National First Place: Shanghai's Advertising Industry Revenue Breaks Through 400 Billion Yuan

By 2025, Shanghai’s advertising industry revenue will surpass 400 billion yuan for the first time, a year-on-year increase of 12.8%.

Today (March 18), the latest data released at the 2026 “Invest Shanghai” Advertising Industry Promotion Conference shows that last year, Shanghai’s advertising industry ranked first in the country. Digital advertising performed particularly well, accounting for 85% of revenue, demonstrating how new productive forces are driving the transformation and upgrading of the advertising industry.

Behind the rapid revenue growth is strong industry strength. By the end of 2025, more than 1,000 advertising companies above designated size were operating in Shanghai, including five leading enterprises with revenues over 10 billion yuan and over 300 backbone companies with revenues over 100 million yuan. Additionally, 16 advertising industry parks across the city have gathered nearly 4,000 advertising and related companies, building a full-cycle, all-encompassing, and all-element industry incubation platform.

Policy support has also played a key role in the prosperity of the advertising industry. As the first nationwide special support fund for the advertising industry with over 100 million yuan, since its implementation, Shanghai’s advertising industry special fund has supported 45 high-quality industrial projects, disbursing a total of 98.85 million yuan, with the highest single support amount reaching 12 million yuan.

Furthermore, Shanghai took the lead in introducing the country’s first 12 special measures to support AI-enabled innovation in the advertising industry. These measures establish a comprehensive support system covering technology R&D, scene applications, talent cultivation, and financial empowerment, enabling targeted policies to improve quality and efficiency. In 2025, 34 “AI + Advertising” industrial projects in the city received special support, covering cutting-edge fields such as intelligent advertising creative development, precise algorithmic targeting, and virtual digital human applications. Shanghai also launched the innovative “Digital Broad Loan” financial product to solve financing difficulties for enterprises, helping over 500 digital advertising companies in Shanghai secure more than 3 billion yuan in funding.

Talent is the foundation of high-quality development in the advertising industry. Currently, Shanghai has 17 universities offering 21 advertising majors, including two national first-class undergraduate programs. Advertising creative design talent accounts for 22% of the country. Zhang Hongbing, Director of the Advertising Department of the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, revealed that Shanghai is gradually introducing a series of support policies for advertising talents. For example, the Oriental Talents Program offers rewards ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 yuan for young advertising talents; advertising designers included in the “Shanghai Urgently Needed High-Skilled Talent (Occupation) List” can enjoy policies supporting talent introduction and other support measures in Shanghai.