Some people may blush or snigger at the mention of sex toys, but sex toys have become a huge industry.

 

Now please answer honestly, do you have a sex toy? And if so, would you admit it graciously?

 

There was a time when sex toys (sex toys, or erotica) were a mail-order product that had to be hidden away in a bedroom drawer, under layers of clothing.

 

Now, however, sex toys are no longer taboo and have been packaged as fun products that promote intimacy between couples, a veritable love affair.

 

At the same time, sex toys have become a multi-billion dollar industry, with sales growing geometrically worldwide.

 

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Sex toys packaged as products to promote intimacy between couples

 

Global sales amount to billions of pounds

The sex toy industry is estimated to have a global market of £18 billion in 2017.

 

What is £18 billion, roughly 10 times the market for electric toothbrushes and a little more than the global sales of microwave ovens last year.

 

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The fastest market is ......

Role play

Trying something new

 

"We believe the fastest growing markets are India and China," says Joshua, an analyst at Bangalore, India-based market research firm Technavio.

 

Cultural attitudes towards sex toys in India and China are still relatively conservative - for example, India does not allow the public sale of sex toys and cannot open sex toy shops.

 

But the popularity of the internet, combined with the growing acceptance of e-commerce consumption models, has made it increasingly easy to buy sex toys.

 

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Europeans and Americans, who buy more

Online shopping

 

Figures from Indian market research firm Technavio show that the biggest buyers of sex toys are Europeans, who buy more than Americans.

 

"In Italy, up to 70 per cent of men and women have used sex toys, according to the survey."

 

Men and women, who use more

Women use sex toys more

 

Joshua says it's not just women who buy and use sex toys, men do too.

 

"In the United States, for example, about 50 per cent of men have used sex toys at one time or another."

 

But more women use sex toys, "about 60 to 65 per cent of women use them."

 

Empowering women

Erica Braverman says, "People's perception of sex toys has completely changed." Braverman's father founded the sex toy company Doc Johnson in 1976.

 

She says a lot of it has to do with women, who buy and use sex toys.

 

The popular 90s American TV series Sex and the City, in which the four main female characters sit around discussing vibrators, was a big influence on sex toys, according to Breverman.

 

"Feminism plays a big part in this, and empowering women is a big reason why the industry has flourished so much in recent years."

 

Lovehoney, which sells sex toys on the internet, started with a turnover of £100,000 in 2003 and has grown by around 35 per cent a year since.

 

Sixteen years after they opened, they have grown 130 times, and the e-commerce consumer model has revolutionised the sex toy industry.

 

"Richard Longhurst, founder of Lovehoney, says, "The intimate nature of sex toys makes them the best product to sell online, simply delivered in a kraft paper bag or cardboard box, without the need to sneak into a sex toy shop and shyly ask the shop assistant. ask the shop assistant and you can buy it."

 

"And you don't meet people you don't want to meet."

 

Buyers are predominantly couples

Couples

Sex toys are mostly used by couples or couples

 

Longhurst said people used to think they used sex toys because "maybe you can't find someone."

 

"But what's true now is that more people are using sex toys as couples or couples, and people who use sex toys are more satisfied with their sex lives."

 

"The sex toy market is all about couples and couples, and 70 per cent of customers are in regular long-term relationships."

 

70% Made in China

Made in China

 

Wherever you buy a sex toy, it's probably made in East Asia.

 

William, the owner of a sex toy factory in China, says his business has expanded more than tenfold from when it started some 20 years ago.

 

A large part of the reason for this is that the factory has developed into an export company, supplying the growing overseas market.

 

Sales continue to rise

Growing

 

The current global market for sex toys continues to grow, estimated at around 7% to 10% a year.

 

Joshua, of market research firm Technavio, believes that once developing countries overcome the stigma attached to sex toys, the global market for sex toys is likely to grow at an annual rate of 10 to 15 per cent in a few years' time.

 

Joshua added that the sex toy industry is even more profitable as most sex toys are made in China and are not too expensive. Many of the physical sex dolls are actually made in China too, just like wm doll, jy doll, 6ye doll, etc. are all made in China