We begin our special series on Smart Spending today. The series focuses on the emerging businesses that develop along with China's ongoing consumption upgrades. The first episode examines China's rapidly expanding pet sector. Let's take a look.

2018 witnessed the rapid development of the pet industry. With the standard of living being constantly improved, more and more families have pets. Today, pet owners are increasingly concerned with the health, wellbeing and safety of pets, creating huge demand for smart pet technologies. In recent years, PETKIT launched a series of smart pet products based on in-depth study on the habits of pets. These products allow both pet owners and their pets to enjoy the benefits of technology.

GUO WEIXUE, CO-FOUNDER & CEO PETKIT "From 2013 to 2016, we spend three years developing smart products for pets. Pet owners want to spend more quality time with their pets, playing with and accompanying them. Therefore, we initially focused on automatic feeder, drinking bottle and technological products for health check and mood detection to make it easier for pet owners to take care of their pets. These are our priority areas in the first three years."

Improvement in the internet and mobile infrastructure makes access to knowledge and information much easier, which greatly facilitates the promotion of pet culture. The emergence of "Internet +" and the inflow of capital are accelerating and promoting the application of new business models and technologies in the pet industry.

GUO WEIXUE, CO-FOUNDER & CEO PETKIT "China is a late comer in the pet industry compared with the United States and Europe. I've been in the industry for five years, and what impressed me most was the amazing speed of the expansion of the industry. The number of pet owners is increasing, the perception towards pet-related consumption is also undergoing tremendous changes. We are very lucky to have found our own direction in development."

In China, the rapid development of the pet economy not only brings with opportunities for the emergence of pet technology, but also development and improvement of pet shops. Petknows is a pet technology company in Beijing, providing demand and supply management solutions to pet shops through an integrated online management platform that connects pet shops with the internet.

GAO MAOXIANG, CEO PETKNOWS "In the past three years, due to an increase in the cost of e-commerce, offline retailing has been gaining greater momentum with the emergence of many new trends. In the pet industry, we have more than 100,000 pet shops in distributed in different communities around the city, what we are doing now is to integrate these small shops into a large platform to improve their services and business performance, which helps to create a better experience for offline consumers."

With the development of urbanization, pet culture and related industries are also expanding, covering a greater area and a larger population. As an important part of the pet economy, pet technology will embrace new business models in the future and gradually disrupting the existing business landscape.