Changing dynamics of digital entertainment media in China Chunmeizi Su Master of Arts in Communication (Zhengzhou University) Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Journalism (Henan University of Technology) A thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology 2019 ii Abstract The Chinese online behemoths Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (also known as BAT) dominate on the market for the Chinese mainland in fields that include e-commerce, digital entertainment, e-finance and artificial intelligence (AI). To understand BAT’s corporate power and their strategic role in screen industry – in this case the streaming platforms —this thesis examines the capabilities of these three oligopolies, and their integrated power in production culture. The synergy between BAT and the streaming services is mutually beneficial. However, with the rising of global distribution platforms such as Netflix, the question to be asked is will BAT help China develop innovative screen media industry systems similar to those of (western countries) like US and elsewhere in the world? Drawing from the theoretical framework of media industry studies, media economics and media globalisation, this thesis is structured around the analysis of platform capitalism and platform convergence theory, to investigate the implications on the transforming screen ecology. Based on television genre and format studies, as well as the newly established online entertainment studies, this thesis analysed the transformations on various content forms, in the context of contemporary digital screen industries. Case studies are adopted as the main research approach, where interviews were one of the primary sources during data collection process. According to Srnicek (2016), the combination of Google and YouTube, Amazon and Amazon Prime, BAT and streaming platforms are means to establish market monopolisation. BAT is rising as a new digital power, however, as they rise into national giants in China and beyond, tensions between capital and state power is becoming a global phenomenon. BAT oscillate between business strategies and policies, as government struggles to regulate and support the domestic as well as global development of these behemoths. iii New production culture is a content professionalising process, that reconfigures power distributions of media industries, it has ended the age where ‘few people often decide what audiences should watch on a national scale’ (Chan, 2017). BAT and Chinese streaming services contribute to the new production culture, where confrontation between youth culture and high culture, synergies between capital and state power are being addressed. As China challenges the state-owned media systems, international success of Netflix, threatens the Hollywood system as well. Therefore, the overarching argument of this thesis is: as BAT rise into new digital power, they are increasingly empowering and empowered by streaming services, which transforms production culture in content distribution, monetisation, and production, that reconfigures power distributions of media industries in the content professionalising process. Keywords Digital entertainment media Digital platforms Streaming platforms Screen productions Cultural innovation Digital power iv Contents ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................................. III KEYWORDS ............................................................................................................................................................. IV LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... IX STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP ........................................................................................................................ XI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................XIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH .................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 KEY INTRODUCTORY POINTS .......................................................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 Cultural influence ............................................................................................................................. 2 1.2.2 Advent of the online video industry ................................................................................................. 3 1.2.3 Rise of the digital giants ................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND APPROACH ........................................................................................................... 6 1.4 RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE ............................................................................................................................. 8 1.5 THESIS OUTLINE .......................................................................................................................................10 CHAPTER 2: CHANGES IN CHINA’S MEDIA INDUSTRY ................................................................................. 15 2.1 THE MEDIA INDUSTRY IN CHINA .................................................................................................................16 2.1.1 Media economics ...........................................................................................................................16 2.1.2 The media industry .........................................................................................................................17 2.1.3 Production culture ..........................................................................................................................19 2.1.4 The traditional screen industry in China ........................................................................................21 2.1.5 The transformation of the Chinese screen industry .......................................................................24 2.2 THE ONLINE VIDEO INDUSTRY IN CHINA ........................................................................................................28 2.2.1 The future of TV ..............................................................................................................................28 2.2.2 Streaming services .........................................................................................................................31 2.3 THE RISE OF NETFLIX AND ITS IMPACT ON NEW PRODUCTION CULTURE ...............................................................34 2.3.1 The development of Netflix ............................................................................................................34 v 2.3.2 The global strategy of Netflix and its impact on local production .................................................37 2.4 CHINA’S CULTURAL SOFT POWER AND ITS ‘GOING OUT’ AMBITIONS ....................................................................40 2.4.1 Soft power and national strategy ..................................................................................................40 2.4.2 ‘Going out’ strategy .......................................................................................................................41 2.4.3 Cultural discount ............................................................................................................................43 2.5 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................................46 CHAPTER 3: BAT – THE RISE OF THREE KINGDOMS ..................................................................................... 48 3.1 DIFFERENTIATING THE WESTERN AND CHINESE MARKETS ................................................................................48 3.1.1 The service integration spree .........................................................................................................48 3.1.2 Catching up the game ....................................................................................................................55 3.2 THE THREE KINGDOMS: THE BAT ...............................................................................................................59 3.2.1 The BAT and online media..............................................................................................................59 3.2.2 BAT and its vision for media empire...............................................................................................61 3.3 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................................75 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY .......................................................................... 77 4.1 CASE STUDIES AS THE MAIN RESEARCH APPROACH ........................................................................................78 4.2 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH AND CONTRIBUTION TO MEDIA INDUSTRIES STUDIES