China's cultural sector saw sustained uptick in first three quarters

Major enterprises in China's cultural sector and related business areas saw a stable increase in revenues and profits in the first three quarters this year, official data showed on Wednesday.

The 78,000 surveyed enterprises raked in nearly 9.97 trillion yuan (about 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars) in combined revenue from January to September, up 5.9 percent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The firms' profits rose 3.9 percent year on year to 790.3 billion yuan in the nine months, driven mainly by the growth of internet information services and online culture and entertainment platforms.

Companies featuring new business forms, such as providers of wearable smart cultural devices, online games and entertainment-purpose smart drones, pocketed over 4.16 trillion yuan in revenue, up 10 percent year on year.

Of the total, the cultural manufacturing industry reported over 2.99 trillion yuan in revenue, up 3.9 percent year on year. The revenue of the cultural wholesale and retail industry reached nearly 1.67 trillion yuan, up 4.4 percent year on year. The revenue of the cultural services industry hit nearly 5.31 trillion yuan, up 7.6 percent year on year.