Innovation Surges, Riding the Waves to Bloom! The Third "Cultural and Creative Industry · Shanghai" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Ignites with Passion

The tide of innovation surges, the power of development roars. On March 4th, the third "Cultural and Creative Industry · Shanghai" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was launched with great enthusiasm. The event was jointly guided by the Publicity Department of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, Municipal Commission of Science and Technology, and Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. It was hosted by the Office of the Leading Group for Promoting Cultural and Creative Industries in Shanghai, organized by the Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Office, and co-organized by DoBe Group. The competition continues with the theme "Innovation Surges, Riding the Waves to Bloom", aiming to foster a vibrant atmosphere for innovation and entrepreneurship. It seeks to stimulate innovative elements, enhance entrepreneurial enthusiasm, and promote the innovative development of Shanghai's cultural and creative industries from the source through platform and resource support. The goal is to discover and nurture more outstanding projects and talents, further strengthening the influence, reach, and appeal of Shanghai's cultural and creative sector, while promoting the integration of urban culture, tourism, commerce, sports, and exhibitions to drive the city's economic growth.

As a co-organizer for three consecutive competitions, DoBe has consistently adhered to the event's mission, dedicating itself to discovering and nurturing outstanding projects and talents in the cultural and creative field. Over the past two years, DoBe has leveraged its platform advantages to provide comprehensive support and services to participating enterprises. During the second competition, DoBe partnered with the Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Office to jointly establish the incubation base for the "Cultural and Creative Industry · Shanghai" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. The incubation base provided comprehensive entrepreneurial guidance, funding subsidies, and other support to winning companies, facilitating the rapid transformation from ideas to market and further advancing the development of Shanghai's cultural and creative industry.

Fueling Industry Advancement Through Competition, Igniting New Momentum for Industrial Upgrade

To accelerate the cultivation of new productive forces in the cultural sector and promote the rapid advancement and transformative leap of the city's cultural and creative industries, this competition focuses on the "core breakthroughs" and key areas of industrial development. It adopts a "3+1" track setup, including three main tracks—"Intelligent Future+", "Original Content Production+", and "Cultural and Creative Empowerment of Fashion Consumer Goods+"—and a special track, "Music Innovation+". The competition emphasizes hot industry sectors such as digital cultural creativity, content IP, cultural consumption, and fashion design. Among these, the "Intelligent Future+" track, compared to last year, places greater emphasis on its future-empowering attributes. It aims to effectively address the hot issues and challenges the cultural and creative industries may face in the future through innovations in products, applications, services, and scenarios, further driving the industry toward new growth and intelligent development.

Since its inaugural event in 2022, the "Cultural and Creative Industry · Shanghai" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition has attracted over 1,500 companies to participate, uncovering a group of innovative, high-potential, and industry-leading maker teams. Many companies within the DoBe ecosystem have actively responded, with outstanding cultural and creative enterprises like Zhijian Network and Xixi Culture standing out in previous competitions.

The competition has initially achieved practical results, including a large number of participating companies and projects, vibrant industrial innovation, and effective investment promotion, vividly demonstrating Shanghai's commitment to driving high-quality development in the cultural and creative industries through new productive forces.

Promoting progress through competition and fostering industry growth, this year's "Cultural and Creative Industry · Shanghai" competition will continue to cultivate a development atmosphere that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship, attracts high-quality market entities and talent from both domestic and international sources, and enhances the city's cultural soft power and innovation competitiveness by injecting new momentum into industrial development.

Fostering Integration Through Competition, Unleashing New Vitality in the Cultural Economy

In recent years, promoting the integrated development of culture, tourism, commerce, sports, and exhibitions to build a cross-border, multi-party economic ecosystem has become a crucial engine for boosting consumption and driving local economic transformation and upgrading. In this process, culture serves as the central pivot, and the cultural and creative industries are key nodes.

With the starting point of promoting the synchronized development of the cultural and creative industries and the interconnected growth of "culture, tourism, commerce, sports, and exhibitions", this year's competition emphasizes integrating cultural creativity into the overall urban development. It focuses on exploring innovative paradigms for boosting consumption through the synergy of these sectors, embedding the concept of boundary-breaking integration throughout the entire competition process. This drives the deep coupling of cutting-edge design, bold creativity, and cultural, sports, and tourism resources, accelerating the emergence of new models for cultural consumption.

Empowering Enterprises via Competition, Escorting New Forces in Development of Cultural & Creative Industries

The competition not only aims to create a high-profile stage for cultural exchange and creative collisions but also strives to build a high-energy platform to attract and support enterprises. By pooling resources and facilitating channels, it empowers business growth, helping more new forces in the cultural and creative sector to pursue their dreams and thrive.

Award-winning enterprises will be given priority in enjoying various support funds, social insurance subsidies, and other policies based on meeting the policy conditions, and will receive the following ten major service systems:

1. Prize Money: Announce the list of winners and award competition bonuses, trophies, and certificates of honor; this competition has established a linkage mechanism with the Shanghai Global Talents Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Eligible participating enterprises will be directly recommended and advance to the semifinals of the Shanghai Global Talents competition.

2. Supporting Policies: Based on meeting the policy conditions, priority will be given to recommending award-winning enterprises to participate in applications for Shanghai's cultural and creative funds, entrepreneurial guaranteed loans, etc., to obtain loan interest subsidies and other support.

3. Incubation and Cultivation: Eligible award-winning enterprises will be recommended to various districts, leading companies, and venues for landing cooperation, helping them connect with investors, upstream and downstream industry chains, and partners; simultaneously, the latest market knowledge and skills training will be provided to the enterprises.

4. Media Coverage: Priority participation in the competition's special communication plan, receiving media coverage support to enhance brand awareness.

5. Achievement Showcase: Recommended participation in exhibitions such as the Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo, China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair, World Artificial Intelligence Conference, China International SME Fair, as well as selection activities like Shanghai Design 100+, Brand 100+, Fashion 100+, to expand market promotion channels.

6. Incubation Support: Shortlisted semi-finalist companies can settle in the "Cultural and Creative Industry · Shanghai" innovation and entrepreneurship incubation base established by DoBe Group, enjoying office space rental reduction policies.

7. Financial Services: Bank of Shanghai provides exclusive cultural and creative financial products for participating companies, offering a comprehensive account system and setting up special credit lines.

8. Roadshow Services: Winning companies can prioritize participation in the "Shanghai Global Talents" regular roadshow platform activities, expanding project development channels through dual-competition collaboration mechanisms, and enjoying comprehensive support services including display promotion, brand publicity, and resource connections. Eligible participants will also receive priority support services such as investment and financing matching and entrepreneurial incubation, forming a full-chain cultivation system of "competition selection - resource introduction - growth acceleration".

9. Legal Services: Cooperating law firms will provide specific intellectual property health checks and legal consultation services to eligible award-winning enterprises.

10. Association Services: Award-winning enterprises will automatically join the Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Office, which will organize industry resource matching, local liaison, policy briefings, discussion salons, private board meetings, and other activities. It will also collect corporate demands and suggestions, facilitating communication and promoting solutions.

Competition Schedule

Launch and Registration Phase

Registration Period: March 4, 2025 - April 18, 2025

Registration and Participation Methods:

1. Enterprises can register and upload application materials through the competition's official website (http://www.sccipa.com.cn);

2. Enterprises can register through the relevant district offices in Shanghai, fraternal units in other provinces, and associations;

3. Enterprises can register through municipal-level cultural and creative carriers (parks, buildings, spaces) in Shanghai;

4. Provincial Recommendations: Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, etc.

Online Preliminary Evaluation

Preliminary Evaluation Period: Mid to late April 2025

Preliminary Evaluation Format: Online written review of project submission materials (business plan)

Semi-final Stage

Semifinals Time: May 2025

Semifinals Format: A combination of online and offline roadshows, consisting of 5-minute presentations followed by 3-minute judge Q&A

Finals Stage

Finals Time: June 2025

Finals Format: Offline roadshow format by track, consisting of 7-minute presentations, 5-minute judge Q&A, and joint deliberation by judges from each track

Award Ceremony

Ceremony Time: Second Half of 2025

Ceremony Location: Shanghai, China

Supporting Activities

Leveraging partner resources from joint competitions, focusing on industries and sectors covered by the tracks, and organizing a series of supporting activities centered on innovation and entrepreneurship themes as well as corporate needs, including:

Municipal Cultural and Creative Support Fund Application Interpretation Conference - Competition Special Session

Competition Roadshow Training Session

Cultural and Creative New Forces Private Board Meeting

Project Implementation Matching Conference

Track Achievement Exhibition and More

Eligibility Criteria

Cultural and creative enterprises with annual revenue under 100 million yuan in 2024, individually registered studios, and startup teams recommended by universities can apply. For industry classification, please refer to the "Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Classification Catalog (2022)". Projects in the Music Innovation+ track may participate in project format. This year's competition has two categories: "Startup Group" and "Growth Group".

Startup Group: Enterprises with annual revenue below 20 million yuan in 2024, individually registered studios, university-recommended startup teams, and Music innovation+ track projects.

Growth Group: Enterprises with annual revenue between 20 million to 100 million yuan in 2024 (technology-based enterprises may have relaxed application requirements). For the few participating enterprises that cannot directly apply the above standards, the organizing committee will determine the category after discussion.

Award Settings

"Cultural and Creative Industry · Shanghai" Startup Category First Prize (four winners, with monetary support) - the four highest-scoring "startup category" enterprises and projects in their respective tracks during the finals. Pioneering enterprises/projects in this year's cultural and creative industries with excellent market reputation, potential, and investment value.

"Cultural and Creative Industry · Shanghai" Growth Category First Prize (four winners, with monetary support) - the four highest-scoring "growth category" enterprises in their respective tracks during the finals. Growth enterprises in the cultural and creative industries this year, demonstrating certain industry representativeness and leadership. If the number of participating enterprises in the Growth Group of a specific track is insufficient, the organizing committee reserves the right to adjust the allocation and determination of corresponding awards between the Startup Group and Growth Group within that track.

"Cultural and Creative Industry · Shanghai" Annual Innovation Award (16 winners): Representative innovative cultural enterprises and projects across various tracks, totaling 16 recipients. Enterprises/projects in the cultural and creative industries this year with promising market prospects and investment value.