video-sharing platform Bilibili, gained recognition in 2019 through exclusive streaming on the platforms.

The report said the documentary production capacity of new media companies reached a new height in 2019.

Last year, Tencent produced 23 documentaries on its own, accounting for about one third of its total online projects throughout the year. Bilibili produced and launched 16 documentaries, totaling 55.6 hours, while iqiyi, also an online platform, produced or coproduced 15 documentaries.

The report added that documentary producers and streamers

to the company, and we have a long-term commitment to improving health outcomes and addressing unmet medical needs in China,” Dobrocky said, adding that the company aims to invest 188 million euros ($203 million) in China in the next five years.

Ninety percent of space in the Medical and Healthcare Products Exhibition Hall has been reserved, with nearly 60 leading pharmaceutical and medical companies confirming their participation, according to the CIIE Bureau.

The booked exhibition area is more than 60 percent of the planned space.

The CIIE is the first dedicated import exhibition in the world. The third CIIE will take place in Shanghai from November 5 to 10.

December 31, individual businesses from hard-hit industries that temporarily lost their source of income due to the epidemic, taxi and ridehailing drivers who took out loans to purchase vehicles and other eligible enterprises can apply for the guaranteed loans, a circular jointly released by the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the People’s Bank of China said.

The threshold for guaranteed loans will be lowered and the maximum loan amount will be increased, according to the circular.

It also urged financial institutions to grant reasonable loan extensions to small, micro and individual businesses and cut interest rates.

China issued 100 billion yuan ($14.14 billion) of guaranteed loans for startups in 2019, data from the MOF showed.

As the epidemic wanes and policy support intensifies, loan issuance is expected to soar 80 percent in 2020. It is enough to support 1 million individual businesses and 10,000 small and micro firms, up 43 percent and 52 percent from last year, respectively, MOF said.