Indonesia Pushes Digital IP Shift Through Collaboration with China

Jakarta: Indonesia is seeking to transition from a consumer to a producer of digital cultural intellectual property (IP), with a joint Indonesia–China game and animation center in Shanghai expected to support this ambition.

“Indonesia must move beyond being a consumer and become a producer, creator, developer, and exporter of digital cultural intellectual property. To achieve this, we need to strengthen the ecosystem,” Culture Minister Fadli Zon said during the inauguration of the Indonesia–China Video and Animation Joint Research and Development Center in Shanghai on Saturday, April 25.

In a statement received on Sunday, the minister said that strengthening the ecosystem involves improving funding, research, technology, production management, talent quality, marketing, distribution, and intellectual property protection.

Zon described animation and gaming as strategic sectors within the cultural and creative industries, noting that the global gaming market is projected to exceed USD275 billion by 2026, driven by mobile gaming, esports, cloud gaming, and digital distribution.

By the first quarter of 2026, Indonesia recorded 870 million mobile game downloads, with Indonesian gamers accounting for 43 percent of Southeast Asia’s total. The domestic gaming market is valued at around USD2.5 billion.

However, the minister acknowledged that the domestic market remains dominated by foreign-developed products.

He highlighted the strong potential for Indonesia–China collaboration in game and digital development, noting that China’s advanced digital ecosystem could complement Indonesia’s rich cultural diversity as a source of content.

“Indonesia is a universe of stories, but challenges remain in transforming this cultural wealth into compelling narratives and strong world-building in games, rather than using it merely as visual elements,” Zon said, as quoted by Antara on Monday, April 27, 2026.

He expressed hope that the joint research and development center in Shanghai would bridge China’s technological capabilities with Indonesia’s cultural richness to produce creative works with global appeal.

Indonesia also expects the center to generate content reflecting both Indonesian and Chinese cultures, nurture talent in gaming and animation, strengthen bilateral collaboration, and promote Indonesian creative works in China and the global market as part of cultural diplomacy.