Tibet, Qinghai see greatest growth in purchases in 2015: AliHealth report
Chinese women are becoming more open-minded toward sex products, with women age 18 to 59 purchasing more than one-third of such products in 2015.
According to a consumer report compiled by AliHealth, an online medical products platform affiliated with e-commerce giant Alibaba, sex toys sales in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Northwest China's Qinghai Province and Central China's Henan Province recorded an average growth rate of 14 percent in the second half of 2015, the highest in China.
North China's Hebei Province, East China's Shandong Province and Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province saw the largest percentage of women purchasing sex toys in 2015.
Despite such growth, male consumers still purchased the majority of sex products in 2015. Men age 18 to 29 purchased 34 percent of all sex products, while men age 30 to 59 purchased 30 percent; the rest were purchased by women age 18 to 59.
AliHealth's report showed that young people born after 1985 focused more on the frequency of sex, as shown in the sales of condoms, but people born in the 1970s and early 1980s paid more attention to sex quality, as they were the major consumers of sex toys and pheromone-laced perfumes.
Sex-related social events can also affect Chinese couples' sex habits, the report said.
It noted that last year's release of Fifty Shades of Grey, a film based on a best-selling erotic romance novel, influenced Chinese people's sexual behavior for half a year. Searches for sadism- and masochism-related sex toys on Alibaba's online platform began to increase on April 15 and reached a peak on November 9.
After a sex tape filmed in a Beijing Uniqlo store went viral on July 15, searches for Uniqlo brand clothes on that day increased 18-fold, while sales of condoms saw a small peak, with a rise of 150 percent compared to the previous day. Sales of pregnancy test kits also reached the highest point of the year in July, the report said.
According to the report, more Chinese couples seek passion and happiness from sex rather than just wanting to carry on their family lines, and they are increasingly concerned with their sexual needs.
Peng Xiaohui, a sexologist with Central China Normal University, told the Global Times that the growth in purchases of sex products in Tibet and Qinghai is related to the prevalence of e-commerce.
"It reflects e-commerce's penetration to remote areas in far western China," Peng said.
Ethnic Tibetans in Tibet and Qinghai also tend to have relatively more open views of sex due to their religious beliefs and traditional ways of life, Peng explained, adding that polyandry still exists among some nomadic groups in Tibet.
