2014 was hailed as the "policy year" for the cultural industry. Starting from the beginning of the year, the State Council held executive meetings to deploy and promote the integrated development of cultural creativity and design services with related industries. Coupled with various cultural industry policies issued successively, a solid foundation was laid for the development of the art market in 2015 and beyond. With the volatile fluctuations in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets in mid-2015, the "seesaw" effect between art prices and stocks has been widely discussed, and the art market is already standing at a "tipping point."
According to statistics, the turnover of China's spring art auctions in 2015 fell by 27.2% year-on-year, and other data also indicate that art has entered a value valley. At the same time, as a hedging investment vehicle, art has attracted much attention from investors due to its "resilience" under the dual stimulation of policy and stock market conditions. Many forward-looking investors believe that the art market has ushered in a good time for investment, and the art market is shouldering the important task of shifting social capital.
In this situation, to obtain the opportunity to invest in art with great appreciation potential, what is needed is not just a single "new item" or "hard asset," but a brand-new platform—a new type of trading model that can integrate with art and develop together. As a place where Chinese and Western cultures converge, Hong Kong has timely nurtured the Hong Kong Takung Cultural Assets Exchange, an electronic art trading platform that connects art, integrates internet finance, and links the cultural industry.
In the North American and European art markets, the combination of art and financial capital has long been a common phenomenon. The intervention of financial capital in the field of art investment and collection has become the main driver of the art market in developed countries. For China's art market, this can bring brand-new development opportunities, prompting the operating model of the traditional art market industry to transform towards cross-terminal and cross-platform directions. For investors, this can realize the desire to participate in high-end art investment safely and conveniently with small investments.
In an environment where the stock market is sluggish, people from the financial, collection, and investment circles have successively intervened in art investment, and the inflection point of the art market has appeared. For the Hong Kong Takung Cultural Assets Exchange, which has always been committed to providing trading methods that meet the needs of the times and increasing the vitality of the art market, this phenomenon will also usher in a "honeymoon period." It is reported that under the overall positive development trend of the art market, the Hong Kong Takung Cultural Assets Exchange is also about to launch a professional art e-commerce platform—Takung Online, to promote the prosperity and development of the industry with a more comprehensive and innovative art e-commerce model.