The fourth China E-sports Industry Annual Conference and the sixth Cultural Creative Industry Conference and Tianhe Summit took place recently in Guangzhou's Tianhe district, with discussions focused on new trends in the cultural industry.

From the Haixinsha metaverse concert to the Tianhe Summit, Tianhe is taking a leading role in making full use of the opportunities provided by the metaverse and exploring how this can boost the development of the cultural industry, according to a Tianhe official who declined to give their name.

"We hope the metaverse can help with the digital transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, inject new growth forces into the development of digital culture and the digital economy, and contribute Tianhe's strengths to the development of digital art in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area and even in China as a whole," the official said.

The Haixinsha metaverse concert is held in Tianhe district, Guangzhou. [Photo/Nanfang Plus]

In recent years, Tianhe has experienced a boost in the development of its cultural industry. In 2022, revenue from the resident cultural enterprises above the designated size surpassed 200 billion yuan ($29.08 billion). Meanwhile, the industrial scale of this district has ranked first in the city for 10 straight years.

An enterprise above the designated size refers to one with annual sales in excess of 20 million yuan.

Tianhe has also gathered a number of well-known gaming companies from China and overseas, such as NetEase and 37 Interactive Entertainment. It has five digital cultural enterprises listed among China's top 100 internet enterprises in 2021 and seven firms that were selected as national cultural export key enterprises.