Ant Group, Tencent, Baidu and Others Opt for Self-Regulation of Digital Collection Industry

With the China Cultural Industry Association taking the lead, nearly 30 Chinese enterprises and institutions have jointly launched the Initiative for Self-Regulation Development of the Digital Collection Industry on Thursday. The objectives are to oppose secondary trading and speculation, improve access standards for digital collection businesses, and promote the high-quality development of the industry as a whole.

The parties involved in this self-regulatory development initiative include professional institutions and associations of the cultural tourism industry, several state-owned enterprises, IP institutions and Internet tech firms such as Ant Group, Tencent, Baidu and JD.com. It is by far the most extensive self-regulatory convention in China in terms of industry coverage.

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The Initiative consists of 14 articles. The specific contents include that platforms shall have the appropriate qualification according to law, ensure the safety and control of blockchain technology, adhere to the real name system, strengthen the capacity building of intellectual property protection, resist the prevention of financialization and malicious speculation, and advocate rational consumption.

As early as October 31, 2021, the National Copyright Exchange Union released the first “Self-Regulatory Convention for the Digital Culture and Creation Industry” in China. Most of the previous conventions, in terms of their content, focused on framework propositions such as opposing speculation and protecting consumer rights.

The new initiative just released makes suggestions on the business access of digital collection platforms. The Initiative says that relevant qualifications such as issuance and sales of digital collections should be in accordance with national laws and regulations and regulatory requirements, with relevant business operation qualifications, such as blockchain information service filing, network culture business license, value-added telecommunications business operation license, etc.

The China Cultural Industry Association also points out the major Internet platforms all enter the field of digital collections now, and should fulfill self-regulation and positive guidance, and use digital technology to expand to more physical application scenarios. Thus, the companies help further the cultural industry and become an important force in creating real value.

The prevention of financial productization and speculation is now the keyword of Ant Group’s Whale Tan, Tencent‘s Huanhe, and Baidu‘s Xirang. Digital collection products at major Internet platforms are designed not to support secondary transactions, insist on real-name authentication, and set up authorization and security screening mechanisms for issue content, etc. These measures are effective in risk prevention and control.