As China's economy undergoes a transformative shift from "selling products" to "selling culture," a new cultural export phenomenon is emerging. Beyond the "new export trinity" of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar panels, the "cultural new trinity" of online literature, web series, and online games is quietly rising as another major export driver.
Current data shows that Chinese online literature has approximately 200 million active overseas users, covering over 200 countries and regions worldwide. Asian readers account for 80% of the global total with over 50% market share, North America represents about 30%, while Europe and Latin America are becoming new growth points. In 2024, China's self-developed games achieved overseas sales revenue of $18.557 billion, up 13.39% year-over-year. Chinese-produced micro-dramas frequently top charts in Southeast Asia, Europe, and America.
Unlike traditional industrial products, this wave of "cultural export" relies on creativity and storytelling rather than production factors. As a major hub of China's digital economy, Zhejiang has been positioning itself early in this trend. From online literature platforms to short drama incubation, game development, comics export, and cross-border cultural e-commerce, Zhejiang enterprises are flourishing across all sectors, attempting to capture global Gen Z attention through "content + technology."
**Zhejiang Gaming's "Team Battle" Mode at Gamescom**
In August 2025, at the Gamescom opening night in Germany, the venue erupted when the trailer for "Black Myth: Zhong Kui" appeared as the grand finale. This marked the first time a Chinese game served as the closing act at the world's largest gaming exhibition, signaling that Zhejiang gaming companies have transformed from cultural export learners to leaders.
Game Science founder Feng Ji later posted on social media: "DLC would certainly be a good choice, but right now, we want to create a new Black Myth work first—new heroes, new gameplay, new visuals, new technology, new stories." This seemingly simple statement reflects Zhejiang entrepreneurs' deep understanding and firm belief in cultural and gaming exports.
This year's Gamescom featured a record 1,500 exhibitors, with Chinese participants growing from nearly 40 in 2024 to 50. Chinese gaming exports are forming a systematic cluster effect, with Zhejiang enterprises prominently featured.
The Zhejiang Department of Commerce organized the 2025 Zhejiang Service Trade (Cologne) International Gaming Exhibition. Eleven Zhejiang companies participated as a group, creating a powerful collective brand effect compared to scattered individual participation, showcasing Chinese gaming's unique charm to the world.
NetEase (Hangzhou) brought the open-world martial arts epic "Where Winds Meet," which became an exhibition highlight. Set against the backdrop of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, this work cleverly integrates AI technology with cinematic storytelling, officially announcing at IGN Live its global simultaneous launch on PC and PS5 platforms on November 14, 2025.
Hangzhou Hehan Culture's "Once Human" also performed impressively. The mobile version topped iOS download charts in 166 countries and regions on its first day, and the 2.0 version launched in July successfully entered the top three on Steam's bestseller charts in multiple countries. This exhibition aimed to further expand European markets and seek more cooperation opportunities.
Wuduan Technology showcased the smooth shooting experience of "Crisis Action 2" built with their self-developed engine. Digital Octopus Technology's "Giant Panda Touring the World MR" project achieved exciting interaction between virtual and real scenes through mixed reality technology, receiving cooperation invitations from multiple international institutions. Virtual Human Technology displayed metaverse social applications "Polygon World" and "EZVR Platform" combining VR and AI, exploring frontier interaction possibilities.
These exhibiting companies comprehensively demonstrated Zhejiang's gaming and animation cultural industry's overall image and distinctive achievements from multiple angles.
**The Long Journey from West Lake to Global Markets**
Zhejiang's gaming industry rise wasn't achieved overnight or without challenges. Cultural differences and technology dependencies became unavoidable obstacles.
Regarding cultural adaptation, overseas markets present significant differences in language, culture, and legal frameworks. For example, NetEase's "Naraka: Bladepoint" supports 12 languages and requires deep research into overseas player cultural preferences, including authentic representation of nunchucks and Bruce Lee imagery, all increasing localization costs.
Technically, dependence on foreign underlying technologies persists. In China's gaming engine market, foreign engines like Unity and Unreal Engine still occupy significant market share.
"Everyone doubted you, but you proved them most wrong." Looking back to August last year, China's first AAA game "Black Myth: Wukong" emerged, achieving global sales exceeding 28 million copies and becoming China's best-selling premium game in history. Behind this success, Hangzhou-based Game Science gained fame alongside Unitree Robotics and DeepSeek, becoming part of "Hangzhou's Six Dragons."
This game made "Sun Wukong" a global trending topic, sparking overseas players' interest in the original "Journey to the West" and demonstrating that domestic games could combine technical prowess with cultural depth.
As Game Science CEO, Feng Ji explained their first single-player game's remarkable success as the inevitable result of Chinese culture, talent, business environment, and gaming industry colliding with global players worldwide.
NetEase, as Zhejiang's leading gaming enterprise, maintains an equally clear overseas strategy. NetEase CEO Ding Lei stated the company would "walk on two legs, expanding overseas markets through 'self-development + investment.'" On August 14, NetEase announced its second quarter and first half 2025 financial results, showing quarterly net revenue of 27.9 billion yuan, with gaming business contributing over 80%.
NetEase achieved significant overseas breakthroughs: "Destiny Rising" console version topped PlayStation North America's free chart at second place, new products like "Full All-Star" ranked high on US iOS download charts, and "Once Human" reached 50% overseas user ratio. Simultaneously, "Fantasy Westward Journey" PC version achieved a peak of 2.93 million online users, while "Where Winds Meet" accumulated over 40 million users, demonstrating balanced domestic and international development strength.
**From Product Export to Cultural Standard Setting**
Looking ahead, Zhejiang gaming companies are upgrading from simple product export to cultural ecosystem export. In July 2025, the Zhejiang Department of Commerce and 17 other departments jointly issued "Several Measures Supporting Gaming Export," proposing 20 specific initiatives. This represents Zhejiang's first systematic policy document specifically targeting gaming exports, marking gaming export's elevation to provincial strategic level.
Zhejiang Gaming Industry Association Secretary-General Zhao Xuan noted: "Gaming export isn't an overnight goal, but a natural extension after domestic market maturity."
Zhejiang gaming companies are actively exploring "gaming+" cross-sector integration. In Jinhua, Zhejiang, Dianjing Network partnered with Pujiang and Hengdian for deep cooperation around "gaming + cultural tourism" synergy. The Hangzhou (Yuhang) Gaming E-sports Innovation Development Center focuses on "gaming + therapy," collaborating with autism treatment institutions to explore how therapeutic games can assist rehabilitation training.
"Online games are becoming a window for the world to understand China," explained Chen Yiru, head of Hangzhou (Yuhang) Gaming E-sports Innovation Development Center, regarding gaming's unique value in cultural transmission. "In intense gaming competition, players actively accept and understand cultural connotations behind game characters, scenes, and stories to achieve better performance. This process transforms cultural transmission from traditional 'passive push' to more efficient 'active exploration.'"
After Gamescom 2025, Game Science officially posted a joke about "Black Myth: Zhong Kui has created new folder," only for players to discover the code already exceeded 100,000 lines. Netizens joked: "This new folder is thicker than my graduation thesis!"
NetEase's "Where Winds Meet" went viral, topping the App Store free download chart on its first day of mobile beta testing and reaching 32nd place on the overall revenue chart.
As widely circulated online: "Ten years ago we were still doing contract manufacturing, now we're directly exporting technology in reverse. Learning from foreigners to defeat foreigners—the feeling of reverse export is more satisfying than completing 'Black Myth' with a perfect no-damage ending!"