Pet owners snap up electronic devices
Print Edition
ELECTRONIC device makers such as Hong Kong-listed Suga and other startups are looking to cash in on a boom in China in so-called pet wearables, like smart collars, leashes and feeders.
Pet ownership has become popular among the country’s growing middle class.
Lia Yang Liu, 39, a lecturer in Chinese literature at a Beijing university, bought a GPS tracker that attaches to her dog’s collar.
“The device really helped me once, when I loosened the collar and he just ran out of the park,” said Liu.
She is skeptical of other products though.
“I think the commercials just exaggerate the effects. I don’t believe devices can translate a pet’s language for us.”
The electronic pet device market in China is still small but by some estimates is growing by a fifth or even a quarter every year.
Alfred Ng, chief technology officer at Suga, estimates China is now 5 percent of a global market that American-based market intelligence firm Transparency Market Research estimates was worth US$1 billion at the end of 2016.
Ng forecasts that China’s share of the market will jump to more than 20 percent by 2024, by which time Transparency Market Research estimates the global market will be worth at least US$2.5 billion.
Suga produces wearable tech that monitors pets’ health and food intake. It is also eying a device to check pet emotions.
Chen Xufeng, marketing manager of Guangzhou-based software developer Guangdong Lekong IOT Technology Co, expects the China market in pet electronic devices to grow 20 percent to 25 percent in the next two to three years.
“There are more than 10 million pieces of wearable products for pets sold in the Chinese market every year,” Chen said.
IDTechEx, an independent market research firm, said there were 300 manufacturers of wearable pet gadgets globally — almost half based in China. It predicted the number will rise to 500 as the market expanded.
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