Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

5International trade in creative goods and services: Global trends and featuresfashion and architectural services. Germany,the United States and France followed, with allthree economies capturing more than 16 percent of the world market (see table 5.21).Design is the third-largest creative subgroupfor developing countries, after art craftsand new media. The total value of their exportsof design products increased considerably, from$53 billion to $122 billion, as did their share inworld markets. Exports of design goods fromthe economies in transition totalled $1.7 billionin 2008, representing less than 1 per cent ofworld exports of creative goods.The leading exporter of design goodsamong developing economies is China, wherethe scale of production is very high. From thetrade perspective, design is the most importantcreative industry for China. India also increasedits exports of design products by 18.6 per cent,achieving 3.2 per cent of market share ofdesign goods in 2008 (table 5.22).5.6.7 New MediaNew media is the newest group amongthe creative industries and the one that isexpanding fastest. It results from the rapidadvances in ICTs that started in the 1990s toshape a global information infrastructure andgave emergence to the so-called informationsociety. Today, in the era of the creative economy, where realand virtual worlds co-exist, collaboration and networking arepointing to new ways of life; the new media has been pushingthis novel chain of knowledge and innovation.In the creative economy, the new media industry playstwo complementary roles:a) It is a creative product itself, expressed through digitalforms of creative content such as software, cartoons andinteractive products like video games.b)It is an enabler of connectivity used as a tool for marketingand distribution of other creative products such asmusic, films, books and news, or creative services such asadvertising and architectural services (see chapter 7).Table 5.21 Design: Top 10 exporters among developed economies, 2008Rank1 Italy 23,618 9.76 10.352 Germany 16,129 6.67 16.713 United States 12,150 5.02 14.254 France 10,871 4.49 13.115 United Kingdom 7,448 3.08 10.936 Switzerland 6,938 2.87 16.097 Belgium 4,339 1.79 8.728 Poland 3,855 1.59 13.729 Japan 3,783 1.56 17.2110 Netherlands 3,773 1.56 13.91Source: UNCTAD, based on official data in UN COMTRADE databaseTable 5.22RankExporterExporterValue (inmillions of $)Marketshare (%)2008 2008Design: Top 10 exporters amongdeveloping economies, 2008Value (inmillions of $)Marketshare (%)2008 2008Growthrate (%)2003-20081 China 58,848 24.32 15.452 China, Hong Kong SAR 23,874 9.87 5.013 India 7,759 3.21 18.574 Thailand 4,474 1.85 10.805 United Arab Emirates 4,464 1.84 49.806 Turkey 3,543 1.46 11.727 Malaysia 3,186 1.32 12.878 Viet Nam 2,687 1.11 23.449 Mexico 2,535 1.05 1.4010 Singapore 2,392 0.99 16.21Source: UNCTAD, based on official data in UN COMTRADE databaseGrowthrate (%)2003-2008People of all ages are spending more time online, consumingand co-creating content and new-media products.Clearly individual consumers are becoming more proactive.This behaviour stimulates creativity, while improving interactivedigital skills through participation in online games andsocial networks. As a result, the new-media sector is boomingin all parts of the world, opening up new venues for collaborativecreations, particularly in the areas of multiplayergames, videos, cartoons and multimedia content.It is not yet possible to capture the real dynamism ofnew media as a driving force of the creative economy. Thereare two reasons for this: first, the novelty embedded in thecontinuous updating of technologies used in producing andconsuming creative content; and second, the lack of a universallyagreed-upon system for collecting data on digital cre-158 CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2010