2010-06-23 17:44

China's entertainment and media industry may grow by an annual rate of 12 percent, far higher than the global average rate of 5 percent, to hit $133 billion in 2014, according to a new report released on Tuesday.

The country's entertainment and media industry ranked as the world's fourth-largest in revenue last year, following the United States, Japan and Germany, said accountancy giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said in its latest global entertainment and media outlook (2010-14) report.

Globally, the entertainment and media market may expand to $1.7 trillion in 2014 from last year's $1.3 trillion, predicted PwC. Internet advertising, video gaming, and internet access were the three fastest-growing sectors last year.

In 2009, China replaced the Republic of Korea to become the second largest video gaming market in the Asia Pacific and the third largest in the world, with a market share of $4.5 billion, the report said. Online gaming accounted for 84 percent.

PwC China partner Pan Chenyu said China is now the world's largest online gaming market, contributing one-third to the global revenue in this sector in 2009, or 56 percent of the Asia Pacific total.

China's video gaming sector is expected to grow by an annual rate of 33.5 percent, contributing two-thirds of the sector's total growth in Asia Pacific in the coming five years, the PwC report said.

China also had the fastest growing movie market in 2009 as its box office revenue grew by 47 percent year-on-year, said the report, predicting that the upward trend is set to continue.

Revenue of China's Internet advertising industry is expected to reach $8.2 billion in 2014, a jump from last year's $2.8 billion, and Internet search advertising revenue may soar to $4.9 billion from less than $200 million in 2005, according to PWC China partner Wu Binghui.