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On Valentine's Day, let's talk about the various "love interests" of contemporary young people in the name of romance.

In 1965, Japanese designer Ami Ishii, known as the "Disney of the adult world", began to design love hotels and created the concept of "Love Hotel". He has produced more than 1,638 love hotel rooms and is hailed as the "father of love hotels" by many media.

The popularity of Ami Ishii indirectly reflects the popularity of the Japanese love industry. According to public data, there are nearly 40,000 "Love Hotels" in Japan, with an average of more than 500 million people staying there each year.

In contrast, for many years, the Chinese people's response to "love interest" has been somewhat "secretive". Many domestic love hotels were once ridiculed by netizens for "lack of imagination" because of their main settings such as red lights and water beds.

However, with the change of social ideas, today's young people's acceptance of "love interest" has undergone a great change. Not long ago, a theme hotel in Chengdu attracted the attention of many young people. The scene design of classrooms, trams, offices... is infinitely close to Japan's "Love Hotel". Young people who went to the store couldn't help but call it bold.

 01 Hotels, cinemas, toys, contemporary young people are more interesting

Of course, not only the love hotels in the "Land of Abundance" are "eye-catching", but also love hotels have been very popular in recent years because they can meet the needs of couples for personalized and private celebrations of festivals.

According to Tianyancha data, the number of new registrations of theme hotel-related companies has increased significantly, with a total increase of more than 2,400 in the past five years. The most surprising thing is that on Tianyancha, the number of registered theme hotels in Henan currently exceeds 470, ranking first in the country.

With the awakening of self-awareness among contemporary young people, especially those born after 1990, love projects have long become their regular options for creating "happiness". In addition to love hotels, private cinemas and love products have also begun to become the choice of young people.

According to Tianyancha data, private cinemas, as a new option for couples to date, have seen explosive growth in 2018, with the number of new private cinemas exceeding the total of the previous five years. In the field of sexy toys, iiMedia Research also predicts that the market size of Chinese sexy toys will reach 208.13 billion yuan in 2025.

A video about sexy toys on Bilibili also conveys some interesting information. Among the surveyed population, 89% of them have a bachelor's degree or above, and the data also shows that those born after 1995 are the main consumers of sexy toys.

From this, it is not difficult to see that the young and knowledgeable group has a higher degree of awareness and acceptance of sexy toys. When they talk about "vulgarity is inevitable, and romance lasts until death", they also respect equal access to happiness.

02 Appearance, literature, technology, what does "sexy" look like in the eyes of young people?

Of course, for young people today, the standard of having fun is also constantly improving. In order to meet the needs of young people, the sexy toy industry is gradually showing characteristics such as e-commerce, consumerism, and intelligence.

E-commerce greatly meets the needs of single people for online consumption of sexy toys. According to the data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of single adults in China will rise to 92 million this year, and China is currently experiencing the largest wave of "singleness" in history. A survey shows that single people are the main consumer group of sexy toys and products, and half of the single groups buy at least once a month.

Many middle-class people have become "single nobles", who spend money on social activities outside and decompress when living alone. Under the trend of "social phobia", contemporary young people are increasingly inclined to enjoy loneliness and relieve anxiety alone, which is also prompting them to create their own relaxation moments through private online shopping for sexy products.

In terms of product design, crude visual bombing has long been eliminated, and contemporary young people obviously prefer interesting, loving, and tasteful sexy toys. In order to cater to the aesthetic preferences of young couples and young singles, many well-known domestic sexy toy brands are also moving towards the "appearance economy" in product research and development and patent layout.

For example, NetEase's original adult sexy toy brand, NetEase Chunfeng, focuses on sexual indifference and minimalist style. Not only is the brand name "Chunfeng" very literary, a series of female products also have elegant names such as "In the Cloud", "Star Stone" and "Fish Joy".

Male products are more trendy and technological. Recently, NetEase Chunfeng took advantage of the "Metaverse" craze to launch "Yuanli FUN", which not only sets the role of a cyber goddess, but also can link to the APP to record data. Once launched, it was labeled as "Metaverse".

In order to win the young market, many companies are also working hard on technology. Through the "Patent Check" function of Tianyancha App, searching for the keyword "sexy toy" shows that there are more than 512 patents related to sexy toy products, including 307 appearance patents, accounting for nearly 60%.

03 Tsinghua graduates, intellectual women, and the craze for sexy toy entrepreneurship

At present, in addition to NetEase, the "accidental" giant, the sexy toy industry has also many new companies or companies that have received multiple rounds of financing, including Aier Health, Hequ, and Chun Shui Tang, which have been listed on the New Third Board.

According to Tianyancha data, my country currently has more than 380,000 sexy toy companies. The domestic sexy toys industry began to see a big rise in 2020, with 150,000 new sexy toys companies added in 2022, with a three-year compound growth rate of over 60%.

Entrepreneurs in the sexy toys industry are also showing a trend of younger people. They hope to design products that young people really like, and many of them also have new thoughts about the sexy toys industry for young people.

 Liu Bo, the founder of "Little Monster", who was interviewed by Liangzi Interview, is a Beijing boy who graduated from Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts. He not only faced others' "doubts" about his "graduation from Tsinghua to make sexy toys" calmly, but also focused on designing women's products. Previously, "Little Monster" also promoted its products across the Strawberry Music Festival and said that "girls who use adult toys are cool girls who have a sense of themselves, and this itself is the user portrait of the Strawberry Music Festival."

 In addition, on social media platforms, you can also see that educated women have started businesses to make sexy lingerie. They believe that girls understand the sexiness that girls pursue better, and frankly admit that sexy underwear is not made for men, and its design should also bring self-pleasure to women.

There are also many young male entrepreneurs in the field of sexy underwear. The media reported that "Lei Congrui, a young man born in the 1990s, earns 50 million yuan a year by selling sexy underwear." Guanyun County, where he is located, was indeed one of the poor counties in Jiangsu Province. It was precisely by seizing the business opportunities of the surge in demand for babydolls lingerie that it has become one of the largest producers of sexy underwear in China.

According to Tianyancha data, there are currently more than 20,000 sex toy companies in Jiangsu, and sexy underwear companies account for more than 80%. "The aunts in northern Jiangsu have contracted more than 60% of the sexy underwear manufacturing in China, and the related industry has solved the employment problems of more than 20,000 people. The garter Lingerie they produce is not only sold to developed coastal cities in China, but also to developed markets abroad."

The entrepreneurial boom in the sexy industry is endless, but the lack of "heart" in domestic sexy venues and supplies is still a problem. The immersion, pleasure, comfort and other experiences that young people need now also require merchants and brands to devote more careful design.

For example, a boy born after 1995 planned, "This Valentine's Day, I will take her to a sunny self-service loft cinema, turn on Stephen Chow's "The King of Comedy", and clink glasses with my beloved girl when the movie plays the part where Stephen Chow says "I will support you".