By PAN YUEFEI

The widespread use of internet technology has spawned new cultural business models. Through integration, the internet has become an engine for the upgrading of cultural consumption.

Xie Xuefang, a professor from the School of Humanities at Tongji University, said that the internet-driven upgrading of cultural consumption contains three aspects, namely, the upgrading of content, the upgrading of copyright awareness, and the convenience and ubiquity of cultural consumption.

The internet has become an important platform for cultural consumption and has promoted cultural consumption upgrading through technological innovation, integrated innovation and updating. Li Lin, a professor from the National Research Center of Cultural Industries at Central China Normal University, said that we should better leverage the internet in cultural consumption upgrading. First, we should invigorate the cultural consumption market, improve people’s cultural consumption capacity, transform potential consumption desire into real consumption action, and push ahead with smart cultural consumption. Second, we should provide education related to cultural consumption, enhance residents’ cultural sophistication, and help people develop a healthy cultural consumption habit. Third, we should conduct a comprehensive evaluation of cultural consumption’s social value and find problems in time, so as to promote healthy, sustainable and high-quality cultural consumption.

Cultural consumption upgrading in the internet era is an evolutionary process through the integration of cultural consumption and the internet. Xie added that, first, we should clarify the position of the internet in cultural consumption upgrading. Cultural consumption upgrading is not the simple integration of culture and the internet, but the reconstruction of all modes of work and life. Second, we should leverage internet companies’ innovation ability and focus on their responsibilities as well. As the providers and regulators of internet culture, internet companies pursue the maximization of economic interest on the premise that they produce positive social effects. Meanwhile, internet enterprises should adhere to cultural ethics and technology ethics, in a bid to create an environment that respects original content and intellectual property. Third, we should have a correct understanding and make use of the dual identity of netizens. Netizens are both cultural consumers and producers in the cultural consumption process. A positive feedback loop of internet cultural consumption and production should be established in the process of cultural consumption upgrading.