A sales woman displays diversified pet foods at the Wuhan Pet Carnival, in Central China’s Hubei Province on October 26, 2024. Photo: VCG

A 20-something white-collar worker surnamed Huang in Shanghai treated her beloved Maltese dog to a "fine dining" experience at a pet buffet in a shopping mall in Shanghai's Minhang district this week. The dinner, which includes two appetizers, two main courses and one dessert, cost her more than 100 yuan ($13.73), nearly double what she spends on her own takeout dinner.

"My doggy is like my child, and I believe the cost of the meal is worth it as long as she feels happy," Huang told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Identifying herself as a young "generous parent," Huang also splurged another 200 yuan on a 10-course Chinese New Year's Eve dining in January so that her furry pet companion could "join in the festive celebrations."

Every month, Huang spends about 2,000 yuan on pet care, spoiling her pet on every aspect of life from high-quality imported food, snacks and toys, medical examination, to regular grooming and styling.

Huang is not alone on the extravagance. A Beijing-based white collar worker surnamed Wang also believes that while she could live simply and try to save money, her child, a 5-year-old teddy bear dog named Lulu, "deserves the best in the world."

For China's young generation, pet ownership is all about companionship. "As soon as I get off work, Lulu excitedly greets me at the doorstep, and just seeing her at home instantly lifts my mood," Wang explained.

She spends 1,300 yuan on her dog food per month, including 800 yuan on imported grain-free dog food and 500 yuan on homemade salmon and beef dishes. Ahead of the Spring Festival holiday, Wang took the teddy bear dog for a snake-themed portrait photo-shoot, which cost her 1,500 yuan as she saved the spending on her own photo-shoot.

The narratives of Wang and Huang underscored how China's young generation, along with an ever-expanding middle-income group, has been driving an explosive pet economy and an ongoing wave of pet consumption upgrade in the world's second-largest economy. This comes amid the broad picture of China's consumption upgrading and the build-up of emerging consumption patterns in Chinese cities.

"China's pet market, valued at hundreds of billions of yuan, is vibrant and holds promising prospects. And with the steady growth of pet owners and consumption in China, the pet economy has become an important growth driver of overall consumption," Andy Hu, corporate affairs director of Royal Canin China, a major producer in the pet nutrition industry, told the Global Times.

Emerging consumption

Last year, the value of China's urban pet consumption market soared 7.5 percent year-on-year to 300.2 billion yuan, with a pet population in urban area reaching 124 million. And it is predicted that the market scale will hit 400 billion yuan by 2027, according to an industry report titled China Pet Industry White Paper 2025.

Also in 2024, the number of pet animals in China had surpassed the number of children under the age of four, the Xinhua News Agency reported in February, citing a Goldman Sachs report. According to the calculation by the Xinhua report, on average, one out of every eight urban residents in China, regardless of age or gender, now owns a pet.

Liu Xiaoxia, deputy secretary-general of the Pet Industry Branch of the China Animal Agriculture Association, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the rising number of pets in China's urban areas is due to various factors, including Chinese consumers' evolving pastimes and new spending patterns, deepening demographic changes and the steady growth of per capita disposable income of the urbanities.

"Pets used to be kept for guarding homes and other practical purpose. Now, they're taking on more 'humanized' roles, valued for emotional interaction and companionship. Their deep integration into people's daily lives also led to an explosive growth in consumption," Liu said.

Among China's pet owners, the younger generation - or the post-90s and post-00s group - accounts for 66.8 percent. Liu believed that the young generations' late marriage and delayed childbirths also triggered the demand for raising pets as alternative emotional companions.

Huang, who remains single now and does not plan to get married soon, regarded her Maltese dog as an important family member. She enjoys playing with the dog after getting off work, which helped her "get a mental break" from her tedious daily work.

Prodigious market

The deep emotional bond between pet owners and their pets have significantly fueled the booming pet consumption in recent years.

A pet fresh food store manager in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, told the Global Times that the store has prepared a total of 500 dinner sets for the New Year's Eve, which is the first time, and they were ordered two weeks before the holidays' arrival. "We carefully designed the menu to combine both aesthetic appeal and nutritional value, which was favored by pet owners," the manager said.

A staff member at a pet service store in Beijing's Tongzhou district told the Global Times that pet grooming and bathing services were "extremely busy" during holidays, with daily appointments almost fully booked.

Orders for pet toys and clothes also jumped ahead and after the holidays, Wang Sheng, secretary-general of Yiwu International Trade Market Pet Industry Chamber of Commerce, told the Global Times. "The sales of pet products were up by 15 to 20 percent year-on-year on average, and we believe the market potential is huge," Wang said.

"There will be more niche and refined market development in the future. For example, demand for staple pet food containing functional ingredients will grow, and more segmented markets will emerge, with new services like pet funerals, insurance, and training gradually maturing to meet the needs of pets throughout their entire lifecycle," Liu said.

According to Hu, against the backdrop of pet consumption upgrade, the pet industry is transitioning toward more scientific pet care, with new generation of pet owners placing greater emphasis on "refined and functional pet food products, functionality, and high quality."