Report: Over 80% of Chinese pet owners use Douyin to livestream pet products

Over 80% of pet owners prefer Douyin as their livestreaming channel to promote pet products amid China’s growing pet economy, according to a recent KPMG report.

The 2025 China pet industry market report: consumption upgrading and market insights in the pet economy explores the current status and future prospects of the pet industry. It analyses shifts in consumer behaviour and decision-making, industry trends, and multi-dimensional perspectives within domestic markets.

Mirroring trends seen worldwide, eCommerce has become a key driver for the pet industry globally. The report revealed that over 80% of Chinese pet owners preferred Douyin to livestream pet products in 2024, followed by Taobao (68%), JD.com (40%), Pingduoduo (30%) and Xiaohongshu (30%). In recent years, Douyin also employed the core "content + commerce" model, achieving traffic conversion through short videos and livestreaming.

In terms of eCommerce platforms, a majority of Chinese pet owners (90%) turned to Tmall and Taobao to shop for pet products in 2024, followed by JD.com (60%), Pingduoduo (35%), Douyin (25%) and Xiaohongshu (20%). 

When it comes to the top factors for pet owners to choose a brand, nearly 60%% of the surveyed pet owners said they prioritised value for money in 2024, followed by brand credibility (55%), brand awareness (40%) and friend recommendations (30%). While in 2022, nearly 70% of pet owners placed value for money as their top factor when choosing a pet-related brand. 

Given the robust growth of the pet economy in China, the pet product market also is expected to reach RMB484 billion in 2025, with brands rolling out more delicate and intelligent products for consumers. 

Meanwhile, short video platforms and Xiaohongshu rank as the most popular social media platforms among pet owners, with adoption rates of 73.5% and 66.1% respectively. These are followed by Weibo and eCommerce platform advertisements, at 41.2% and 29.3% respectively. 

This also reflects from the trend where pet owners, predominantly those born in the 1980s and 1990s, prefer purchasing pet products through online channels. Industry data showed that online sales of pet-related categories reached RMB50.23 billion in 2024, marking a 10.0% YoY increase.

Regarding eCommerce platform usage, during the 2024 "Double 11" shopping festival, Tmall and Taobao's pet category saw full-cycle transaction values and buyer numbers increase by over 50.0% YoY. The cat and dog food subcategory achieved more than 40.0% YoY transaction growth, while JD.com recorded a 37.0% YoY increase in million-yuan products within its pet category.

Consumer preference rates for these two platforms stand at 85.0% (Tmall and Taobao) and 52.2% (JD.com) respectively. Other major platforms show the following preference rates: Pinduoduo (32.0%), Douyin (25.0%), and Xiaohongshu (16.6%).

Social commerce has emerged as a significant consumption channel for pet owners. 2024 data revealed Douyin leads as the preferred livestreaming platform with 78.6% preference among pet owners, followed by Taobao (64.7%) and JD.com(37.9%).

Nevertheless, offline channels including pet stores, pet hospitals, supermarkets, dog and cat houses, still occupy an important position because they can provide a better shopping experience and additional services.

Moving forward, brands should focus on developing integrated online-to-offline (O2O) strategies while continually enhancing their product offerings and services to remain responsive to evolving market demands and consumer preferences, said the report. 

This comes amid the robust growth of China's pet food market, having reached RMB190 billion in 2023, according to Statista. Projections suggested this could rise to RMB380 billion by 2028, representing a CAGR of 14.9% during this period.

The pet supplies sector grew from RMB21.49 billion in 2018 to RMB40.7 billion in 2023, achieving a CAGR of 13.6% during this period. Notably, intelligent pet supplies have demonstrated particularly strong growth, with their market size expanding from RMB3.15 billion in 2018 to RMB6.99 billion in 2024, representing a higher CAGR of 13.9%.

Related articles:

Survey: 70% of HK consumers would ditch brands with poor sustainability performance
Survey: 79% marketers feel good about writing briefs, only 6% of agencies agree
Survey: 88% of HK businesses mull automating more customer interactions