Overview
- Brick‑and‑mortar culture retrenched in 2025 as bookstore closures spread and China’s print‑book market fell to 78.609 billion yuan in the first three quarters, down 10.4% year on year, with non‑educational titles down 15.49%.
- Moviegoing weakened despite outliers: animation films topped 25 billion yuan in box office for a yearly record, yet 740 cinemas closed and everyday takings fell back to roughly decade‑earlier levels.
- Attention shifted to short‑form storytelling, with micro‑drama apps averaging 120.5 minutes of daily use per person and approaching 700 million users, and the short‑drama market surpassing the annual movie box office.
- Express delivery kept scaling—2024 volumes exceeded 1.5 trillion parcels and 2025 growth was projected near 20%—but price rises met resistance, many last‑mile outlets ran losses, and networks leaned on automation, unmanned vehicles and station‑direct drop‑offs to squeeze costs as consolidation quickened.
- AI competition moved from model size to real‑world deployment as tech groups embedded services across consumer and enterprise scenes; capital listings and losses mounted, big platforms outlined multibillion‑yuan investments, and regulators recorded 611 generative AI service filings by early November.