China's cultural industry sustained steady revenue growth in the first nine months of 2025 as the cultural services sector expanded solidly and new business models continued to flourish, official data showed on Thursday.

The combined operating revenue of major cultural companies amounted to nearly 10.96 trillion yuan (about $1.55 trillion) in the January-September period, up 7.9 percent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The cultural industry's profitability improved significantly, with profits of major cultural firms surging 14.2 percent year on year to 909.3 billion yuan in the reporting period, NBS data revealed.

Revenue of the cultural services sector topped 6.06 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, an increase of 11.9 percent year on year and accounting for 55.3 percent of the total revenue of major cultural enterprises.

"Cultural services have played a strong supporting role," said Pan Xuhua, a statistician with the NBS, noting that cultural services firms contributed 79.7 percent to the total revenue growth of major cultural enterprises.

Sectors featuring new business forms, such as digital publishing and online advertising, saw revenues increase by 14.1 percent to nearly 4.89 trillion yuan, 6.2 percentage points faster than the overall pace.

This NBS data is based on a survey of cultural companies with annual revenue of 20 million yuan or more, and those meeting other standards set by the NBS.