The United States and Europe have traditionally been the biggest markets for the adult industry. But slumping economies there are curtailing growth while competition and low profit margins are also making life hard for companies, said Lo.
In Asia the market is much more undeveloped so "there is much potential for growth," Lo said. Adult product manufacturers have told him that in America and Europe, "it's a very tough time right now but in mainland China and Asia, it's good."
Lo said demand from suppliers has prompted his Hong Kong-based company to start branching out with new fairs in other parts of China, starting with a show in October in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong. It will be followed by shows in Fuzhou on China's eastern coast and Qingdao in the northeast. It's also eyeing shows in Taiwan and Singapore.
Other emerging markets are also sources of growth. Renata Bertacini came all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to source items for her boutique and online shop Mimosexy.
"I came to find new products to take to Brazil, new things to import from China," she said. Many of the products were items she already stocks but at half the price that her middlemen back home charge, she can save money by buying them directly.
At the expo, vibrators of all shapes and colors, condoms, lubricants and blowup male and female dolls were on display. One company was selling coffee tables made of erotic statues.
"The mainland Chinese, they are very open to these sexual things," said Lo. "It's not something that's a taboo" anymore.
It's a sign of how rapid social changes in China are driving new businesses. Several decades ago, men and women were strictly segregated in many parts of life and most people wore drab clothing that revealed little. Nowadays, shops selling sexual aids are common in many cities, and pornography, while officially banned, is commonly found on the Internet.
China's booming economy, the world's second biggest, is in large part driving those changes.
"A lot of these people have first-generation money. Before when it was old money, it was shameful to show it," said Zach Goode, a sales manager at Electric Eel, which holds the global license to Hustler lingerie.
Now, China's nouveau riche don't just want BMWs and Gucci, "they want to express themselves and have sexy shoes and lingerie and have fun with it. They're not as repressed as the last generation was." --
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