China's advertising industry has been told to brace itself for a major overhaul over the next 10 years.

The current output value of China's advertising industry is 100 billion yuan (89.38 billion U.S. dollars), and it will take "only six years" to double that figure.

The ad industry, one of the barometers of social, cultural and economic development, plays a key role in the building of a "creative society".

China's ad industry is attracting worldwide attention because of its high rate of growth in the last six years.

On a global scale, the daily output value of the creative industry has reached US$22 billion and this is increasing at an annual rate of 5 percent.

In developed countries, the annual growth rate of the industry is of course higher; 14 percent in the US, and 12 percent in Britain. The innovations industry has become Britain's second largest industry accounting for 7.9 percent of its GDP, after the financial services industry.

The Chinese ad industry will no doubt follow the trend of the times. Once advertising is classified as part of the creative industry, it will upgrade itself quickly to become more professional, varied and colorful.

From January 1, wholly foreign-funded advertising companies were permitted to operate in the Chinese market, which many saw as the beginning of the end for domestic players. The year 2006 marks the beginning of a new era in the Chinese advertising industry. Now, it is truly on the road to globalization.

But there are challenges ahead. These include restrictions placed on creative concepts by the incumbent economic structure; an underdeveloped professional structure; fixed patterns of urban development and planning; lack of effective intellectual property rights protection; a traditional and conventional education system; and low consumption levels of creative products.

Stronger government support for the development of the industry is required in the face of increasing competition from foreign companies.

Source:佚名