The company recently released its first television commercial. (Photos provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

Tong Dao Da Shu, once a personal Sina Weibo account set up by a Tsinghua University art graduate, has developed into a company selling cultural and creative products featuring cartoon characters representing the 12 zodiac symbols.

The account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-equivalent, regularly posts caricatures illustrating the personalities of zodiac signs.

The company has now created funny stories to go along with these cartoons and has attracted nearly 18 million followers.

Its first television commercial, which focuses on the values of love and dreams, ,was recently released, aimed at China's younger generation.

Tong Dao Da Shu has designed different cartoon characters for 12 zodiac signs.

Lu Di, company CEO, said that the company will continue to seek partnerships with food and clothes manufacturers through licensing its intellectual property, such as the original cartoon characters.

According to a survey published in June by Licensing International,the leading trade organization for the global licensing industry, worldwide retail sales of licensed merchandise and services increased to $280.3 billion last year.

China accounted for just 3.38 percent of that figure –that means there's a gap in China's market for Lu's company to explore.