On stage T, a dog wearing a fine dresser walks out of his face; a fully automated cat toilet operates silently, like the "Star Shaft Station" in a science fiction film; the dog triggers the smart device on the collar with a high-frequency routine; in the maintenance area, the stylist is cutting his hair carefully for a VIP dog and symmetrically symmetrically for each hair. I don't know. From 20 August to 24 August, the twenty-seventh Asian pet fair (hereinafter referred to as the “Asia pet exhibition”) was held at the Shanghai New International Fair. More than 2,600 exhibitors in 310,000 square metres of exhibition areas, with over 20,000 brands, combine multidisciplinary resources such as technology, health care and education, and create an insulated interactive experience for pets and their owners.
Here, pets are no longer merely animals raised at home, but are part of the family, giving more emotional value and meaning to life. This shift in identity has led to a shift in pet consumption from basic subsistence needs to refined, personalized services, from “affordability” to “good nutrition”.
Moving from basic feeding to emotional care
According to data published by the Business Data Platform, the size of the Chinese pet market in 2015 was 97.8 billion yuan. With the rise in social consumption and the ecological improvement of the pet industry in China, the Chinese pet market has entered a period of high growth, exceeding 59.28 billion yuan by 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 25.4 per cent.
“The core drivers are the dual transformation of the demand and supply sides. At the demand level, the younger generation becomes the breadwinner who sees pets as an emotional partner rather than a functional animal and promotes a shift in consumption motivation from basic feeding to emotional care and family care.” In an interview with the Journal of Securities, Wu Zai Wei, a contract researcher at SBOC, stated that “the supply side, the chain of industry continues to innovate, and high-end, personalized products and services in food, health, etc. are emerging, significantly broadening the consumer landscape and single-price space”.
The daily magazine of securities found in the food fairs that pet foods, which play “rich selenium” “free” “high protein” “free” “frozen locks”, were receiving attention in the food fair, and that consumers consulted before the exhibition.
The head of the Lanzhou Ranch Company Ltd.'s pet name “Salfa” said to a journalist in the daily Securities Journal: “In the context of the controllable chain of state-owned pastures, `Salfa' has pioneered the introduction of dairy beef into high-end pet staple foods, the core difference being based on the entire feeding system of `organic selenium'. Moreover, depending on the specialty of the northwest, the research and development team combines medicinal herbs with modern pet nutrients, not using artificial additives, but instead achieving conservation functions through natural raw materials and active ingredients.”
At the same time, pet care services have been upgraded from “health care” to “prevention” and pet examinations, vaccinations, exclusive insurance, etc. have become new. The head of a pet hospital told journalists that a growing number of pet owners were beginning to focus on regular medical check-ups and chronic disease management in the hope of providing more comprehensive health care for “pure children”.
“The average annual growth rate of pet insurance operations has nearly doubled over the past three years and overall growth has been strong and highly consistent with market demand.” The data show that, as of the first half of 2025, the total premium for public insurance of pets was close to $563 million, an increase of more than 51.3 per cent over the same period and, to date, the cumulative service of over 7.11 million pet owners.
In addition to day-to-day conservation, the pet memorial service is moving towards a new phase of individualization and humanization. Journalists at the Shanghai Topper Cultural Science and Technology Partnership (the limited partnership) (hereinafter “Top Rabbit”) at W2 House saw young consumers customizing their cat-friendly vases with ashes. Thorpe Rabbit Linsen said to journalists: “A growing number of pet owners want to provide a sense of ritualism for their `sweet children', and any time can customize ceramic souvenirs with photographs and videos. When a pet leaves, it can also make a vase set with ashes.”
Individualized tailor-made services are popular with consumers. “For now, our clients are dominated by 90 and 00, and they have greater consumer capacity and personalized demand.” “Many young people see pets as part of their families and are willing to supply them with clothing and household goods, and our products correspond to this market demand.”
Technological innovation to break down development pains
Despite the promise of a pet economy, there are challenges to industry development. “The current industry is also faced with the confluence of food safety risks, homogenous competition, shortage of professional staff and lack of standards.” Ban, Director General of the Ben-Impact Management Consulting (Shanghai) Limited, stated to the daily Securities Journalist.
“The key to breaking down is building barriers through differentiated innovations (e.g. functional foods, specialist medical care); strengthening supply chain resilience (e.g., domestic alternative raw materials); and rebuilding trust through transparent production and quality services.” Zhang Ho, founder of Fujianhua Brand Positioning Advisory, said:
Technology is becoming a critical force in breaking the rules. The application of technologies such as AID, telemedicine and block chain traceability are expected to address the unequal availability of medical resources and food safety traceability and to reshape industry development models.
At this Asia-Asia Paternity Fair, the Smart Paternity Area brings together the world's leading pet technology products, including two-way talking pet smartphones, precise control feeders, monitoring healthy smart collars, and pet smart-life modules with smart temperature and network remote manipulation. Journalists of the daily Securities Journal saw on the scene that these “black technologies” attracted a large number of visitors for consultations.
In Shenzhen City, Yuk Union New Technologies Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yuk Federation") this time showcased the world's leading pet smartphone PetPhone, which covers four core functions: two-way communication, safe positioning, health monitoring and user community sharing.
Yuck's product manager, Yang, expressed the view that “by training a pet to make a specific move, the smart device can recognize instructions and call the owner. In addition, our unique six-fold positioning technique is also applied to this mobile phone, which, compared with the common GPS or Bluetooth positioning programmes on the market, uses autonomously developed active radar search mechanisms that can efficiently assist pet owners in the precise location of their pets and greatly improve safety protection capabilities.”
The ULTRA, a global first-ever fully automated cat latrine that integrates urine analysis systems, is displayed by Pepsi Network Technology (Shanghai) Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Pe).
“The product has smart features such as autocleaning, bactericide and deodorant, while introducing AI visual analysis to achieve precision monitoring of toilet behaviour and health data analysis. Co-founder Li Pengwei said that it is possible to synchronize pet data, such as toilet data, to the end of a mobile phone in real time, in conjunction with specialized cat dust, urin system monitoring and coagulator analysis.
On the stage of Chengdu Tongmi Technology Ltd. (hereinafter “Donmi Technology”), the mobile surveillance system “Steps 007” is equally visible. Chiang Minglong, Director of Technology, Tangmi, said to a journalist in the daily Securities Journal: “This smart product is characterized by dual identification of pets, visual barriers, automatic cruises, automatic recharge. As a mobile version of the short video homemade and monitoring machine, it generates short video and pet observation reports that provide early warning to the owner of the gross child.”
The head of the exhibiting business indicated to journalists that the future will be further driven by technological means such as artificial intelligence, big data, etc., in the direction of fine-tuning and landscapeization of intelligent pet equipment.