Economy

Good vibrations for adult toy industry

By Shi Yingying and Wu Yiyao (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-15 15:04

SHANGHAI - As adult toys become increasingly familiar to many Chinese, the so-called "pleasure objects" are no longer limited to small stores hidden away in shadowy back streets.

"Nowadays people are more tolerant and less judgmental about pleasure objects, and we feel that it is much easier to do business than a couple of years ago," said Tang Yangyang, a sex shop owner, who joined the eighth China International Adult Toy and Reproductive Health Exhibition in Shanghai.

Organizers said more than 80 brands joined the exhibition this year, a year-on-year growth of 20 percent.

Local enterprises that originally specialized in plastic goods manufacturing, garment design and micro motors have also become involved in the research and development of pleasure objects.

Foreign brands are also eyeing the growing market, which has tens of millions of consumers, as China becomes more open and tolerant to lifestyle choices, despite strict regulations on the industry. Lelo of Sweden, a high-end pleasure-object brand, is targeting sales of 30 million yuan ($4.6 million) to 50 million yuan in China for 2011, compared with sales of 10 million yuan in 2010.

"It's only our third year in the country, but because the market is much bigger than we expected, we're now planning on further expansion not only by working with local dealers but also by getting into the country's drugstores and supermarkets," said Rachel Zhang, Lelo's sales manager for Asia.

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Zhang said the company is negotiating with Watsons, a pharmacy chain with thousands of stores nationwide, to explore the possibility of selling their goods in the company's outlets.

The average price for a high-end Lelo sex toy is tagged at 1,000 yuan, but according to Zhang, "As these products become more acceptable, more Chinese people will buy them."

Fun Factory, a German adult toy company, is celebrating its fifth year of growth in China by expanding the number of retail outlets in which their goods are sold by between 300 or 400.

Jiang Zhiheng, the company's China sales representative, told China Daily that around 60 percent of its business comes from online sales because "Chinese people are still relatively shy about buying this kind of product through a face-to-face transaction. But more than 40 percent of our business is conducted in shops and I see this segment growing," he said.

While some European dealers with deep experience in the Chinese market are expanding, Keith Jones, a sales manager from Brisbane in Australia is having a problem bringing his products to the country.

"We signed contracts with our dealers in China at Christmas, but I was later told the pictures printed on our bottles of massage oil are too erotic and so local customs did not allow them in," said Jones. The only way to bring the oils into China is to register them as skincare products and redesign the packaging especially for the Chinese market, said Jones.

Thousands of curious adults from Shanghai flocked to a sex aids trade show, which opened during the weekend at the cavernous Shanghai International Exhibition Center. The organizer, Dhang Jie, said, "We expect many more people will come to see the displays this year."