Photo: Courtesy of Tencent Video

 
At this year's annual MIPCOM, a global trade conference for the television and entertainment industry in Cannes, France, China has been named the 2023 Country of Honor.

China's streaming giant Tencent Video shared insights into the domestic market and current viewership trends in China.

In the event's Media Mastermind series, Sun Zhonghuai, CEO of Tencent Video, said that "good content transcends borders," while highlighting opportunities for international partnerships in content and streaming.

Due to Internet and AI technology, online video users in China have surged over the last decade to over a billion in 2023. The market has become more sophisticated and competitive, with discerning Chinese audiences demanding content of ever higher quality that both entertains and informs. As a result, China's major platforms have shifted strategies in recent years and transitioned into original content creation.

From the sci-fi hit "Three-Body" TV series to the Chinese mythological romance drama "Lost You Forever," the site has produced a number of intellectual property (IP) works, which serve as its long-term strategy. Meanwhile, the site also "focuses on cutting-edge technological innovations, especially in audiovisual advancement," said Sun.

"Technological innovation has been key to the success of China's online video industry," Sun pointed out. "New technologies help creators unleash their imagination and bring more immersive aesthetic experiences to users."

The streaming giant's programming is distributed and promoted outside China through its international version, WeTV. Featuring over 10,000 hours of Chinese-language programming translated into 10 languages, WeTV can currently be seen in over 100 countries and regions.