BEIJING, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's online literature market revenue more than doubled from 26.72 billion yuan (about 3.97 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021 to 57.47 billion yuan in 2025, according to a report released Thursday at a national online literature conference held in Beijing.
The report, released by the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association at the conference's opening ceremony, said the online literature sector had maintained steady growth during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), with progress in content development, overseas expansion and industry governance.
Revenue from overseas online literature markets rose from 2.91 billion yuan in 2021 to 6.98 billion yuan in 2025, outpacing domestic market growth, the report said. The number of works distributed overseas, including original works created by overseas authors, increased from 314,600 to 933,100.
The report noted that the total number of authors registered on online literature platforms climbed from 23.41 million in 2021 to 33.73 million in 2025, while the user base expanded from 460 million to 646 million.
In 2025 alone, China's online literature market revenue grew 15.99 percent year on year, while overseas market revenue surged 45.03 percent, the report showed. The overseas expansion of adaptations across multiple formats, including films, television productions and short dramas, was a major growth driver.
In recent years, Chinese films, TV series, web novels and video games have gained growing popularity overseas. The country's online literature has reached hundreds of millions of readers in more than 200 countries and regions.
In the next five years, China will enhance copyright protection and transaction rules in online literature and arts, while also improving its international IP protection system and stepping up IP cooperation through multilateral international mechanisms, according to the country's 15th five-year plan for intellectual property protection and utilization.
The plan set the goal of making decisive progress in building China into an IP powerhouse by 2030, with its IP competitiveness ranking among the world's best by 2035. Another target is to raise the share of copyright industries' value added in GDP to 7.53 percent by 2030. ■
