The digital creative economy and trade: strategic options for developing countries

The creative sector is an important source of growth in the global economy, and digital creative trade has increased sharply in recent years and particularly in the context of COVID-19. Digital content is replacing physical goods in the sector, for example, in music, books and gaming. Digital aggregators like Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Spotify, TikTok and YouTube have fuelled rapid growth and diversified earnings towards streaming, ad-supported income and data monetization. Copyright revenues are also rising, and the share of digital collections is the fastest growth segment. Participation in the sector by developing countries appears to be increasing, although data availability is poor. To reap the potential benefits of the digital creative economy, developing countries should support a shift from the typical low value-added, stand-alone practitioner industry model to a strategic collaborative approach that facilitates higher levels of creative and digital entrepreneurship. This will require a stronger legal and institutional framework to improve leverage and monetize copyright, financial support for the commercialization of creative activities, government involvement in business support services (e.g. training, incubators, innovation labs, market incubators, cluster development and market development programmes), the creation of enabling institutions to represent the interests of creative workers and firms, and the harmonization of government policies towards the sector.