A model at Chunshuitang's media event to announce its second-round of financing of 80 million yuan on March 25, 2015 in Beijing.(Photo provided to China Daily)
Chunshuitang, one of China's leading online store for sex products, is planning to list on a stock market in the first half of this year.
Its larger aim is to expand its portfolio of products and services in the booming sex toys market in China.
Lin Degang, chief executive officer of Chunshuitang, said proceeds of its initial public offering would be mainly used to develop more company-owned products and evolve its business from a sex products vendor to a products-and-services provider.
Chunshuitang has plans to build a sex-themed hotel in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. It is also looking for more sex health specialists to launch an online sex consultancy service in the near future.
"We are aiming to build an efficient online platform to promote sexual health. Products and services to be launched will aim to promote intimate relations between lovers," said Lin. "We want to be the leader of the sex toys and sexual health segments with a market value of more than 10 billion yuan ($1.52 billion) in the near future."
Changing attitudes toward sex among Chinese people and gender imbalance－men outnumber women in China－have helped expand the sex toys market whose annual output has exceeded 30 billion yuan, according to Lin.
Chunshuitang was established in 2002 in Beijing as a business-to-customer sex products provider. Now, it has filed with the National Equities Exchange and Quotations to list on the New Third Board, a bourse that has attracted some 2,500 firms, 77 percent of which are technology companies, since its launch in late 2012.
"We are shifting our focus to offer comprehensive services. We will focus on sexual health services and company-developed sex-related products," Lin told China Daily.
The company has already received two rounds of financing: 20 million yuan in 2014 and 80 million yuan last year.
According to Lin, Chunshuitang on its own has developed over 20 varieties of sex products so far. They are well integrated with smart technologies, he said.
The company's latest products, called Ihole and Iball, are designed to improve men's and women's sexual experiences and sexual health. Popular for over two years now, they can make use of technological devices and connect to the user's mobile phones.
"They will be also used in medical treatments. We are applying to the health authorities concerned to promote use of our smart devices in hospitals," said Lin.
According to Lin, the company has also begun exporting its sex products to overseas markets. "Our products will no longer be simple sex toys. They will be smart or intelligent, helping improve users' experience."
Sales of Chunshuitang's intelligent sex products brought in more than 40 percent of total revenue last year, he said, without disclosing the actual figures.
