A kiss of life for sex toys
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail
China Daily, July 8, 2011
She is 27, works as an art designer, and browses online for sex products nearly every week.
She started in September 2009 after noticing a sex products store near her home in Beijing's Dongcheng district. "I was curious about what the products can do and if they could really improve sex life."
 |
|
Ma Ke arranges a product display in the downtown Beijing Juse store where he is sales manager. China has an estimated 200,000 sex shops; Juse is one of the largest chains. |
But she shied away from going into the store, lest a friend see her. (Similarly, she didn't want her name published.)
A few days later, she typed chengren (adults) into a search engine and was surprised by some of the results - sex products, including vibrators and sexy-looking underwear for women and inflatable dolls for men.
When she found something she liked and clicked on "buy", she joined thousands of people who purchase erotica online.
At the outset, her boyfriend asked her not to buy such "vulgar" products. Then he saw how she looked in the new underwear. In the past two years, they have bought two more pieces of sexy undies and two vibrators.
There are no official statistics on the number of sex product stores in China, but sex experts estimate that 200,000 stores compete for annual sales of at least 100 billion yuan ($14.7 billion).
Over the past five years, thousands of online sex shops have opened as well, said Lin Degang, a council member of China Sexology Association, an academic society focused on sexual health.
Statistics from e-commerce giant Taobao show that sex toy retailers took in more than 14 million yuan (about $2.1 million) in June. How many sellers are there? A China Daily reporter searched Taobao for "sex toy" on Thursday and got about 26,000 hits.
The next boom
With the exception of condoms, sex products cannot be advertised in China on TV or radio or in print media. There is no restriction on websites, however, so that's where Chu Chengxin runs his business.
He is 36, has been selling sex goods for 11 years, and says the profit margin is huge. A pack of condoms made in China costs 1.8 to 2.5 yuan wholesale, he said, but it retails for 10 to 25 yuan.
From 2000 to 2009, Chu ran a bricks-and-mortar store that cost him about 10,000 yuan. He said he earned about 80,000 yuan each year.
The next "booming trend in China" will be selling sex toys online, said Yang Changjing, the 27-year-old boss of Zui-qingfeng, a sex toy shop on Taobao.com.
Search Taobao for "sex toys", and you'll see a gold crown next to his shop's name, indicating 500,000 or more sales since the store opened in 2008. Other symbols indicate lesser milestones; silver crowns, for example, signify 10,000 sales.
"The biggest sex toy shop on Taobao had only gained three silver crowns in early 2010, which showed that its total sales volume was just over 100,000 deals," Yang said. "But now, there are two golden crown stores. It's a big increase."
Before Yang started the business, he earned his university degree and worked four years in sales for a Taiwan-based company. "It was just a normal job, which couldn't help me to earn more."
He liked the relatively slim competition in the sex toy business - maybe 3,000 sellers on Taobao in 2008, although he said it had more than doubled by 2010 - and the potential.
A well-managed online sex toy shop took in less than 100,000 yuan (about US$15,000) a month in 2008, he said. "But now, my store turns over about 1 to 2 million yuan (US$150,000 to US$300,000) every month."
Yang said his most popular product is an egg-shaped electronic toy, which both men and women can use. Zuiqingfeng sells 50,000 to 100,000 of them each month, priced from 20 yuan to 200. Women are the primary customers for sexy underwear, he said, and they buy 20,000 to 30,000 pieces a month.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)