Industry landscapes
Get Pro
Industry report

Funding and advertised pay are reported in USD; filed accounts retain their stated source currency and basis.

Exchange-rate basis

Indicative conversions use ECB reference rates dated 2026-09-14, applied consistently across all periods. They are not historical exchange rates. Indian rupees may use crore (1 crore = 10 million); other currencies use K, M and B. CSV downloads, source documents and quoted news headlines retain their original currencies.

THE CHINA EDITION 2026

China’s
creator economy industry,
in focus.

The companies, capital and talent shaping creator economy in China. Find the leaders. Understand the segments. See where the activity is.

Explore in Radar Read the key signals
Snapshot: Funding in USD
Illustrated cover for Creator Economy Industry Landscape of China
CN
COMPANIES · CAPITAL · TALENT

An industry ecosystem,
measured in context.

Creator Economy illustration
Companies tracked 522Creator Economy ecosystem in China Disclosed funding $23.7B115 companies · all recorded rounds Companies hiring 3With open roles at the snapshot Tracked open roles 40 employers posted in the preceding 30 days
MEET THE COMPANIES

Explore China’s creator economy leaders

22 featured companies from the funding, hiring, revenue and team-size leaderboards.

Expand panel +
Explore the full landscape
Creator Economy company highlights in China, snapshot 2 September 2026
Company
Kuaishou Technologykuaishou.com$4.79B—8,000—
Yuanfudaoyuanfudao.com$4.04B—30,000—
Bilibilibilibili.com$2.83B—10,354—
Weibopassport.weibo.com$1.49B———
Ximalayaximalaya.com$1.25B—4,342—
YYyy.com$1B———
Genshuixuegenshuixue.com$920M—4,002—
Zhangmenzhangmen.com$872.97M—62—
51Talk51talk.com—2 roles171—
ChapterXchapterx.world—1 roles——
MeeOppmeeopp.com—1 roles35—
Antelope Enterpriseaehl-kylin.com————
CastBoxcastbox.fm——52—
Elementelement.market————
Fairy Cosmofairycosmo.com————
Italkiitalki.com——1,618—
NoxInfluencernoxinfluencer.com————
Pngtreepngtree.com————
PxBeepxbee.com————
Super Ordinarysuperordinary.co——92—
The Sandboxsandbox.game——404—
TutorABCtutorabc.com——213—
22 featured companies

Locked revenue figures are available in Radar; the eight company financial previews stay the same throughout this page. A dash means the figure is outside these featured lists. Revenue years vary by company; the figures are not a like-for-like revenue comparison. Compare annual accounts ↗

Company discovery

Recorded evidence only

Explore the live startup set in Radar

No company example met every recorded classification, independence and public-profile gate in this snapshot. The live directory may have newer qualifying companies.

Explore classified startups in Radar ↗
THE KEY SIGNALS

Creator Economy industry KPIs in China

A few useful ratios bring the size of this ecosystem into perspective.

2 September 2026
Hiring participation0.6%

3 of 522 tracked companies have open roles.

Funding participation28.5%

149 of 522 tracked companies have a recorded round.

Top 3 funding share49.2%

Share of disclosed capital received by the three largest recorded recipients.

Median disclosed round$15M

Midpoint of 157 rounds with a disclosed amount.

Scale is concentrated. Opportunity is broader. The three largest funding recipients hold 49.2% of disclosed capital, while 71.5% of tracked companies have no recorded funding round.

Explore the segments →
CAPITAL & COMPANY FORMATION

How China creator economy has grown

Recorded company formation and disclosed funding across the complete annual series shown.

Expand panel +
2016 — 2025

Disclosed funding by year

Sum of recorded funding rounds · USD

China creator economy
$0$2.01B$4.01B$6.02B$8.03B2016: $573.46M20162017: $2.24B20172018: $3.58B20182019: $5.95B20192020: $7.04B20202021: $814.98M20212022: $43.56M20222023: $81.25M20232024: $36.7M20242025: $600M2025
View the numbers
Annual creator economy funding and company formation in China
YearFunding (USD)FoundedRaising
2016$573.46M2119
2017$2.24B3126
2018$3.58B3023
2019$5.95B2015
2020$7.04B11918
2021$814.98M4516
2022$43.56M226
2023$81.25M248
2024$36.7M105
2025$600M41
WHERE CAPITAL SITS

Funding concentration

Share of all disclosed company funding.

  • Kuaishou Technology20.2%
  • Yuanfudao17.1%
  • Bilibili11.9%
  • Other companies50.8%

Funding by stage

228 recorded rounds since 2016

NUMBER OF ROUNDS
Seed & Angel62 27.2%
Series A–B84 36.8%
Series C+ / PE63 27.6%
Grants, debt & other19 8.3%

Recent recorded rounds

Latest recorded rounds · USD
0 rounds

Swipe or scroll horizontally to browse.

Largest and notable recorded rounds

Each card is one recorded round
10 cards

Swipe or scroll horizontally to browse.

THE BUSINESS BEHIND THE ACTIVITY

Revenue, profitability & financial strength

Expand panel +

Annual accounts availability

The measured China identity-to-filing probe did not produce a qualifying designated legal or national-ID join: the scoped identities lack an authoritative Chinese registrar mapping; bare ticker overlaps produced no complete annual revenue and net-income statement groups.; The measured China identity-to-filing probe did not produce a qualifying designated legal or national-ID join: the scoped identities lack an authoritative Chinese registrar mapping; bare ticker overlaps produced no complete annual revenue and net-income statement groups.

DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

Web traffic, app reach and release cadence

How the China companies on this page show up online: the sites people visit, the apps they install, and how often those apps ship.

Busiest websites

16 of the 522 companies on this page carry a measured traffic record (3.1%); these are the largest of those, by monthly visits. The median among them is 473,744 visits.

CompanyMonthly visitsAuthorityMobile
Bilibilibilibili.com428,459,561796%
Italkiitalki.com4,358,6396521.4%
Kuaikan Manhuakuaikanmanhua.com1,355,7324879.9%
Watermelon Videoixigua.com960,4765029%
Nipicnipic.com720,195391.7%
NoxInfluencernoxinfluencer.com651,3244255.6%
51Talk51talk.com550,6283735.4%
PxBeepxbee.com477,6954254.6%
CastBoxcastbox.fm469,7935145%
TutorABCtutorabc.com244,8103713.9%

Visits and authority are third-party web estimates, not company-reported figures.

Most-installed apps

31 of these companies (5.9%) publish at least one Android app — 44 apps in all, carrying 157.6M installs between them.

AppInstallsRatingStore category
BeautyCam-AI Photo EditorMeipai100.5M3.8Photography
Podcast Player - CastboxCastBox25.9M4.7Music & Audio
Podcast PlayerCastBox17.8M4.8News & Magazines
italki: learn any languageItalki5.1M4.7Education
bilibili - All Your Fav VideosBilibili3M2.5Entertainment
CastFox - AI Podcast AgentCastBox1.8M4.3Music & Audio
JAG - Watch Ads Earn RewardsJAG1.8M5Lifestyle
PalFish ClassPalfish731K4.2Education
PalFish TeacherPalfish421K4Education
Focust - for better postFocus Apps136K4.1Social

Installs are lifetime totals to date at the June 2026 store reading — a measure of reach, not of people using an app today.

App reach by segment

The busiest app inside each of this page’s own segments, with the quarterly release trend behind it (2023Q2–2025Q4).

SegmentAppsInstallsLeading appRelease trend
Social Platforms4103.5MBeautyCam-AI Photo Editor 100.5M
Radio Tech1045.8MPodcast Player - Castbox 25.9M
Continued Learning156.3Mitalki: learn any language 5.1M
Ott Video23Mbilibili - All Your Fav Videos 3M
Pr Tech21.8MJAG - Watch Ads Earn Rewards 1.8M
K-12 Edtech171.3MPalFish Class 731K
Non Fungible Tokens528.5KNewwit - Play to Earn 12.2K
Investment Tech428.1KPuffTown 8.6K

A company can carry several segment tags, so these rows overlap and should not be added together. Trend lines are zero-based and share one quarter grid, so a flat line is a quiet segment, not a missing one.

Release cadence by quarter

New apps published, beside apps whose most recent update landed in that quarter — the second bar is how much of the shelf is still being maintained.

2022Q4: 12022Q4: 02022Q42023Q2: 22023Q2: 02023Q22023Q4: 32023Q4: 12023Q42024Q1: 12024Q1: 02024Q12024Q3: 12024Q3: 22024Q32024Q4: 32024Q4: 22024Q42025Q1: 12025Q1: 02025Q12025Q2: 12025Q2: 02025Q22025Q3: 32025Q3: 92025Q32025Q4: 22025Q4: 142025Q4

Darker bars are new releases, lighter bars apps updated. 39 of 44 apps carry a release date. The series ends at 2025Q4, the last quarter that closed before the June 2026 reading.

INSIDE THE INDUSTRY

The China creator economy market map

Explore the segments behind the headline numbers.

Expand panel +

Where companies are building

Rank segments by scale, hiring or disclosed funding.

Consumer digital444
Edtech137
Enterprise tech136
Online tutoring130
B2c e-commerce109
Language learning tech89
Vocational training86
Blockchain73
Fintech73
Marketplaces72
Web 3.069
Decentralized finance67

Companies can sit in several segments. Counts and funding overlap.

SEGMENT TO EXPLORE

Consumer digital

The largest measured segment in this report snapshot.

444companies
0.7%have hiring activity

3 companies hiring · $22.56B disclosed funding

Explore in Radar

How companies make money

Common revenue models; a company can use more than one.

Subscription390
Commission on transaction139
Advertising132
E-commerce - service79
Fee-for-service48
E-commerce - product38
Sponsorship13
Freemium12
THE COMPANIES IN MOTION

Who is listing, hiring leaders, launching and winning work

Recorded corporate activity linked to companies in this landscape.

Expand panel +
Recent corporate headlines 5 dated reports
IPO activitykuaishou.com ↗

short‑video platform Kuaishou Technology, raised US$7.6 billion in Hong Kong

Mergers & acquisitionselement.market ↗

Element acquired Car IQ, a vehicle payment software vendor, to enhance digital payments and mobility solutions.

Mergers & acquisitionsximalaya.com ↗

Tencent Music Entertainment Group agreed to buy Chinese podcasting startup Ximalaya for $1.3 billion in cash, plus a stock issue, an agreement that boosts your ambition to become the Chinese response to Spotify.

Company announcementsbilibili.com ↗

Bilibili Inc. (‘Bilibili’ or the ‘Company’) (NASDAQ: BILI and HKEX: 9626), an iconic brand and a leading video community for young generations in China, today announced that it has published its 2025 Environmental, Social and Governance (‘ESG’) Report, highlighting the Company’s achievements in advancing responsible business practices and sustainable growth throughout the year, reinforcing its commitment to generating meaningful value for users, content creators, employees, partners and the broader community.

New products51talk.com ↗

the launch of a comprehensive brand refresh.

Full recorded event mix

Top 10 categories among 93 recorded events in the 24-month window.

Earnings
50
Leadership moves
11
Company announcements
11
New products
7
Buyback
4
Mergers & acquisitions
4
IPO activity
2
Regulatory
2
Layoffs
1
Asset acquisitions
1
4 activity cards

Swipe or scroll horizontally to browse.

Product launches

Products, platforms and features in the recorded window

51Talk ↗
Toki

Learning Companion

51Talk ↗
Toki Learning Companion

Feature

Workforce actions

1 companies with reported reductions

The Sandbox ↗

Scale not stated rolesAI advancements

Earnings pulse

Reported company results in the recorded window.

3companies
62period observations
12.5%median reported growth

Median across 49 reported growth observations; companies may contribute multiple periods.

Mergers and acquisitions

Company-linked deal reports; status is preserved as recorded.

Acquirer → targetStatusDateValue / context
Element→car iqAnnounced2025-12-07Not stated in snapshot
Tencent Music Entertainment Group→Ximalaya ↗Announced2025-08-23$2.4B
Element→autofleet2024-11-18Not stated in snapshot
Na→Bilibili ↗Announced2024-03-23$357.0M
Antelope Enterprise→Million Star US IncCompleted2024-03-01Not stated in snapshot
Mr. Yi Zhang→Zhangmen ↗Completed2023-11-15Not stated in snapshot

A discussion or rumour is not a completed transaction. An unstated value is not zero.

PEOPLE & OPPORTUNITY

The talent market

Recorded hiring and workforce signals from the available source snapshot.

Expand panel +

Most advertised job titles

No repeated job title is supported by this snapshot.

0 internship postings

0 tracked postings mention remote work.

THE PEOPLE BUILDING THE FIELD

Founders and leaders

179 founders and chief executives across 130 companies.

Expand panel +
12 profiles

Swipe or scroll horizontally to browse.

Education networks

23 profiles with education records.

Tsinghua University
4
University of California (Berkeley)
2
Zhejiang University
2
University of Pennsylvania
2
University of Toronto
2
Harvard University
2
London School of Economics and Political Science
2
The Wharton School
1

Prior employers

8 profiles with prior-work records.

Google
4
Microsoft
1
Intel
1
McKinsey
1
Morgan Stanley
1

Profiles cover recorded founders and leaders; contact details remain in Radar.

GEOGRAPHIC FOOTPRINT

Where companies are based

Company counts, hiring and disclosed funding across the recorded hubs.

Expand panel +
8 cards

Swipe or scroll horizontally to browse.

UNDERSTAND THE LANDSCAPE

Creator Economy in China: key questions

Clear definitions for making better comparisons.

What does this landscape measure?

It measures the tracked company ecosystem, recorded funding, hiring and other available evidence. It is not a market-size estimate.

Can segment counts be added together?

No. A company can belong to several segments, so segment counts and funding can overlap.

What does a missing figure mean?

A dash or unavailable panel means the current reviewed source snapshot does not support that figure.

KEEP EXPLORING

Put China in context

All landscapes ↗

Company ecosystem snapshot: 2 September 2026. Funding is recorded in USD; filed accounts retain their stated currency and reporting basis. Each section identifies its own coverage. The news and research behind these sections is explorable in Prism.

Canonical landscape ↗
Coming soon