By the end of 2022, Guangzhou's Tianhe district recorded 913 legal entities above the designated size in the culture industry, with an operation revenue of 201.75 billion yuan ($29.24 billion).

The cultural industry has now become one of Tianhe's leading industries. It has formed a general development pattern led by emerging cultural and creative industries such as gaming and animation, digital creativity, digital music, and e-sports. This new development pattern is supplemented by the traditional culture and entertainment industries, including performing arts, film and television, and publishing.

The district is also the largest gathering place for the gaming industry in China, with the industry's revenue accounting for about 40 percent of the country's total.

The high-rise buildings in Tianhe tower over other districts. [Photo/WeChat account: gztzth]

Enterprises in the culture and technology industries mainly settle in Tianhe Software Park, Yangcheng Creative Industrial Park, Tianhe Intelligence Valley, and the Tianhe Road-Zhujiang New Town business circle.

As one of the pilot industrial parks for the metaverse in Tianhe, Tangxia Zhihui Park has built the Tianhe digital creative industry innovation incubation base. Zhang Yuxiang, vice general manager of Zhihui Group, the operating entity of the park, stated that the park also created an industrial gaming e-sports ecology by integrating event hosting, content production, entertainment experiences, talent training, investment, and trading.

There are now nearly 100 enterprises in the park, Zhang added. Most of them are digital service enterprises in the fields of e-commerce, software information technology, and gaming and animation.

"Technology and digital services are developing rapidly in Tianhe," said a director at Mobvista, a digital service company based in Tianhe. "Supporting business facilities are also increasingly in line with international standards. The innovative industrial resources and excellent infrastructure here provide important support for enterprises and assist in attracting talents."

A woman tries a virtual reality program that is produced by Frontop. [Photo/WeChat account: gztzth]

"Talent is essential for creative digital companies," said Wang Jun, Frontop's vice president. "There are a large number of universities and scientific research institutes within Tianhe, which are convenient when enterprises recruit new talents. Introduced talents can also enjoy preferential policies here, and they play a key role in the development of enterprises."