Information consumption, which accelerates the integration of consumption chains with supply chains, industrial chains, and value chains through digital technology, has become a defining feature of digital economic development and a key engine driving high-quality economic growth. To promote information consumption, the State Council issued the “Guiding Opinions on Further Expanding and Upgrading Information Consumption to Continuously Unleash the Potential of Domestic Demand” in 2017. This document emphasized deepening the integration of information consumption with innovation, entrepreneurship, and the “Internet Plus” initiative, while encouraging core technology R&D and service model innovation. The 2021 “Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035” highlighted the need to cultivate new forms of consumption, including information consumption, digital consumption, and green consumption. The 2024 State Council Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Service Consumption called for accelerating the construction and upgrading of information consumption experience centers and launching a series of new information consumption projects. Consequently, advancing information consumption has become a key component of the national innovation strategy. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approved 104 national information consumption pilot cities in 2014 and 2015, respectively, deploying pilot initiatives in infrastructure, consumption models, and core technologies to support information consumption development. How, then, do information consumption-driven policies at all government levels simultaneously advance information consumption development and digital technology accumulation while elevating urban digital technology innovation levels? What are their underlying mechanisms? Addressing these questions not only provides a theoretical framework and empirical evidence for evaluating the policy implications of information consumption pilot city development but also offers valuable insights into leveraging demand-driven innovation to enhance urban digital technology innovation capabilities.

Drawing upon demand-driven innovation theory, this paper constructs an analytical framework encompassing foundational elements, core entities, and ecosystem effects. It elucidates the potential mechanisms through which information consumption-driven policies empower urban digital technological innovation. Empirical validation employs a multi-period difference in differences model, utilising multiple datasets including urban datasets, patent databases, national tax survey databases, and listed company databases, alongside information consumption pilot policies. Findings reveal that information consumption-driven policies significantly elevate urban digital technology innovation levels. Mechanism analysis indicates these policies drive innovation through multiple pathways: attracting talent clusters, fostering enterprises as innovation agents, and strengthening governmental external ecosystem safeguards. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that such policies primarily enhance digital innovation in regions with high marketisation levels, cities below tier-two status, and areas possessing robust digital industrial foundations. Synergy analysis indicates that digital finance, digital economy policies, and information infrastructure support can generate significant synergistic effects with information consumption-driven policies through financial empowerment, policy guidance, and facility support. The findings of this study provide novel and viable pathways for technological innovation in the digital era, offering important insights for unleashing urban digital technology innovation vitality under information consumption-driven frameworks. Based on the above conclusions, this paper proposes the following policy implications: First, refine top-level institutional design and resource support systems to establish standardized policy closed-loop mechanisms. Second, build collaborative innovation mechanisms among talent, enterprises, and government to stimulate endogenous motivation among micro-level entities. Third, implement tailored, tiered advancement strategies based on the distinct resource endowments of different cities.