Policy Research in the Metaverse Technologies Enabled Publishing Industry in China (2016–2023)

Chinese publishing industry enters the era of metaverse publishing in 2021. This study analyzes the metaverse publishing policy attributes and evolutionary trajectories in order to propose useful recommendations for the advancement of publishing sector in China. This research collected a corpus of 83 policy documents issued by Chinese governments from 2016 to 2023. It adopted social network analysis, co-word analysis, and multidimensional scaling, a TNP (Policy Tools, Interdepartmental Relations Network, Policy Focus) as research methods to explore the policy characteristics and evolutionary trends driving the integration of Metaverse technologies into publishing. This research reached the conclusion that a concentration of policy tool utilization primarily on the supply and environmental aspects, with comparatively limited emphasis on the demand aspect, alongside loose interdepartmental relations. Moreover, the policy focus highly lies on cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The digital publishing empowerment primarily focused on public cultural services, the digital cultural industry and education. A number of critical research suggestions can be put forward to steer the development of the metaverse technology-supported publishing industry in a positive direction: a) analysis of policy effectiveness and impact; b) investigation into technological progress and infrastructure; c) examination of consumer behavior and market demands; d) development of a regulatory framework and legal considerations for works published with metaverse technology; e) promotion of cross-sector collaboration and intergovernmental cooperation; f) establishment of standards for policymaking in Metaverse publishing works.