On August 28, 2026, the 16th China International Digital Publishing Expo officially opened in Jinan, Shandong Province, under the theme "Digital Innovation Shapes the Future, Smart Technologies Usher in a New Era." The three-day expo is co-organized by the China Academy of Press and Publication and the Publishers Association of China. As one of the highest-profile and largest-scale national professional exhibitions in China's digital publishing sector, this year's event has brought together numerous industry leaders, experts, scholars, and corporate representatives to explore new trends, opportunities, and challenges in the digital publishing industry, injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of the publishing sector.
During the series of forums and seminars held alongside the opening ceremony, attendees shared profound insights into the vigorous development of the digital publishing industry. Participants unanimously agreed that the publishing industry must seize the historical opportunity presented by the new round of technological revolution, leveraging digital and intelligent technologies as the core driving force to comprehensively advance integrated innovation in publishing. Currently, cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing are profoundly reshaping the industry and value chains of publishing. By adopting digital and intelligent approaches such as AI-powered editing and proofreading, personalized recommendations, and omni-media matrix operations, traditional publishing can not only significantly boost production efficiency and the precision of content distribution, but also create immersive and interactive new reading experiences, thereby forging a brand-new growth engine for the high-quality development of the publishing industry.
Addressing the various new issues arising from the rapid expansion of the digital publishing industry, attendees emphasized the need to confront industry governance challenges head-on and foster a sound ecosystem for digital publishing through collaborative efforts. In the context of digitalization and networking, issues such as copyright protection, content security, data security, and algorithmic ethics have become increasingly prominent. This requires government regulators, industry associations, publishing enterprises, and platform operators to join forces, establish and improve collaborative governance mechanisms, and work together to build a fair, orderly, secure, and inclusive global digital publishing landscape. At the same time, participants specifically pointed out that no matter how technology evolves, content quality remains the core competitiveness of the publishing industry. Publishing institutions must hold the line on content quality, enriching the spiritual world of humanity with outstanding works, better disseminating the fine achievements of human civilization, and ensuring that digital publishing retains its cultural core while being empowered by technology.
Against the backdrop of globalization, digital publishing has become a vital bridge for promoting cultural exchange and mutual learning among civilizations. Attendees called for further expanding international exchanges and promoting mutual learning and shared prosperity among civilizations through open cooperation. After years of rapid development, China's digital publishing industry has gained strong international competitiveness, with digital publishing products such as online literature, digital education, and audiobooks accelerating their entry into international markets. During the expo, multiple international exchange forums provided a platform for communication and cooperation between Chinese and foreign publishing institutions, facilitating mutual learning among different civilizations and fostering closer ties among people of all countries. By deepening international cooperation, China's digital publishing industry can not only better expand its overseas footprint but also introduce advanced international experience to the domestic market, achieving a higher level of open development.
The hosting of the 16th China International Digital Publishing Expo in Jinan, Shandong, is not only an affirmation of the development achievements of the digital cultural industry in Jinan and Shandong Province as a whole, but also provides a significant opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of the regional cultural industry. In recent years, Jinan has vigorously promoted the digitalization strategy of the cultural industry and actively fostered new cultural formats, resulting in a vigorous and upward development trend in the digital publishing industry. The holding of this expo will effectively gather high-quality digital publishing resources from across the country and even the globe, promoting in-depth integration and collaborative innovation across the upstream and downstream of the industry chain.
Looking ahead, the digital publishing industry is at a critical juncture for transformation and upgrading. The successful holding of this expo has not only comprehensively showcased the latest achievements and cutting-edge technologies in China's digital publishing sector, but also built a comprehensive platform integrating intellectual exchange, resource matching, and win-win cooperation for stakeholders both inside and outside the industry. Guided by the theme "Digital Innovation Shapes the Future, Smart Technologies Usher in a New Era," the digital publishing industry will continue to uphold the innovation-driven development philosophy, deepen the application of digital and intelligent technologies, improve the industry governance system, enhance the quality of content creation, and broaden international exchange channels. It is foreseeable that, driven by the joint efforts of all parties, China's digital publishing industry will surely stride into a new stage of more prosperous, healthy, and sustainable development, making new and greater contributions to the prosperity and development of the global digital cultural ecosystem.