CHINA: Sex doll and vibrator makers are now racing to satisfy increasing demands behind bedroom doors

Record ID: 335330

  • Title: CHINA: Sex doll and vibrator makers are now racing to satisfy increasing demands behind bedroom doors
  • Date: 17th February 2012
  • Summary: XIACHEN VILLAGE, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA (RECENT - FEBRUARY 13, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WORKER INFLATING SEX DOLL VARIOUS OF WORKER LIFTING SEX DOLL VARIOUS OF WORKER THROWING SEX DOLL ON PILE OF SEX DOLLS VARIOUS OF MANAGER OF NINGBO YAMEI'S SEX DOLL FACTORY, MA XUJIE, EXAMINING SEX DOLL SEX DOLL (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) MANAGER OF NINGBO YAMEI'S SEX DOLL FACTORY
  • Embargoed: 3rd March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China, China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA378CQAJUGAVUTXSDEAK6KZQLA
  • Story Text: While most sex toys on China's assembly lines end up overseas, sex doll and vibrator makers are now racing to satisfy the Chinese's increasing demands behind bedroom doors.
    In a small factory at rural Xiachen village about 35 kilometres (22 miles) from eastern Zhejiang province's Ningbo city, workers churned out tens of thousands of sex dolls last year and are getting ready to move to a larger production site next month.
    Although sex toys were said to exist back in imperial China, the first sex toy shops opened their doors in the early 90s.
    According to state newspaper China daily in 2010, China's sex toy industry is now worth about $2 billion annually.
    The manager at Ningbo Yamei's sex doll factory, Ma Xujie, said its pleasure-givers carry a price-tag of 100 Yuan ($16 USD) and aim mostly at the low-end domestic market.
    His blow up dolls' sales peaked at 2010, when workers assembled more than 70,000 blow up dolls, about 15 percent of which were shipped to South Korea, Turkey, Japan and other countries.
    The lucrative numbers have lured more competitors, bringing down their order numbers and 2011's production numbers to 50,000.
    "We had good business in 2010. When other people saw this and learned that they were lucrative, many also began making them. They (sex dolls) don't cover a big market, but there is a demand. Since the market is not huge, once more suppliers entered the market, the competition became fierce," Ma said.
    The toys that bring in the most money, though, are not the plastic femme fatale.
    For Ningbo Yamei's vibrator factory manager, Wang Fabing, the gold vibrators also promise gold in their wallets.
    Wang's factory made 300,000 vibrators last year, with a third of them exported to Japan, the European Union, Taiwan and other foreign markets.
    But the domestic market is where the boom is expected in the near future, thanks to online shopping, Wang said.
    "Within the next three to five years, the Chinese market for sex toys will definitely reach its peak. Basically, online shopping is expanding, isn't it? In this regard, sales will surge by three times as much," Wang said.
    Although small-sized sex shops are littered around the streets of Beijing, their low-key storefronts are a far cry from the colourful products they sell.
    These shops, subtly named "adult health care" stores, tend to stock up on sex-related medication and condoms while also putting some low to mid-end sex toys on their shelves.
    Despite their low-profile appearances, many Chinese still feel the stigma attached to purchasing sex toys. No customers agreed for an on-camera interview for Reuters.
    But sex toy sellers say the demand is growing -- not on the storefronts, but online.
    Su Weiguo, crowned "sex toy tycoon" by local media, said he opened the first sex toy shop in Beijing in 1993.
    He has once opened more than 200 Huanxi Tang sex stores all across China, though the company has focused on wholesale and online sales since 2004 and reduced the number of physical stores to 30.
    About 90 percent of China's sex toys are exported, said Su, whose company sales reached 90 million Yuan ($14 million USD) last year and manages a sex toy wholesale mall in Beijing.
    But as orders from overseas went limp with the recent financial crisis, producers began to focus on the domestic market, though problems persist, said Su.
    "At present, most of the sex toy factories in the country make their products for the export market. When their products are sold all over the world, each foreign country has its own strict regulation. But in the domestic market, because of a lack of laws and regulations overseeing this area, so there is no control over market entry and product quality. Therefore there is a mix of good and bad quality products in the domestic market," Su said.
    Currently there is no international regulation or organization overlooking the sex toy industry, Su added.
    The China Sexology Association said it does not conduct research specifically on sex toys and declined to provide immediate comments.
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