The spotlight of the CCTV New Year’s Gala 2015 was on WeChat’s “shake for red pocket” function. It put enormous pressure on the People’s Bank of China, because the advantage of Alipay is greatly threatened, and they have to rise against the challenges in the highly interactive and competitive market. If they fail to enhance their competitiveness, Taobao or even Alibaba will soon drop behind. The Internet has turned traditional industries upside down, and therefore it is important for creative and cultural enterprises to address the impact of it.

Marketing makes or breaks business

Macao’s creative and culture industry lacks talents and resources, and people with potential are fighting the war alone. Without sufficient capital and marketing, ideas with potential cannot reach the market, and some of them are aborted even before the stage of industrialisation.

Progress of the industry cannot rely solely on input of capital, because money won’t make outdated ideas relevant again. The government faces a huge challenge in this regard, because the effectiveness of each project it subsidised is debatable. Most of the time, the success of creative campaigns depend on the way they are marketed, and those are the operators’ job, not the government’s. The government has to subsidise long-term projects, which would bring positive impact to the industry. More and more people in Macao are complaining: how much more does the government have to spend to industralise the creative and culture scene? The government should not be a market participant, so it is up to the market and the industry to perfect the plan. I believe that it is better to promote one common core value through different development projects.

The market is cruel. Only the best products gain a firm footing. Despite a wealthy government, Macao’s private sector is still weak. Ideally, Macao’s resources should be reserved for Macao people, but logically one should look beyond that when doing business. Thanks to the liberalisation of the gaming industry in Macao, today we have what it takes to build a world-class tourism and leisure centre. This is a solid proof of the importance of healthy competitions. The market is an arena; we cannot act according to personal sentiments nor just sit back and wait.

The government should take the lead

If the government is to develop the creative business, it has to show support and respect by action. For example, the bidding process of designs has to be revamped. As the person-in-charge of a design company, I strongly oppose the condition of submitting a design draft free-of-charge to enter for a bidding. Designers rely on their drafts to make money and maintain reputation, but these administrative processes are destroying them.

The government’s request for tender usually calls for three design drafts per submission, meaning that each draft only get one third of opportunity to win the bid, and the remaining ones would go to waste. Good designs often lose the bid because they need higher budgets, and this is ridiculous. We hope that the government can clearly state the budget roof of each bid and reimburse bidders with a basic cost of creation, so that participants can decide if they should invest time on the project or not. This can also redirect the approval standards back to the creation itself. A lot of enterprises are following the government’s mechanism, causing a vicious competition of price, instead of the creativity.

Building Macao’s Alibaba in culture and creative industries

We need an updated culture and creative platform in which the government would take the lead to create a new commercial website about the industry. This would build up as Macao’s Alibaba and solve technical obstacles like cross-border payments, electronic banking, e-shop licensing, freight costs and taxing. The government would promote the platform to the world and absorb experts in cultural performances, art collection, creative design and animation film, and these talents will go on to become the spokespeople of Macao’s creative industry.

Lastly, I think the government has to develop popular culture education, search for talents and potential enterprises, and provide support to them. Only superb culture and creative products are marketable to open up new markets.