Asia Pet CEO Summit: Building a Warm and Vibrant New Ecosystem for Pets and People

Summit Background and Theme Analysis: New Propositions for a RMB 300 Billion Market

The 2026 Asia Pet CEO Summit concluded successfully in Shanghai in early June. With the theme "Building a Warm and Vibrant New Ecosystem for Pets and People," the summit attracted over 800 industry leaders, brand founders, investors, and technology experts from around the world, setting a new attendance record. The two keywords in the summit theme—"warmth" and "vibrancy"—precisely capture the developmental phase transition that China's pet industry is undergoing: from the rapid-growth "Wild West era" to the refined-operations "value cultivation era." Specifically, "warmth" points to the industry's need to shift from a pure product-sales mindset toward a service mindset centered on human-pet emotional connection; "vibrancy" points to the industry's need to maintain robust vitality and iteration speed in product innovation, technology application, and business models.

China's pet market officially surpassed the RMB 300 billion mark in 2025, reaching RMB 312 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14. 5%. Against the backdrop of slowing macroeconomic growth (GDP growth of 5. 2%), the pet industry continued to expand at nearly three times the GDP growth rate, fully demonstrating its "counter-cyclical" attributes. Structurally, pet food remains the largest segment (42% share, approximately RMB 131 billion), but its growth has slowed to about 10%, with market competition trending toward a red ocean; pet healthcare and health management is the fastest-growing segment (approximately 22% growth, reaching RMB 68 billion), reflecting owners' continuously strengthening willingness to spend on healthcare under the trend of pet "humanization"; pet supplies and services (including grooming, boarding, training, insurance, etc.) total approximately RMB 113 billion, with growth of about 15%. This structural shift signals that China's pet industry is evolving from the single dimension of "eating" toward a multi-dimensional ecosystem of "eating + healthcare + supplies + play."

Five AI Application Scenarios in the Pet Industry: From Concept to Implementation

One of the hottest topics at this year's summit was the large-scale application of artificial intelligence in the pet industry. If the industry's AI discussions in 2023-2024 were still at the "proof of concept" and "demo demonstration" stage, 2025-2026 has already entered the "commercial implementation" and "scaled deployment" stage. The AI applications showcased and discussed at the summit were primarily concentrated in five scenarios. First, AI-driven pet health monitoring. Pet health monitoring devices based on computer vision and behavioral analysis are transitioning from "novelty toys" to "essential tools." AI cameras installed on pet bowls, litter boxes, and activity areas can track pets' food intake, water consumption, excretion frequency, and activity levels in real time, establishing a "normal behavior baseline" for each pet through machine learning algorithms. Once anomalies are detected (such as food intake dropping by more than 30% over two consecutive meals or activity levels plummeting by 50%), immediate alerts are pushed to the owner's phone. The China market for such devices reached RMB 3. 8 billion in 2025 and is projected to exceed RMB 15 billion by 2028.

Second, AI-assisted pet food formula R&D. Traditional pet food formula development relies on the experience of animal nutritionists and extensive animal feeding trials, with long cycles and high costs. AI formula systems, by analyzing nutritional composition data from hundreds of thousands of ingredients, nutritional requirement data for pet breeds and life stages, and global pet food market trend data, can generate tens of thousands of candidate formulas within hours, then screen them through multi-objective optimization algorithms to select formulas that are comprehensively optimal in terms of nutritional balance, cost-effectiveness, palatability, and production feasibility. Leading Chinese pet food companies such as Gambol Group (parent company of Myfoodie) and Zhongchong Shares have deeply integrated AI formula systems into their R&D processes, shortening new product development cycles from the traditional 12-18 months to 4-6 months. Third, AI intelligent customer service and veterinary pre-diagnosis. Pet health consultation robots based on Large Language Models (LLMs) can answer pet owners' daily questions about feeding, care, and common diseases, and when needed, sync case summaries and preliminary diagnostic suggestions to veterinarians, significantly improving the consultation efficiency and customer experience of pet hospitals.

Gen Z Pet Consumption Trends: 76% View Pets as "Children"

The "2026 China Young Generation Pet Ownership Consumption Insights Report" released at the summit revealed that Gen Z (born 1997-2012) is becoming the primary consumer demographic and trendsetter in pet consumption. The report showed that among pet owners aged 18-30, 76% explicitly stated they view their pets as "children in the family" or "the closest family members"—a significant increase from 58% in 2020. This elevation in emotional positioning directly drives structural changes in consumption behavior: Gen Z pet owners' average monthly spending on pet food is RMB 420 (higher than the all-age average of RMB 340), average monthly spending on pet healthcare is RMB 280 (higher than the all-age average of RMB 190), and average monthly spending on "non-essential" categories such as pet treats, toys, and apparel is RMB 160 (2. 3 times the all-age average). These data clearly indicate that the "humanization" trend in pet consumption is most pronounced among the Gen Z demographic, and is spreading to broader age groups through social media and community effects.

Another distinctive feature of Gen Z pet consumption is its "aesthetic economy" and "social currency" attributes. Pets must not only "eat well and live healthily" but also "dress beautifully and be photographed for great photos and videos." This demand has spawned explosive growth in peripheral markets such as pet apparel, pet grooming, pet photography, and pet-themed cafés. On the Xiaohongshu platform, the "pet styling" topic surpassed 8 billion views in 2025, and "homemade pet treats" surpassed 5 billion views. For pet supplies brands, products must not only meet functional needs but also possess "shareability"—meaning whether the product's visual design, unboxing experience, and usage scenarios are suitable for display and sharing on social media. This dual requirement of "function + social" is reshaping the product design philosophy and marketing strategies of the pet supplies industry.

Exotic Pet Track: Supply Chain Opportunities Behind the Tens of Billions in New Growth

While cats and dogs hold absolutely dominant positions in the pet market (combined share of approximately 85%), the exotic pet (non-cat-and-dog pet) segment, once considered "niche," is rising at an astonishing speed. In 2025, China's exotic pet market reached approximately RMB 18 billion, with year-on-year growth of 25%, far exceeding the approximately 12% growth rate of the cat and dog market. Exotic pet categories include reptiles (snakes, lizards, turtles), small mammals (hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, hedgehogs), birds (parrots, java sparrows), aquatic pets (ornamental fish, shrimp, turtles), and arthropods (spiders, scorpions, mantises), among others. The main drivers of the exotic pet market explosion include: urban living space constraints (cats and dogs require larger activity spaces, while hamsters, ornamental fish, etc. have very low space requirements, making them more suitable for renters and young people in small apartments), low maintenance costs (the initial purchase cost and monthly care expenses for exotic pets are typically only 1/5 to 1/3 of those for cats and dogs), and Gen Z's pursuit of a "unique personality label" (owning a rare breed of pet spider or turtle is more distinctive than owning a Golden Retriever).

From "Traffic Competition" to "Value Cultivation": The Watershed of Industry Transformation

If the core message of this summit were to be summarized in one sentence, it would be this: China's pet industry is moving from the "traffic competition" first half into the "value cultivation" second half. During the "traffic competition" phase (approximately 2018-2023), the industry's core logic was to acquire new customers through large-scale e-commerce platform advertising, social media seeding, and livestream selling, with GMV growth as the sole success metric. This phase gave rise to a cohort of DTC brands adept at traffic operations, but also brought severe homogenized competition, price wars, and soaring customer acquisition costs. Entering 2025-2026, the industry consensus is undergoing a shift: as traffic dividends peak (customer acquisition costs in the pet category on mainstream e-commerce platforms have risen 120% over the past three years), and as consumers move from "trial purchases" to the "mature repurchase" stage, enterprises' core competitiveness must return to deep user value mining—including product capability (formula scientific rigor, raw material traceability, efficacy verifiability), service capability (full-lifecycle professional health management), brand capability (building emotional connections and value identification that transcend functional benefits), and supply chain efficiency (flexible manufacturing, precise forecasting, inventory optimization).

This paradigm shift holds important implications for the pet supplies buyers and brand owners served by Estroute. In the "value cultivation" era, OEM/ODM supplier selection criteria need to be upgraded from "price + capacity" to a multi-dimensional evaluation system of "price + quality + R&D + brand compliance + ESG performance." Suppliers must not only be able to "make it" but also "make it right" (comply with target market regulations and standards), "make it new" (possess independent R&D and new product iteration capabilities), and "make it steady" (quality consistency and delivery reliability). The supplier database and evaluation methodology that Estroute has accumulated in the pet supplies sector are precisely designed to help clients, during this industry transition from "big" to "strong," accurately match with manufacturing partners that possess long-term competitiveness across multiple dimensions.