China Galaxy Securities: Imported video performed brilliantly, optimistic about the 26Q1 game industry's performance

The Zhitong Finance App learned that China Galaxy Securities released a research report saying that performance-driven plus AI empowerment is still the core driving force for the growth of the media and Internet industry. It is recommended to focus on the core Internet assets of Hong Kong stocks, which have continued to increase investment in AI and have been supported by multiple benefits over a long period of time, AI applications and related subsectors related to the industry chain, and content sectors with a high degree of certainty in producing high-quality content and releasing performance.

The main views of China Galaxy Securities are as follows:

Film and television: Imported films performed well, and the market grew month-on-month

According to Lighthouse Pro, in December 2025, the national movie box office was 3,713 billion yuan (including service fees), up 57.93% year on year and 4.50% month on month. In terms of the film's specific performance, “Zootopia 2” grossed 2,098 billion dollars in a single month, accounting for 56.5% of the monthly box office, making it the box office winner of the month. The number of movies released in December was 83. The number of movies increased by 43.10% year on year and 56.60% month on month. As of January 5, 2026, a total of 29 new films are expected to be screened in January.

Gaming: Domestic user revenue reached a record high, and games continued to go overseas

In 2025, the actual sales revenue of the domestic game market was 35.789 billion yuan, up 7.68% year on year; the number of users was 683 million, up 1.35% year on year, also a record high. Looking at market segments: In 2025, the actual sales revenue of the domestic mobile game market was 257.076 billion yuan, an increase of 7.92% over the previous year. The actual sales revenue of the domestic client game market was 78.16 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 14.97% over the previous year. The number of domestic game versions distributed in 2025 was 1,676, an increase of nearly 30% compared to 1306 in the same period last year. The game market is expected to receive continuous product supply support, and the high-quality development pattern of the industry will be further consolidated.

Marketing: The market is stable, moderate and positive, and the trend of segmented categories is divided

According to CTR Media Intelligence data, overall advertising market spending increased 5.4% year on year from January to November 2025, and monthly advertising spending increased 16.6% year on year in November, slightly down 1.2% month on month. Looking at changes in advertising spending across the industry categories, from January to November 2025, investment in the post and telecommunications, personal goods, entertainment and leisure, IT products and self-service office services increased, with publication costs rising by 86.1%, 62.0%, 22.9%, and 17.8%, respectively; pharmaceuticals, alcoholic beverages, and cosmetics/bathroom supplies showed varying degrees of decline, respectively, of -14.6%, -10.3%, and -6.3%, respectively. Publications in other industries have generally remained stable.

AI: Two major unicorns are about to go public, Meta buys Manus

Overseas, on December 30, Meta announced the completion of the acquisition of Manus, making it the third-largest acquisition since Meta was founded. Domestically, DeepSeek released two official models, DeepSEEK-v3.2 and DeepSEEK-v3.2-SPECIALE. In public inference benchmarking tests, the V3.2 model reached the GPT-5 level, which is only slightly lower than the Gemini-3.0-Pro. On December 17, Zhipu Huazhang and MiniMax (MiniMax) passed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing hearing and are expected to be listed in early 2026.

Investment advice

1) Hong Kong Stock Internet: Companies with steady business growth and stable fundamentals; Internet video platforms with continuous improvement in profit levels; leading domestic AI video tool products; 2) AI applications and industry chain-related products; 3) content sector; in addition, as the Lunar New Year Festival approaches, it is recommended to focus on publishing companies with dividends that have steady traditional businesses while actively exploring new businesses.

Risk Alerts

Risk of AI technology development falling short of expectations; risk of content regulation; risk of industry competition; risk of application of related technology falling short of expectations.