The year 2022 is the third year of normalized prevention and control of the COVID-19. The multi wave epidemic in the past three years has posed serious and continuous challenges to the offline operation and trade exchanges of exhibition enterprises. The internationalization level of the exhibition industry in the cultural industry is relatively high, especially for high-level large-scale international exhibitions and large museums as important cross-border tourism landmarks. The multiple impacts on its international operation and service provision during the epidemic are more significant. In terms of China's hosting of overseas exhibitions, the number of self hosted exhibitions in China reached 137 in 2019, while there were only 2 and 14 in 2020 and 2021, respectively. According to data from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, there were nearly 1700 exhibition projects that had obtained approval in 2020 but were not implemented due to the cancellation of overseas exhibitions. The damaged area was nearly 900000 square meters, and about 60000 companies were hindered from participating in overseas exhibitions. The scale of exhibitions has also significantly decreased, with an average exhibition area of 1700 meters per venue in 2021, a year-on-year decrease of 6700 meters per venue, a decrease of 79.76%.

Cloud exhibition is a virtual exhibition based on network technology, which can be viewed through the Internet. The emergence of cloud exhibitions can help audiences visit various exhibitions without being limited by time and location, while also providing more opportunities for artists and cultural institutions to showcase and promote themselves. The exploration and practice of online cloud exhibitions have become important opportunities for related industries to overcome the impact of the epidemic on cultural trade and develop new models of digital cultural trade. In May 2022, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Stability and Quality of Foreign Trade", proposing to promote enterprises to expand trade transactions through online channels, accelerate the digitalization and intelligent construction of exhibitions, strengthen the linkage with cross-border e-commerce platforms, actively apply VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), big data and other technologies, optimize new exhibition modes such as "cloud exhibition halls" and virtual booths, intelligently connect supply and procurement, and facilitate enterprise transactions. With China's significant and decisive victory in epidemic prevention and control, the development of the exhibition industry has also entered the post epidemic era, and the situation of cloud exhibition development has shifted from being forced to being proactive.

Cloud exhibitions, as a technological concept, are applied in various formats of the online exhibition industry, including conferences, trade shows, museum and art gallery exhibitions, and have developed differentiated cloud exhibition technology applications based on different business purposes and characteristics. In the face of the changing demands of organizers, professional audiences, and exhibitors in the post pandemic era, it is necessary to continuously enhance the brand appeal and risk resistance of exhibitions through innovative exhibition business models such as cloud exhibitions. As a rapidly developing emerging technology format in the exhibition industry, studying the development status and existing problems of cloud exhibitions has profound significance for promoting the future development of related industries.

The Development Status of One Cloud Exhibition

（1） The development of different modes of cloud exhibitions

At present, the application forms of cloud exhibitions are divided into two categories by the Event Industry Council (EIC) based on their degree of online integration: hybrid trade shows/events and virtual trade shows. Hybrid exhibitions are a combination of offline exhibitions and online interactions, based on offline content and expanded and supplemented by online content, and are the most important application forms of cloud exhibitions; The content of virtual exhibitions is entirely based on digital virtual platforms, and no longer has exhibition elements such as offline physical venues, exhibit displays, and exhibitor booths.

There are certain differences in the selection preferences of domestic and overseas exhibition companies for the two different modes. According to incomplete statistics from the China Exhibition Economy Research Association, a total of 714 domestic online exhibitions were held in China in 2021, including 623 mixed exhibitions, accounting for 87.25%, and 91 virtual exhibitions, accounting for 12.75%; From a trend perspective, the number of mixed exhibitions in 2021 increased by 114 compared to 2020, a year-on-year increase of about 22.40%, while the number of virtual exhibitions decreased by 28, a year-on-year decrease of 23.53%. From this, it can be seen that virtual exhibitions still hold a position in the exhibition industry as emergency measures taken to deal with sudden events such as the epidemic. After the epidemic entered the stage of normalized prevention and control, the dependence of the exhibition industry on virtual exhibitions significantly decreased. This also indicates that the technology and format of virtual exhibitions are still immature, and their recognition in the exhibition industry is relatively low, making them unable to compete with mixed exhibitions and offline exhibitions.

The "Survey Report on the Current Situation of the Outreach Industry" released by the International Exhibition and Marketing Professional Committee of the China Business Culture Research Association in September 2021 shows that under the impact of the epidemic, 42% of outreach enterprises have chosen to transform to online exhibition mode, and less than 5% of enterprises have chosen the offline and online dual line exhibition mode. This reflects that the offline and online dual line exhibition mode cannot solve the dilemma of China's international exhibition enterprises holding offline exhibitions during the epidemic. Virtual exhibitions, which break the limitations of time and space, are more friendly to international exhibitors and participants. In the development of international exhibitions, virtual exhibitions have good prospects.

According to UFI (Global Exhibition Industry Association) data, the average revenue of the global exhibition industry in 2022 has reached 73% of that in 2019. UFI expects that in the first half of 2023, the revenue of the global exhibition market can reach 75% to 87% of what it was in 2019. According to UFI's sample data, overseas exhibitors still maintain a positive attitude towards participating in exhibitions, and their overall willingness to attend is basically the same as before the epidemic. This means that the global exhibition industry will further recover, and the import and export of exhibition services still have great potential. Under the trend of integrated and interactive development of online and offline exhibitions, cloud exhibitions still have great potential for development in the exhibition industry.

（2） Development of Content Differentiation in Cloud Exhibitions

According to the exhibition content, cloud exhibitions can be divided into three modes: online audio-visual exhibitions, real-life 3D exhibitions, and 3D virtual exhibitions. Online audio-visual exhibition mainly uploads the exhibition introduction, exhibits and other related information through pictures, text, video shooting and other forms. Its interaction with exhibitors and audience is generally weak, and its main role is to expand the exhibition's publicity channel through the Internet information release in the form of text push, short video, web display and other forms. The Museum Data Report released by Tiktok in 2022 shows that by May 2022, the coverage rate of Tiktok museums above the third level of the country is 98.64%; In 2021, the number of live viewers of Tiktok platform museums will increase by 281% year on year, and the number of Tiktok related short videos of museums will increase by 70% year on year. The number of likes will exceed 1.2 billion, and the number of broadcasts will exceed 39.4 billion, which is 72 times the number of visitors received by museums nationwide in a year. Online audio-visual exhibition can rapidly expand the audience of the exhibition through Internet publicity channels, and achieve effective promotion of publicity effect.

Realistic 3D exhibitions are created by taking panoramic shots of the exhibition hall, fully and meticulously reproducing the offline venue online, creating virtual spaces, and providing an immersive experience for online visitors. Interactive interfaces are also provided to achieve different degrees of online interaction, such as scene transformation, introduction of exhibit details, and sharing of comments. This model is currently the main cloud exhibition model adopted by the museum industry. Many large museums, such as the National Museum of China, the Palace Museum, the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., the Louvre Museum in France, the British Museum, the National Gallery of Art in the UK, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, provide real-life 3D exhibition services. Realistic 3D exhibitions are not only replicas of offline exhibitions, but also have their unique significance. They break the time limit of museum exhibitions, allowing previous themed exhibitions to be preserved and playing an important role in enhancing the cultural and educational functions of museums. For commercial museums, continuously available cultural relic exhibitions can enrich the museum's business model.

However, 3D virtual exhibitions do not require offline exhibitions and are online exhibitions based solely on thematic content. Similar to real-life 3D exhibitions, 3D virtual exhibitions lack the social aspect of exhibitions. However, their advantage lies in the fact that exhibitions are entirely built on virtual spaces, making them more flexible in terms of curation and exhibition arrangements. They do not involve the physical flow of cultural relics and artworks, making international cooperation between museums and art galleries more convenient. The organization and curation of 3D virtual exhibitions differ significantly from traditional offline exhibitions, as the content is no longer limited to exhibit display, but extends to secondary creation combining digital technology and art. In recent years, the foreign industry has explored this type of exhibition more deeply. Online digital exhibition apps developed by Google, such as Google Arts&Culture, and the French "Micro Forests" digital museum network, have launched a large number of 3D virtual exhibitions, fully utilizing the integrated cultural relics resources to achieve modern and innovative displays of art, culture, and history.

（3） Transaction value of cloud exhibitions

In the museum industry, the application of cloud exhibitions can enrich the curation methods of international museum exhibitions and enhance the trade value of exhibits. Traditional museum exchanges lease exhibits to museums in other countries and regions for short-term exhibitions or cooperative research, education, and exhibition projects, which require physical transportation of exhibits back and forth. The import and export taxes and fees of cultural relics bring additional costs to museums, and the non replicability of cultural relics makes it difficult to bear the risk of transportation damage, which greatly hinders the international exchange of museums. Through digital copyright trade, the safety of cultural relic management can be improved while minimizing physical transportation costs and risks, which can to some extent promote the value enhancement of museum exhibit trade.

However, the situation of exhibitions is different. Some of the exhibits themselves are trade goods that need to be sold on site, and marketing is an important part of exhibitions. The lack of physical presence in cloud exhibitions, especially virtual exhibitions, reduces the credibility of exhibit sales to a certain extent, which may have a negative impact on the trade value of exhibition products.

Analysis of Two Domestic and Foreign Cloud Exhibition Practice Cases

（1） Miolante International Exhibition and Convention Center

The "2021 China Exhibition Data Statistics Report" presents the situation of overseas online exhibition hosts and contractors in China in 2021. The Miolante International Exhibition and Convention Center in Hangzhou (hereinafter referred to as "Miolante Exhibition") held a total of 363 overseas exhibitions throughout the year (see Figure 1), becoming the domestic exhibition enterprise with the highest number of overseas exhibitions in China, far exceeding the top five and bottom four exhibition enterprises. At the same time, it has also become the domestic enterprise with the highest number of self organized overseas exhibitions.

Figure 1: Number of Overseas Online Exhibitions Hosted by the Top Five Chinese Companies in 2021

Mi'ao Exhibition is mainly engaged in planning, launching, organizing and promoting overseas exhibitions, focusing on "Made in China" and "the Belt and Road" emerging market exhibitions. Focusing on manufacturing industry going global in exhibition content, the core self-produced exhibition brands "Homelife" and "Machinery" are mainly promoted for specialized exhibitions in the domestic home and industrial machinery industries. As of 2022, they have become the two exhibition brands with the highest number of UFI certifications in China.

The main business model of Mio Exhibition is a combination of self operated exhibitions and direct sales models. It comprehensively controls the planning and initiation of exhibition projects, exhibition implementation, and investment attraction, forming a complete set of exhibition presentation plans to achieve the construction and promotion of independent brand exhibitions. In 2019, Mio Exhibition's self operated exhibition business accounted for 90% of its revenue and 92% of its gross profit; The proportion of overseas business revenue from brand direct sales has increased to 75%.

The main products of Mio Exhibition's online cloud exhibition layout include "NetExpo Max" and "NetExpo Meta". Launched in 2020, "NetExpo Max" is a digital exhibition brand created by Mio Exhibition with independent intellectual property rights, independent brand, independent operation, and global layout. The brand has established a modular cloud exhibition system, providing a platform based one-stop service of online digital information, cloud display, cloud matching, big data services, and cloud business negotiation, in order to replicate the efficient customer acquisition function of offline exhibitions. In 2020, the "NetExpo Max" platform hosted the world's first large-scale international online digital exhibition, the China Latin America (Mexico) International Trade Digital Exhibition, organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, as well as 14 other digital exhibitions. In 2021, the "NetExpo Trade Max" platform hosted the RCEP member countries' international trade digital exhibition, providing a platform for Chinese enterprises to communicate and exchange ideas with buyers in the RCEP region, and to carry out economic and trade investment cooperation. It attracted about 2000 enterprises from various fields to participate, and more than 20000 professional buyers from RCEP member countries visited and negotiated online, with a total intended transaction amount of 8.58 million US dollars.

In 2021, Mio Exhibition launched the "Meta Online Exhibition Trade" and established a "dual line dual exhibition" model to provide digital integration solutions for the integration of online and offline exhibitions. The online features include setting up a digital overseas exhibition hall, providing online exhibition and purchasing services. During the exhibition, both online and offline physical exhibitions are held simultaneously, and both online and offline buyers can learn about products through real-time online negotiations with sellers. After the exhibition, we provide delayed customer docking services to help exhibitors obtain more buyers who match their purchasing intentions through secondary operation services. In 2021, more than 50% of the "dual line and dual exhibition" exhibitions held overseas were organized by Mio Exhibition and its holding subsidiaries.

（2） Google Arts&Culture platform

In November 2015, Google's online digital exhibition app, Google Arts&Culture (GA&C), was launched. It collaborates with over 2000 museums, art galleries, and other cultural institutions from around the world, featuring high-resolution digital images of more than 200000 original art works, 7 million archived artifacts, over 1800 museum photos taken using street view technology, and over 3000 carefully curated online exhibitions by experts. Taking the oil painting "Night Watch" themed exhibition released by the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam as an example, the ultra-high resolution (1 billion pixel level) art images captured by the Art Camera can provide curators with the possibility to magnify every detail of the painting, greatly enhancing the visibility of the artwork. Curators are able to highlight the painting details and cultural connotations of artworks based on display and educational needs, enriching the cultural and educational functions of the exhibition. At the same time, the platform also provides cultural and artistic curation experiments for artists around the world, exploring the combination of cultural elements and digital technology. The platform also provides virtual tourism services, educational resources, and interactive exhibitions.

At present, users can not only appreciate museum buildings and collections from different countries online through GA&C, but with the platform's multiple iterations and upgrades, GA&C has gradually become an online cultural sharing platform supported by VR, AR, 3D scanning, AI and other technologies. Users can also become curators and creators. On this platform, any user can curate and display their work through preset templates in the Story Editor, and upload the results to the cloud content manager and publicly publish them on the GA&C platform or in the form of videos on the YouTube video website.

As a non-commercial plan, the GA&C platform cannot be used for any commercial activities or as a fund-raising platform. However, the case of the GA&C platform can play an important role in the choice of the future development direction of the digital museum. As a platform model at the core of the digital economy model, the cooperation model established by relying on Google's Internet giant status, the development potential and commercial value of this type of cloud exhibition platform have a high reference value for other for-profit cloud exhibition formats.

Problems in the Technology and Application of Three Cloud Exhibitions

（1） The mismatch between cloud exhibition technology and exhibition formats

For the host cities of various exhibitions, the significance of developing the exhibition industry lies not only in obtaining direct income such as venue rental fees, booth fees, and construction fees, but also in leveraging the linkage advantages of the exhibition industry to indirectly drive the exhibition service supporting industries, including transportation, communication, hotels, catering, tourism, retail, advertising, printing, decoration, logistics and freight, and other surrounding industries to develop together. At the same time, the exhibition platform is used to promote domestic and foreign economic and trade exchanges, attract capital and technology, and drive economic development.

Although cloud exhibitions can play a partial role in offline exhibitions to a certain extent, the traditional industry chain is centered around exhibition companies and exhibition venues, making it difficult to replicate the synergistic advantages of the two with other parts of the industry chain. On the one hand, the replacement of offline exhibitions by cloud exhibitions has actually affected the development of urban economy, and this impact cannot be eliminated through technological optimization of cloud exhibitions, which will greatly limit the future development of cloud exhibitions; On the other hand, it has weakened the driving force for the development of cloud exhibition technology. In fact, due to the weak substitutability and strong complementarity between the two, the existing cloud exhibition format can only serve as a supplement to offline exhibitions rather than a competitive substitute. The position of cloud exhibitions is gradually marginalized due to the opening up of the offline market, which is not conducive to the long-term development of cloud exhibition technology.

（2） There are deficiencies in the visiting experience of cloud exhibitions

Exhibitions have two aspects of social and visual content, that is, the touring process of the exhibition does not require the audience to fully watch and understand. The social elements of the exhibition, such as explanation, atmosphere, and interaction, constitute an important part of the touring experience, and even to some extent outweigh the visibility of the exhibition's exhibits themselves.

The level of interactive exploration of cloud exhibitions by exhibition companies and museums is generally low, especially for real-life 3D exhibitions and 3D virtual exhibitions. Usually, after entering the online exhibition hall, the audience can only click and jump by themselves, and there are few other types of interaction, lacking human-computer interaction. The experience is relatively boring, and the social attributes of exhibitions are weakened. In fact, the audience's travel experience may not be as good as some online audio-visual exhibitions with strong interactivity. This is also an important reason why real-life 3D exhibitions lacking social elements, even if they have stronger visibility than online audiovisual exhibitions, still differ significantly from online audiovisual exhibitions in terms of actual audience recognition. The weakening of interactivity reduces the desire and enjoyment of audience expression and communication, which weakens the impulse to consume during the visit and is likely to affect the exhibition's transaction volume. In international exhibitions, due to the influence of cross linguistic and cross-cultural environments, and the weakening of the social attributes of cloud exhibitions, measures for curators to match the needs of users from different countries overseas need to be pre included in the system, resulting in a significant increase in exhibition costs.

At the same time, in addition to the exhibition items and social attributes, the materials and colors of the walls and carpets in the exhibition, the lighting and even the smell in the exhibition hall, and the actual size and specification differences between the exhibition items are all key framework structures for constructing the audience's understanding of the exhibition. This construction function is not possessed by single exhibition items or virtual viewing experiences that are disconnected from each other online. In addition, the immaturity of copyright and technology also imposes some limitations on the experience of online exhibitions.

（3） Insufficient platform application of cloud exhibition system

At present, the main mode of online communication of cloud exhibition is that online platforms built by museums or curators provide access ports for visitors. This mode can break the time and space restrictions on participants. However, in reality, the audience of a single small-scale platform is still small, and it is difficult to make full use of the network externalities of the Internet platform. Therefore, the search cost of public participants has not been reduced, which is more prominent in international exhibitions and overseas tourism exhibitions.

Since the traffic of Internet communication is concentrated on a few ecological Internet platforms dominated by Internet enterprises, the cloud exhibition platform has always been inefficient in obtaining traffic, and there is strong competition among enterprises in the exhibition industry, so it is difficult to form an overall platform for the industry. Unlike the "dual line dual exhibition" hybrid model that can utilize offline content and promotional channels, virtual exhibitions are more directly and deeply affected by platform traffic restrictions, which further weakens the ability of cloud exhibitions to develop independently.

（4） The threshold for cloud exhibition technology is high, and talent is scarce

The production of cloud exhibition halls requires high-level digital skills and content creation abilities. It is not only necessary to digitize physical exhibits, but also to create an immersive atmosphere and provide diverse digital services through interactive experiences, sound, light, and images. This puts forward new requirements for practitioners, requiring exhibition designers to transform into creators and experience builders of digital content, and technical talents to lay a solid digital foundation for exhibitions.

At present, there is a shortage of talents in the exhibition industry, and digital technology talents are even more scarce. The arrival of the digital economy era has greatly increased the demand for digital technology talents in various industries. Affected by the shrinking of the industry under the epidemic, the exhibition industry lacks attractiveness for digital content creation talents, making cloud exhibitions more reliant on outsourcing to digital enterprises. The main problem with outsourcing is that outsourcing enterprises are not familiar with the form and content of exhibitions. The design scheme for building cloud exhibitions can only rely on exhibition companies, which only have traditional offline exhibition planning capabilities. The resulting curatorial arrangements are difficult to fully utilize the advantages of the cloud exhibition model.

Strategies and Prospects for the Development of Four Cloud Exhibitions

（1） Transforming traditional exhibition thinking and strengthening the unique advantages of digital online exhibitions

Because the logic of online exhibition from content form to communication channel is quite different from offline exhibition, exhibition enterprises need to change their thinking to develop cloud exhibition and attach importance to strengthening the unique advantages of cloud exhibition in the digital Internet environment. The external growth model of offline exhibitions to expand the scale, increase the scope of exhibitors, and link more industries is difficult to play a role in the cloud exhibition environment. Enterprises need to pay attention to the distinctive Internet logic displayed by cloud exhibitions. On the one hand, it is the data driven characteristics of online services. The application of cloud exhibition in the Internet environment can greatly facilitate the data collection of exhibitors and visitors. Through further analysis and processing of the behavioral data of exhibition participants, we can get big data analysis results, such as the consultation priority of exhibition related information, exhibition form and exhibition content preferences, portraits of popular exhibitors and other big data analysis results, to help exhibition enterprises provide better curation schemes and help exhibitors better match their needs; On the other hand, it is widely linked with the online industry. Cloud exhibition formats are closely linked with various Internet industries. For example, cloud exhibition communication needs to rely on the financial media platform, and online trade of exhibits needs to be bound with the payment trading platform.

Carry out in-depth cooperation with Internet enterprises and provide technical service support for online exhibitions by virtue of their technological advantages. At present, Huawei, Tencent, JD and other digital enterprise giants are all carrying out their own online exhibition service support business, but the scale is small. They need to cooperate with exhibition enterprises to build a digital exhibition brand that integrates the advantages of Internet technology and reasonable exhibition strategies, constantly expand the influence of the platform, make full use of the network externalities of the Internet platform, and achieve the platform economic effect of cloud exhibition.

The digital online exhibition platform built by museums or digital enterprises not only integrates their own cultural relics and art resources digitally, but also requires extensive cooperation, signing agreements with partner museums to promote the expansion of exhibit scale, and exploring new online exhibition models that go beyond offline exhibition thinking and collaborative exhibition work paradigms.

（2） Enhance the interactive attributes of cloud exhibitions and reconstruct the interactive mode of virtual spaces

Improving the interactive capabilities of cloud exhibition platforms requires exhibition designers to start from the exhibition characteristics of cloud exhibitions, focusing on enhancing the narrative ability of exhibitions in three-dimensional virtual spaces while paying attention to the interactive experience of audiences. This part of the experience can also be improved through continuous technological means, such as inserting chat programs built with natural language processing models similar to ChatGPT, and using artificial intelligence to enhance the experience function of cloud exhibitions through real-time explanation and dialogue. Using chat programs instead of repetitive and procedural manual explanations can not only adapt to the characteristics of cloud exhibitions that break through time and space limitations and can be carried out anytime and anywhere, but also better complete the tasks of explanation and dialogue. In addition, language issues encountered during overseas exhibitions can also be resolved through the translation system embedded in chat programs.

At the same time, the liberalization of explanations can completely return the control of the pace of the exhibition to the audience. Viewers can freely choose the exhibits they want to see, listen to, and delve deeper into, as well as the depth and breadth of their understanding, the form and content of their interaction. This requires curators to reduce their strategic behavior of deliberately handling low-quality exhibits and focus more on the exhibits themselves, attracting audiences through the comprehensive display of high-quality exhibits.

In addition, the diversity of interactive modes requires curators to conduct in-depth exploration. Based on various digital interactive applications compatible with digital platforms, curators can try various forms of interaction, such as interactive games, Q&A mini programs, AI assisted secondary creation, etc., to bring audiences closer to the exhibits.

（3） Adapting to the digital age and cultivating cloud exhibition professionals

In addition to sales personnel and experts who understand the industry, online exhibitions also require highly skilled professionals in online operations, forming a talent structure that matches information technology and digitization, including digital marketing, big data, data operations, business intelligence, digital consulting, and other aspects. Universities need to combine the training of exhibition professionals with the background of the digital age in a timely manner, so that students can establish digital awareness, master digital technology knowledge, and transform the inherent thinking mode of traditional exhibitions from talent cultivation, injecting fresh blood into the development of new models in the exhibition industry. The introduction of digital talents will be an important foundation for the future digitalization of the exhibition industry.

At the same time, universities and enterprises should actively utilize the low-cost feature of cloud exhibitions, which can be completed through programming training from curation and exhibition to data collection, to carry out practice oriented new teaching and cultivate practice oriented digital era exhibition talents. In addition, attention should be paid to improving students' moral level, enhancing their legal awareness and service consciousness, so as to promote the comprehensive improvement of the professional ethics of contemporary exhibition talents.

The exhibition industry is an important component of modern service industry, and "people" play a crucial role in exhibition services. The talents in the exhibition industry are ultimately service industry talents, and it is necessary to better cultivate students' service awareness. Good communication, coordination, and empathy skills can fully reflect the professionalism of professionals in the exhibition industry. Whether it is online or offline services, improving service details is the key to providing customers with a better experience and promoting the development of the exhibition industry.