Not just an animal

The shift in perception of dogs and cats from mere pets to family members has resulted in a booming industry with a multitude of novel products

When Zhang Yusi bought her dogs five years ago, she never expected that she would spend nearly half her monthly salary on raising these furry companions.

Every month, the accountant in Wuhan, Hubei province spends nearly 7,000 yuan ($1,031) on pet food and snacks, pet clothing and taking her seven-year-old poodle and five-year-old Yorkshire terrier on holidays.

"I take them out on road trips twice a month, and during each Spring Festival I would take them to Shanghai," said Zhang, who also occasionally hires professional photographers to capture images of her pets. Each photo session costs 3,000 yuan.

"Most people from the post-90s generation are from single-child families. We have a greater need for company. As such, our pets are like our family members. This is why we are more willing to spend on them."

Consumers like Zhang are driving the growth of the pet industry, which now no longer sells just necessities like food and water bowls, but also lifestyle products such as pet wine, pet milk tea, pet quilt and even intelligent robots that can provide company for one's dog or cat.

According to the Chinese Pet Industry White Paper, the number of pet dogs and cats in China reached 99.19 million in 2019, with the scale of the consumption market reaching 202.3 billion yuan.

The annual consumption of a single pet per capita in cities and towns of the nation reached 5,561 yuan in 2019, an increase of 10.98 percent compared with the previous year, while the total consumption of the pet industry in Shanghai reached 19.7 billion yuan, ranking first in China.

Meanwhile, the high consumption group－those who spend more than 500 yuan per month on pet food－accounted for 23.9 percent of all pet owners.

During the Nov 11 shopping festival last year, the most sought-after item on Tmall Global, the e-commerce platform that Chinese consumers use to procure overseas products, was no longer milk powder but cat food. In addition, the turnover of high-end pet food of JD.com on June 18, the day of a nationwide sales promotion, increased by 360 percent compared to the same day in the previous year.

The report pointed out that one of the main reasons behind high consumption in the pet market includes a shift in people's perception of pets. It said that 59.1 percent of pet owners regard their pets as their children while 27.8 percent regard them as relatives.

Huang Lanxi, who had a dog while she was studying abroad in Australia, said: "The first group of pet owners, including our parents, kept dogs to guard their homes. Today, dogs no longer play such a role. They are our friends and family. Some even sleep in the same bed as their owners."

According to Huang, she spends up to 3,000 yuan per month on her dog Taffee, with the biggest expenses being snacks, drinks, clothes and toys.

"I buy various products because I want to enrich my dog's diet. I think Taffee's life should be as colorful as mine," explained the 25-year-old.

Huang's love for her dog has even spurred her to set up the pet milk tea brand TAFFEE after she completed her studies at the University of Queensland in 2019.

TAFFEE's best-selling products are milk tea, which costs an average of 36 yuan and comes in different flavors, including salmon and codfish. More than 70,000 bottles of pet milk tea have been sold so far.

"We hope to develop products that would resonate with the younger consumers. We have found that younger pet owners are more willing to spend on novel products besides the staple pet food," she said.

He Qiyue, an employee of Inpetphoto, a photography studio for pets, said that they have been selling mooncakes for pets since 2017. Hundreds of boxes, each costing 68 yuan, are sold during the Mid-Autumn Festival period every year.

"We started out making special birthday cakes for pets at first, since conventional cakes are full of cream and sugar which are not good for them. Later, seeing how cake sales were growing every year, we decided to sell mooncakes, dumplings, and customized pet dinners for New Year's Eve," said He.

Besides consumables, intelligent devices for pets have also been growing in popularity. In 2018, more than 3,000 intelligent pet toilets with a unit price of about 5,000 yuan were sold on Taobao. The sales of intelligent environmental monitors and feeding equipment had also increased.

According to a report on pet consumption ecology in 2019 that was released by CBNData, nearly 40 percent of intelligent pet devices consumers were born after 1990. Services such as pet photography, too, have benefitted from the surge in pet consumption.

For example, Inpetphoto, which charges between 3,800 to 5,800 yuan per photo shoot, has been booked until 2022.

Meanwhile, Ping An Insurance has adopted nose print recognition technology for pets to promote high-end pet insurance. Nearly 60 pet hospitals in the nation are currently equipped with this technology.