Digital culture, represented by online video, online game, web fiction, online music and webcomics, has become one of the mainstream patterns of global mass culture, in particular in youth communities.

Generation Z, who have been living with the Internet since birth, are heavy users of this culture with their way of life, socializing and expression deeply influenced. Their daily life has been highly integrated with digital culture. For example, youngsters keep creating new symbols of digital culture that are widely used and re-created constantly, including bullet screen, emojis and Internet catchwords.

As a common language among young people, digital culture is accelerating the speed of globalization in a unconventional dimension.

The mass-creative and experiental features of the digital culture enables the young communities to form multiple interest groups based on interactive and socializing functions.

For example, thanks to the multimedia features of digital culture, a lifelike world can be created through character building, intriguing plots, moving music and grand scenes. This vivid multi-sensual experience will lower the threshold of communication and dissemination among different cultures and expand the scope of the audience.

Against such backdrop and with the accelerated development of technology in recent years, China’s digital economy has been booming and its size ranked second in the world in 2017. For example, China is now a leading webgame market in the world, and its innovative model of online literature is renowned as a world cultural phenomenon.

At the same time, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an umbrella initiative that composed of cultural exchange and people-to-people communication, has injected impetus to the digital economy by offering platform of exchange and coordinating policies such as on services trade. For example, Chinese online literature has been translated into over 10 languages and read in 40 Belt and Road countries and regions.

Other digital culture products that gained popularity in overseas markets include webcomics, internet dramas, short video and live-broadcasting platforms. They are also enhancing mutual learning and coordinated trade growth, contributing positive energy to people-to-people connectivity.

Data from Tencent Research Institute shows that the digital cultural trade is especially active in Southeast Asian countries along the Belt and Road, which have a similar economic and cultural background as China. Compared with the sophisticated markets in North America and Western Europe, these countries' digital culture industries are still emerging, with rapid growth rates and huge potential.

Thanks to the BRI projects that focus on interconnectivity in infrastructure, financing and trade, the BRI countries saw the popularization and improvement of Internet infrastructure, the habit of online consumption and payment is taking shape among users. All contributed to the strong momentum, huge demand and bright prospects in these countries.

The overseas development of China's digital culture industry brings about opportunities to enhance cultural recognition among the youth, cover a wider audience, promote cultural exchanges and mutual learning and further mutual understanding and trust.

However, there are huge cultural differences among the various Belt and Road countries, presenting big challenges to Chinese digital culture companies in their efforts at localization. Therefore, Chinese cultural enterprises need to think and work a way out in the internet age and find a proper balance between globalization and localization.

First, Chinese cultural companies need to dig out common values rooted in different cultures to gain affective recognition.

Localized creation requires a thorough understanding of local history, culture as well as sensitive issues concerning politics, religion and customs to avoid risks. Only by promoting outstanding Chinese cultural elements on the one hand and respecting local users' needs and customs on the other can in-depth affective interaction and understanding be achieved.

When choosing contents and topics, full consideration should be given to the designated locality and timing to pay the greatest respect possible to local users. Take online games for example. We should appreciate and learn from overseas experience, make tailored adjustments to targeted users' habits. What’s more, it is necessary to create a complete industrial chain of "creation-R&D-products-export" to share good cultural products with global users.

Second, improve story-telling abilities by making the pace and style of the TV and film plays more internationally acceptable.

Considering the gap in international standards in quality and localization capability, Chinese companies should seek cooperation with internationalized teams and talents, make the content, technology and related procedures more international and explore a sound cooperation model beneficial to Chinese culture going global.

Third, explore diverse publicity and distribution channels. Lack of channels is a weak link hindering Chinese enterprises' global efforts. To solve this problem, we should cooperate with leading new media platforms overseas and take advantage of their large audience to make publicity and distribution more effective.

It is a good try to establish our own channels online in the internet age. For example, Webnovel, the international portal of China Literature Group, has already been visited over 10 million times since establishment in May 2017.

Features of local culture and media should be taken into full consideration to make sound and efficient publicity planning. Overseas portals of online literature and comics should make personalized recommendation and distribution based on their content's popularity and users' habits.

Since international operation means more uncertainties and risks for small and medium enterprises, they should try to cooperate with other Chinese companies and utilize their international layout and industrial chain. Tencent Cloud, for example, has assisted many Chinese companies to expand overseas business and collaborate with leading marketing platforms.

Last is to explore a way out for promoting Chinese digital cultural icon. Compared with traditional mass communication media, the internet has broken the barriers of both time and space and built a new sphere. Different cultures could talk and interact on an equal basis on the Internet, which contributes to cultural recognition of youth communities in the world.

Of the huge number of Chinese online literature, a large part is original, a source for intellectual property (IP) adaptation. Webcomics are also keenly sought after in IP adaptation, film and TV plays, with their amplifying functions. Creation and development of IP is a long and sustained process. Patience and long-term systematic efforts will help make the digital culture industry a pillar of global cultural trade, and contribute unique Chinese elements to the world's pop culture and youth culture. 

The author is president, and Sun Yi, senior researcher, at Tencent Research Institute.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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