Public relations has a history of over 30 years in China. Today, the connotation and core functions of public relations have undergone significant changes compared to earlier periods. The core function of early public relations was simply to disseminate specific information to a certain group of people. Regarding the definition of public relations, scholars both domestically and internationally have provided different interpretations. James E., the authoritative representative of contemporary American public relations James E. Grunig proposed from the perspective of his research achievement "Excellent Public Relations" that public relations is "the management of communication between an organization and its public", with the aim of establishing a relationship of mutual trust with these publics. The author of "Public Relations First, Advertising Second", contemporary American marketing guru Al Ries, and others believe that in terms of public relations, the core is brand building. American scholars Scott M. Cutilip&Ailen Center believe that "public relations is a management function that determines, establishes, and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the various publics who determine its success or failure

With the continuous changes in the social environment, the concept of public relations is also constantly evolving. Although there is still controversy over the definition of public relations, it is widely recognized that the core function of public relations is to coordinate relationships, communicate information, shape images, and achieve win-win cooperation.

From 2016 to 2017, China's public relations industry developed rapidly, with the industry scale maintaining rapid growth and the growth rate continuing to accelerate; The number of listed companies in the industry has significantly increased; The characteristics of industry transformation are obvious.

Analysis of the Economic Operation of the Public Relations Industry in 2016

（1） Macro background: The tertiary industry leads the overall economic growth level

In 2016, China's overall economy maintained sustained, stable, and rapid development, with a gross domestic product of 74412.7 billion yuan, an increase of 6.7% over the previous year. Among them, the added value of the primary industry was 636.71 billion yuan, an increase of 3.3%; The added value of the secondary industry was 29623.6 billion yuan, an increase of 6.1%; The added value of the tertiary industry was 3.8422 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.8%. The added value of the primary industry accounts for 8.6% of the gross domestic product; The proportion of added value in the secondary industry is 39.8%; The proportion of added value in the tertiary industry was 51.6%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points from the previous year. From a macro perspective, the growth rate of the tertiary industry leads the overall economic development speed in China, ensuring a stable overall growth trend in the country's economic development.

Figure 1: Gross Domestic Product and Its Growth from 2012 to 2016

Figure 2: The proportion of added value of the three industries to the gross domestic product from 2012 to 2016

（2） Industry output value: rapid growth

In 2016, the annual operating income of 44 listed companies in the public relations industry was 2.63281018 billion yuan, the main business income was 2.6313388 billion yuan, and the annual operating income of public relations was 2.55235859 billion yuan. From the perspective of operating revenue of listed companies, the main business revenue of public relations listed companies accounts for a very high proportion of operating revenue (99.94%), and the proportion of public relations business to main business revenue is also very high (97.00%). The two proportion situations indicate that the operating income of public relations listed companies in China mainly comes from their main business, and public relations business is the main source of income for listed public relations companies.

Figure 3 shows the revenue of 42 Chinese listed public relations companies that continuously released relevant financial data from 2014 to 2016. From the perspective of overall operating revenue, from 2014 to 2016, the overall revenue of listed companies in China's public relations industry maintained a rapid upward trend. Based on the forecast of operating revenue, the industry as a whole maintains rapid development and the overall outlook for the industry is positive.

Figure 3: Revenue of 42 Listed Companies from 2014 to 2016

（3） Business Trend: Significant Growth in Digital Business

Statistics were conducted on the main business revenue of 39 listed public relations companies that have announced their main business sources for three consecutive years. In 2016, digital marketing accounted for 49.83% of the total operating revenue, traditional marketing accounted for 14.50%, and advertising accounted for 25.96% (see Figure 4). Comparing the proportion of digital marketing, traditional marketing, and advertising businesses in 2014 and 2015, the growth trend of digital marketing business is evident; The decline trend of traditional marketing business is obvious; The proportion of advertising businesses is basically the same (see Figure 5).

Figure 4 Business Distribution of Public Relations Companies in 2016

Figure 5 Business Distribution of Public Relations Companies from 2014 to 2016

（4） Industry profit: showing a downward trend

In 2016, the overall gross profit margin of 41 independently listed public relations companies decreased from 10.71% in 2014 to 5.77%; The net profit margin level has decreased from 8.19% in 2014 to 4.51% (see Figure 6). Although the overall profit level of the industry rebounded in 2016 compared to 2015, the overall trend still shows a downward trend in the industry's profit level.

Figure 6: Changes in Profit Margin of the Public Relations Industry from 2014 to 2016

（5） Institutional efficiency: Continuously showing a polarized trend

According to the descending order of operating income of 39 listed public relations companies (listed companies or subsidiaries of listed companies that have released performance for three consecutive years) in 2016, the average operating income and average net profit of companies 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, and 31-39 were respectively calculated. Taking 2016 as an example, the average operating revenue of listed companies ranked 1-10 was 2.243 billion yuan, the average operating revenue of listed companies ranked 11-20 was 145 million yuan, the average operating revenue of listed companies ranked 21-30 was 79 million yuan, and the average operating revenue of listed companies ranked 31-39 was 24 million yuan. From Figure 7, it can be seen that the top 10 companies in terms of revenue have an average revenue level much higher than the overall level of the other 29 companies, which is about 15 times higher than the average revenue of companies ranked 11-20 in terms of revenue.

In terms of net profit income, the average net profit of listed companies ranked 1-10 in 2016 was 106 million yuan, the average net profit of listed companies ranked 11-20 in revenue was 14 million yuan, the average net profit of listed companies ranked 21-30 in revenue was 3 million yuan, and the average net profit of listed companies ranked 31-39 in revenue was 0.05 million yuan. As shown in Figure 8, the top 10 companies in terms of revenue also have significantly higher profitability than the overall level of the other 29 listed companies.

According to the annual data of listed companies, it is predicted that the leading enterprises in China's public relations industry will have a good development trend in the future, and the industry will continue to show a polarization of institutional efficiency.

Figure 7 Comparison of average operating income of public relations listed companies ranked 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-39 by revenue

Figure 8 Comparison of Average Net Profit of Revenue Rankings 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-39 of Public Relations Listed Companies

Overall performance of public relations companies listed in 2016

（1） Section Overview

As of June 30, 2017, there were a total of 44 public relations listed companies, including 6 A-share listed companies in Shenzhen and Shanghai (including 3 listed subsidiaries), and 38 listed on the New Third Board. Specifically, it includes the following enterprises (see Table 1).

表1 公共关系行业上市企业

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Table 1 Listed Companies in the Public Relations Industry

Among the 44 listed companies, 41 are independently listed and 3 are subsidiaries of listed companies. Listed companies in the public relations industry belong to the cultural and media sector. In terms of scale, the overall size of public relations and advertising companies is relatively small, except for Blue Focus, Huayang Lianzhong, Xuanya International, Disi Media (a subsidiary of the listed company), Aichuang Tianjie (a subsidiary of the listed company), and Youtuo Public Relations (a subsidiary of the listed company), all of which belong to the New Third Board.

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（2） Analysis of Main Financial Indicators of Listed Companies

1. Profitability: The gross profit margin is basically flat, and the net profit margin is showing a downward trend

Figure 9: Revenue and Net Profit of 41 Public Relations Listed Companies from 2014 to 2016

From 2014 to 2016, the overall revenue level of 41 independently listed public relations companies grew rapidly, but the overall growth trend of annual net profit was not obvious, and the industry's profitability level showed a downward trend. Figure 9 shows the annual revenue and net profit of 41 listed companies over the past three years.

From 2014 to 2016, the overall gross profit margin and net profit margin of listed companies showed a downward trend. Although the gross profit margin and net profit margin in 2016 increased compared to 2015, they still showed a downward trend compared to 2014 (see Figure 10).

Figure 10 Changes in gross profit margin and net profit margin of 41 public relations listed companies from 2014 to 2016

2. Slight decrease in operational efficiency

In terms of operational capacity, the inventory and accounts receivable turnover days in the public relations industry increased to 2.30 days and 124.29 days respectively in 2016 compared to 2015 (inventory turnover days: 1.47 days, accounts receivable turnover days: 115.57 days), indicating a decline in operational capacity. Affected by industry characteristics, the inventory turnover days in the public relations industry are much lower than the overall level of listed companies, and its growth has a weak impact on the overall development of the industry. However, the increase in accounts receivable turnover cycle further exacerbates the contradiction between industry development and the shortage of working capital.

表2 公共关系行业存货及应收账款周转天数

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Table 2 Turnover Days of Inventory and Accounts Receivable in the Public Relations Industry

3. Debt paying ability

Figures 11 and 12 respectively show the changes in the asset liability ratio and debt protection ratio of 41 independent listed public relations companies. From the changes in the asset liability ratio, it can be seen that the assets and liabilities of the public relations industry remain stable and show a slight upward trend, and the overall asset liability level of the industry remains within a relatively reasonable risk range. However, in terms of debt protection ratio, after a significant increase in the industry's debt protection ratio in 2015, the net cash flow generated by the overall operating activities of the industry in 2016 was negative 350 million yuan. From the perspective of debt protection ratio, the industry's debt risk has significantly increased. The changes in asset liability situation and debt protection ratio also indirectly reflect the pressure of cash flow circulation in the public relations industry.

Figure 11: Changes in Asset Liability Ratios of 41 Public Relations Listed Companies from 2014 to 2016

Figure 12 Changes in Debt Protection Ratio of 41 Public Relations Listed Companies from 2014 to 2016

（3） Fundraising situation and future financing opportunities of the sector

From the perspective of listing time, since the listing of Blue Focus on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2010, Chinese public relations industry enterprises have rapidly integrated into the capital market in recent years. The number of listed companies in each year is shown in Table 3.

表3 公共关系行业上市时间统计

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Table 3 Statistics of Listing Time in the Public Relations Industry

Table 3 clearly shows that 2010 can be recognized as the first year of capitalization operation in China's public relations industry, while 2016 can become a milestone year for capitalization operation in China's public relations industry. In 2016, there were as many as 28 listed companies in China's public relations industry. The large number of public relations companies listed in 2016 can be attributed to the combined effects of three factors: the rapid expansion of China's capital market on the New Third Board, the widespread optimism of the capital market towards the public relations industry, and the rapid development of the public relations industry.

Three Chinese Public Relations Industries: New Characteristics and Issues

（1） New characteristics of the development of China's public relations industry

1. Rapid development of institutions and the opening of capitalized operations

In 2010, the leading enterprise in China's local public relations industry, Blue Focus, was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, marking the beginning of the listing of Chinese public relations industry companies. As of now, there are a total of 44 listed companies in the public relations industry. Compared with other industries, the public relations industry has a larger number of listed institutions, but the overall scale is relatively small.

As analyzed earlier, the rapid expansion of the capital market provides a platform for public relations companies to go public, and the rapid development of the public relations industry lays a solid foundation for industry enterprises to go public. The capital market's optimism towards the public relations industry paves the way for its listing. However, from the perspective of the willingness of public relations companies to go public, the low industry profit margin and declining trend year by year, the widespread existence of a large amount of advance funding, long payment cycles, low cash flow rate, and the need for a large amount of capital for business expansion are important subjective factors that have driven public relations companies to go public in recent years.

According to industry data in recent years, the industry is at the intersection of transformation. Due to the gradual dilution of overall industry profits and the increasing pressure on industry development and operating funds, it can be foreseen that the curtain of capitalization operation of public relations industry institutions has just begun.

2. There is a huge difference in the size of public relations companies

According to the annual reports of listed companies in 2016, the operating revenue of Blue Focus exceeded 12 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 50% compared to the previous year; Huayang Lianzhong, which went public in 2017, ranks second among public relations listed companies with a revenue of 6.6 billion yuan; Lingsi Yuntu's annual operating revenue exceeded 1.2 billion RMB, ranking third; Seven companies, including Disi Media, Xuanya International, Aichuang Tianjie, and Aideweixuan, have operating revenues ranging from 300 million to 700 million yuan; 12 companies, including Linghu Technology and Jiali Zhilian, have operating revenues ranging from 100 million to 300 million yuan. 19 companies, including Ouxun Sports (ST Ouxun) and Junxin Brand, have performance in the tens of millions of yuan range, while Chengyi Culture and Xiwang Culture have annual operating revenues of less than 10 million yuan.

Figure 13: Revenue Proportion of 44 Listed Public Relations Companies in 2016

Figure 13 shows the proportion of the top ten companies in terms of revenue among the 44 listed companies in 2016 in the total revenue of the 44 companies. The revenue of the blue cursor alone accounts for 49.25% of the total revenue of 44 companies; Comparing the blue cursor with the last ranked Xiwang Culture, the annual revenue of the blue cursor in 2016 was about 3600 times that of Xiwang Culture, indicating a huge difference in the size of institutions within the industry.

3. The trend of diversified development of public relations companies is evident, and their business is undergoing transformation

As a leading enterprise in China's public relations industry, the development direction of Blue Focus undoubtedly plays a guiding role in the industry's development. Since October 11, 2013, Blue Focus announced that its Blue Focus public relations agency had officially changed its name to Blue Focus Digital Marketing Agency (referred to as "Blue Label Digital"), the public relations industry has begun to embark on a transformation path of traditional business, focused on developing digital business, and diversified development. The boundaries between advertising, marketing, and public relations are becoming increasingly blurred, and the demand and application of public relations in event communication, brand building, marketing communication, and other aspects have greatly increased.

At the same time, some public relations companies have accelerated their pace of technological development and begun to focus on more specialized fields such as artificial intelligence and big data application development, gradually revealing industry segmentation forms. Taking NetEase Interactive as an example, the company is a public relations firm that focuses on big data marketing, automated marketing, and AI marketing. In recent years, NetEase Interactive has successively developed products such as Fellow Me scanning, intelligent Q&A robots, and intelligent content writing robots in the field of artificial intelligence. Relying on the company's ability to capture and analyze big data, it obtains data information from the entire network, discovers problems, analyzes problems, and achieves intelligent tasks such as content writing, automatic and accurate replies, solution provision, and creative generation.

（2） The Existing Problems in the Development of China's Public Relations Industry

There are significant differences in the understanding of public relations among various institutions

Although the development of public relations in China has a history of thirty years, there are still significant differences in the understanding of public relations among various institutions in China. For a long time, many companies have simply equated public relations with media relations; When it comes to "public relations", it is simply believed that public relations are about building relationships. In the academic community of Europe and America, it is widely recognized to divide the different functions involved in public relations from the perspective of stakeholders. The book "The Bible of Public Relations" divides public relations into government relations, community relations, investor relations, employee relations, customer relations, etc. from the perspective of stakeholders. At present, the relatively good public relations work in Chinese enterprises includes customer relations, media relations, and government relations. But community relations, employee relations, investor relations, etc. are often not given enough attention.

Meanwhile, taking enterprises as an example, there are significant differences in the division of departments related to public relations offices among various types of enterprises. Not only do some companies not have a dedicated public relations department, but even those that do have a public relations department only consider media relations, government relations, and a few other tasks as the functions of the public relations department. Taking JD Group as an example, the public relations department of JD Group is under the CMO operation system, but the actual public relations work is divided into three different operation systems: CMO, CFO, and CPO. The biggest advantage of the JD model is that it can integrate public relations work with related businesses to the maximum extent possible, while its disadvantage is that this model breaks the systematization, coordination, and integrity of public relations work. The organizational structure of Wanda Group represents another typical type of enterprise. Wanda Group has a corporate culture center directly under the CEO department. The center includes the Activities Department, New Media Planning Department, New Media Editing Department, Brand Department, Overseas Brand Department, Celebration Department, Imaging Department, and Brand Department. Compared to the institutional setting model represented by JD.com, Wanda's model integrates business work related to public relations into the same department to better coordinate public relations work. However, companies that adopt this model often overlook one or several directions of public relations work. In addition, the differences between each enterprise can also be clearly seen from the composition of personnel engaged in public relations work in the enterprise. JD Group's employees engaged in public relations work come from a wide range of backgrounds, including senior PR professionals, media professionals HR、 Researchers, marketers, etc. The source of public relations personnel in Wanda Group is very single, and all of its public relations practitioners have media industry experience.

Whether it is differences in the organizational structure of enterprises (or organizations) or differences in personnel backgrounds, fundamentally speaking, they are all caused by differences in the understanding of public relations work among different enterprises (or organizations). Enterprises (or organizations) that focus on media relations naturally tend to recruit talents with media backgrounds when selecting employees; Enterprises (or organizations) that conceptually recognize that public relations work involves various types of work will examine employees from more perspectives in the personnel selection process to meet the needs of different aspects of public relations work.

2. New media businesses are growing rapidly, but the effectiveness of channel utilization needs to be further improved

From the proportion of various businesses in the public relations industry in 2016, it can be seen that digital marketing currently has the highest proportion. In 2016, it accounted for 49.83% of the total. The business transformation of Blue Focus, a leading enterprise in the public relations industry, has driven an important trend towards digital public relations transformation.

At the same time, since the official operation of Sina Weibo in China in 2009, by August 2012, Tencent had launched a official account on WeChat, and by January 2016, Tencent announced in Beijing that its WeChat platform had opened nearly 100000 government accounts alone. The rapid development of new media channels, especially the sustained and rapid growth in the number of deep users and the increase in user usage time, has prompted governments, enterprises, institutions, and various public welfare organizations to open various accounts on social media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, Zhihu, and Fenda. However, from the perspective of the operation of various accounts on various platforms, the results are not optimistic: a large number of "zombie accounts" exist, and different accounts set up by a unified institution are not clearly distinguished in terms of functions. The influence of a single account is small, and it is impossible to form a self media matrix for the institution.

Through investigation and analysis, it was found that the main reasons for the above problems are as follows: (1) New media account operators have inaccurate understanding of channel characteristics, channel audience characteristics, etc., which leads to the inability to fully utilize resources; (2) The establishment of new media accounts lacks top-level design, and the functional positioning between various platforms and accounts is unclear; (3) The content is rigid and lacks consideration from the audience's perspective, making it unsuitable for new media release; (4) The content presentation of most accounts is not flexible and cannot attract audience attention.

3. Confusion between public relations communication and marketing communication functions

The Institute of Advertisers at the Communication University of China defines corporate public relations communication as a process of disseminating information about a company or product to target consumers through various public relations tools and activities, in order to build good brand relationships and maintain organizational image.

With the development of information technology and media, in the environment of massive information, the preferences and habits of the audience in receiving information have also undergone significant changes. The selectivity of information reception is one of the important changes. This change has put forward higher requirements for the information dissemination of various organizations. How to make the content interesting, how to make the audience receive information more conveniently, how to transmit information more accurately to users, and how to make users voluntarily share information have all become issues that information transmission parties need to consider. This situation places higher demands on marketing communication, and the above-mentioned issues that deserve further consideration are highly consistent with the content of public relations research, which makes the marketing communication and public relations communication of various organizations more closely integrated. In fact, it has become an inevitable trend to re-examine advertising, branding, services, and other work from a public relations perspective, not just marketing communication. However, in the process of this trend, many organizations or practitioners have confused the concepts of public relations communication and marketing communication.

The debate over the conversion rate of Baique Ling in May 2017 (which will be briefly explained in the following case) was rooted in a qualitative analysis of the incident. If the dissemination of the Baique Ling panoramic long image is classified as public relations communication, measured from the perspective of public relations communication, this dissemination is undoubtedly very successful. The Baique Ling panoramic long image quickly made the Baique Ling brand a popular online trend, with over 30 million shares increasing the brand's influence. However, if measured from the perspective of marketing communication, public data on the Internet shows that this marketing communication is unsuccessful. The difference in its measurement standards lies in the essential functions of public relations communication and marketing communication.

The purpose of clarifying several concepts such as public relations communication and marketing communication is not only to evaluate whether a marketing communication instance and a public relations communication instance are successful, but also to ensure that various communication activities achieve the expected goals. Only with a clear concept can we more accurately choose the direction of planning and execution after confirming the communication objectives, ultimately ensuring the achievement of the expected goals.

4. There is still a significant shortage of professional talents, and the matching degree between talent supply and demand is low

In 2016, the cancellation and suspension of the undergraduate and master's programs in Public Relations at the School of Media and Design, Sun Yat sen University, attracted widespread attention; The suspension of public relations majors at Dali University in 2017 has sparked petitions from students across the country and heated discussions among experts in education and public relations. Education professionals and public relations experts have provided different interpretations of the reasons for the revocation and suspension of public relations majors in two universities. Education professionals believe that it is normal for universities to adjust their enrollment plans based on social demand, and suspending enrollment for majors with low employment rates is a good thing. However, experts in the public relations industry believe that the revocation or suspension of public relations majors is mainly due to the lack of emphasis on public relations education in the education sector, and demand that discrimination and revocation actions against public relations majors be stopped.

The contradiction between supply and demand of talents in the public relations industry can also be clearly seen from the vastly different perspectives of both parties: on the one hand, due to the inability to meet the requirements of employers, the overall employment rate of students trained by universities is relatively low; On the other hand, there is a significant talent gap in employment agencies. During the debate between the two viewpoints, a more rational viewpoint gradually gained attention. Wang Bing, former assistant president of Disi Media, believed that public relations professionals need to possess professional knowledge in public relations, management, journalism and communication, advertising, and other fields. This more comprehensive ability requirement also poses new challenges to universities. He also proposed that to solve the current contradiction in talent supply, we can start from two aspects: first, adjust the training ideas of public relations education, from the inherent mode of setting up a separate public relations major to making public relations a basic compulsory course for students in related majors, in order to cultivate students in management, journalism and communication, advertising and other majors who master the basic theories and methods of public relations; The second is to accelerate the construction of public relations education and training institutions, and to cultivate a group of brand, marketing, and even senior management talents who master the basic theories and practical methods of public relations through hierarchical and targeted education and training institutions, in order to meet the demand of various institutions for public relations talents.

Outlook for the Development of China's Public Relations Industry

（1） Effect evaluation will gradually be valued

In May 2017, the long-running picture "1931" became popular on social networks, and audiences praised the creativity of the lark. For a while, "lark" became a hot word on the Internet. But then an article titled "Crying! Baique Ling 30 million+views with less than 0.00008 conversion" shifted the focus of this marketing campaign to discussions on conversion effects. Subsequently, many senior experts and netizens in the public relations industry engaged in heated discussions about this, and this marketing event successfully sparked discussions on the effectiveness of digital marketing.

In addition to focusing on and discussing the effectiveness of digital marketing, some companies have also conducted research on the impact of public relations events on consumer behavior in recent years. For example, JD Group has conducted an in-depth analysis of the impact of false online news claiming that "seaweed is made from waste plastic bags" on consumer purchasing behavior using consumer purchase data on the platform.

Various signs indicate that in the future, the evaluation of the effectiveness of public relations activities, public relations communication, public relations events, etc. will be increasingly valued by various organizations. The emphasis on effectiveness evaluation will bring new opportunities to the public relations industry, as well as new challenges to public relations companies. With the development of big data technology and media channels (audience trackability), it can be foreseen that the effectiveness of public relations will be quantitatively evaluated in the future.

（2） Enterprises continue to increase internal resource investment in public relations work

As an important type of institution in the public relations industry, enterprises play an important role in the development of public relations due to their economic, commercial, profit-making, and independent characteristics compared to other types of organizations such as governments and social organizations. The development trend of their public relations work also reflects to some extent the overall development trend of the public relations industry; At the same time, from the perspective of demand side, the demand of enterprises for various types of public relations business also has a huge impact on the development of the public relations industry.

In 2016, Chinese enterprises further expanded their investment in the field of public relations, and increasing internal resource investment was also a new trend presented in 2016. The following three new developments are concrete manifestations of this trend: firstly, enterprises are more involved in the top-level design of public relations; Secondly, enterprises have established internal research institutions to conduct internal research on public relations and other fields; Thirdly, a large number of senior public relations personnel have entered the company, such as Sun Jungong, former spokesperson of the Supreme People's Court, who joined Alibaba Group as vice president in 2016.

The emergence of the above trend is mainly attributed to the following three factors: firstly, enterprises gradually realize the importance of public relations strategy, and urgently need senior management talents with rich experience in the public relations industry; Secondly, the recognition of third-party professional institutions providing services by enterprises is relatively low. Enterprises hope to participate in the top-level strategic design of public relations work and monitor the effectiveness; Thirdly, the development of big data technology has enabled some enterprises with massive user data to have a data foundation for utilizing internal resources to conduct research in public relations and other related fields.

（3） Rapid development of public relations education and training institutions

Talent supply has always been an important factor affecting the development of the industry. With the increasing contradiction in talent supply in the industry, the trend of rapid development of public relations education and training institutions is gradually emerging. In various fields of public relations education and training, training for government and corporate spokespersons is at the forefront of the development of education and training in the entire public relations industry. The Central Party School, the National School of Administration, Pudong Cadre College and other "one school and five academies" of the Organization Department of the Central Committee, as well as the Communication University of China, Renmin University of China and other colleges and universities have all launched professional trainings on media literacy, press spokesmen and other related subjects for leading cadres. According to statistics, in 2016, the National Academy of Administration held a total of 137 training courses, training over 7000 people in total; The National Media Literacy Training Base for Leading Cadres, jointly established by the Communication University of China and the China Public Relations Association, has launched 83 classes and trained more than 4700 people.

Since 2016, the rapid development of online platforms has also provided a more convenient platform for the development of public relations education and training. Penguin New Media College, Sina Government New Media College, Mantou College, Taoke.com and other online teaching platforms have opened courses related to public relations. At the same time, the company has also strengthened the cultivation of employees' basic public relations skills. Enterprises such as OCT, JD.com, FAW Volkswagen, Sinopec, Bank of Communications, and Tianhong Department Store regularly offer a series of public relations training courses for employees at different levels.

In recent years, the public relations industry has maintained a rapid development momentum, but the current situation where academic education is unable to meet the talent needs of the industry still needs time to be resolved. The talent shortage problem commonly faced by public relations enterprises still needs to be solved through multi-channel talent supply, and the flexibility and market-oriented operation mechanism of education and training institutions have promoted their rapid development in the current situation of talent supply shortage in the industry.

Five concluding remarks

In summary, the public relations industry in China is still in a period of rapid growth. With the gradual increase in society's awareness of the public relations industry, the industry's prospects are generally optimistic. With the development of information technology and the innovation of media, the business areas of the public relations industry will continue to change, and new business models will emerge like mushrooms after rain. With the introduction of relevant national laws and regulations, the industry will gradually be purified, and the entire industry will develop towards standardization. In addition, with the intervention of capital, the scale development of the industry will become a trend, and the differences in the size of existing institutions will continue to expand. At the same time, with the flow of senior public relations talents, the existing models in the industry will also be broken, and new operational models centered around individuals or micro teams will gradually be accepted and rapidly developed.