Animations or cartoons came into being during the mid-19th century. It's grown into another rapid-developing rising industry following the IT industry within over 100 years, with an overall production value of 200 billion to 500 billion US dollars. Take Japan, animation industry has become the country's second largest major industry, only inferior to auto industry. More amazingly, some countries' GDP is even less than what the little Mickey Mouse makes! Unlike fundamental industries such as agriculture, industry, mining and communication, animation industry is quick to start up, easy to expand, and has enormous room for development. It has all the traits of modern knowledge economy and an integral industry chain. It is an industry at the leading edge of cultural industry.
Relevant data shows that the animation industry has a yield of 200%-5000%. The investment for Lion King was no more than 45 million US dollars and its return was as high as 750 million! It is well known that a mirror does not depreciate or break by the number of people looking into it; animation has a similar quality. Unlike other products which can only be sold once, animation products, once invested in, can lead to multiple outputs, inter-crossed and rotated. Its main and derivative products can enjoy permanent returns in many areas. A big animation production can be a huge gold mine for investors. The famous American animations Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck serve as a good examples. They have been making big money since their first appearance 80 year ago.
Generally speaking, it's pretty hard for an industry to make as much as 10 billion, and when it does, the development period is usually quite long. However, the animation industry can easily boom within a short period. Take Pikachu, one of the three most popular cartoon characters in Japan, there are 1122 companies producing or selling its derivative products. Their margin has exceeded 700 billion Japanese Yen within just 4 years!
An integral animation industry involves publishing, art, science and technology, media, business and so forth. Its product chain consists of the publication of periodicals, books, the development and spreading of related AV products, video games and educational software, and the development, management and sale of derivative products such as toys, stationery, packaging and clothing.
In 2003, Japan's animation-related exports to the US was 4 times its steel exports to the US. The American-owned Disney is, no doubt, the most successful in the field, which has a renowned brand and about 120000 employees. Its annual sales income is as high as 22 billion US dollars, more than half of which is from rendition of derivative products and 20% from its feature parks, which has pushed the company up to the World Top 500.
As the world's biggest entertainment product exporter, the United States has an annual production value of over 5 billion US dollars from animation products and their derivative products. The Japanese became the biggest animation nation with an annual turnover of over 9 billion US dollars through a commercial combination of animated films, cartoon comic strips and video games. Even Korea, rising in this field, has a production value only less than the United States and Japan, which is 30 times of that of China.
West Coast International Culture & Media (H.K.) Co. Ltd.
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