On August 25, the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation released the "Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting the Expansion, Quality Enhancement of the Advertising Industry in Shanghai (2026-2028)".

The plan emphasizes strengthening coordinated advancement by fully leveraging the city's coordination mechanism for high-quality development of the digital advertising industry, enhancing inter-departmental collaboration and municipal-district linkage, and intensifying research and promotion of major work in the advertising sector.

To reinforce policy support, the initiative will optimize fiscal backing from multiple channels, including the Shanghai Service Industry Development Guidance Fund (targeting advertising), the Cultural and Creative Industry Development Support Fund, the Shanghai Service Trade Development Special Fund, and the Shanghai Foreign Investment and Cooperation Special Fund. Notably, it will promote distinctive financial products such as "Shu Guang Dai" (a digital advertising loan product) and strengthen affordable computing power guarantees for large-scale advertising AI models, ensuring accessible and cost-effective computational resources.

Public services will be enhanced by integrating functions such as policy consultation, talent training, copyright protection, and technology sharing, providing small and medium-sized advertising enterprises with low-cost, high-efficiency support.

The plan also calls for improved monitoring and evaluation by optimizing digital advertising statistical standards, refining the Shanghai Advertising Industry Development Index indicator system, and intensifying research on frontier issues to provide scientific backing for the industry's high-quality growth.