For some "inexplicable" reason, sales of adult dolls have exploded.
"I was quite surprised, it's a bit heavy, but it's nothing like the real thing."
"It's not only a solution to men's physical needs, it's not illegal and it's also profitable."
"After the quiet rise of the adult experience hall, our adult doll factory has seen an increase in sales."
A category of adult dolls is popular for 'use at home'. "Maybe people really don't have anything to do while they're isolated at home." One adult doll entrepreneur revealed to Pencil Road.

Another category is popular for "use on the street". Recently, an adult doll experience has quietly sprung up in major cities - bringing the "secret" of adult dolls out of the loop. "There are fewer people on the street, so people don't have to worry about being embarrassed when they go into an offline shop."
Judging from supplier data, demand for adult dolls has indeed risen several-fold recently. A Guangzhou adult doll factory owner told Pencil Road that orders have doubled, both for export and domestic sales.
Foreign orders have doubled. The factory used to produce about 4,000 dolls a month, of which more than 3,600 were exported. Under the epidemic, export business has doubled straight away to 7,000-8,000 units.
Domestic orders, on the other hand, have doubled 5-7 times. Whereas they used to sell 300 or 400 a month, they have now increased to around 2,000. Even the customer service of the adult doll factory has lamented that it has been "crazy busy" for the past six months.
Today, adult dolls are more of an emotional business. Brands set up a persona for each doll based on the doll's looks, making it a "luxury item" and turning it from a shameful toy into a perfect lover with a fan base.
These adult dolls range in price from 3,000 to 20,000 yuan, with the most expensive ones selling for 80,000 yuan for those with movable joints, skin texture and veins, and even conversation.
Like other products in the erotic industry, traditional channels from manufacturers through brand owners, wholesalers, retailers and then into the hands of customers, as well as e-commerce channels, can basically maintain a gross profit margin of over 50%.
Currently, although the user awareness of the adult doll industry is still in the early stages of the market, most of the domestic users are located in the first-tier cities such as North, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. However, with the gradual opening up of domestic users' sexuality, there are already some entrepreneurs who have started to venture into this market.
Adult experience museums are quietly emerging
"Today a friend brought me to an experience hall that had just opened, and at first it was incomprehensible and somewhat unacceptable. After trying it once, I was quite surprised, although it was a bit heavy, it was nothing different from real people." Wang Liang, a consumer in Beijing, commented after experiencing a "robot girlfriend" adult experience hall.
Recently, he found that many cities across the country, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chengdu and so on, have appeared this kind of adult doll experience hall. Wang Liang lamented that the emergence of such experience shops is actually quite an idea, not only to solve men's physiological needs, not involving illegal, but also to make money.
With the quiet rise of adult experience galleries, the market for adult doll factories in the country has also seen a wave of good fortune.
"In the last week, I've received several orders for advice, all of them wanting to open an experience hall." Zhang Yi, head of an adult doll factory in Guangzhou, also revealed to Pencil Road that business at his factory has gotten busier as adult experience pavilions have landed across the country.
In fact, because of the epidemic, business in adult doll factories has been better than ever. Zhang Yi introduced that in previous years, adult doll sales relied mostly on exports, and their factory's monthly output could reach about 4,000, of which more than 3,600 were exported to Japan, Italy, Europe and the United States in the past. This year, with the epidemic, the export business of adult dolls has grown to 7,000 to 8,000 per month because people can't go out.
"The whole thing has more than doubled." He lamented.
Zhang Yi revealed that in the past, less than 10 per cent of the factory's products were sold to domestic users. "It used to sell three or four hundred a month domestically, but now it has increased to about 2,000."
Li Jia, a customer service agent at another adult doll factory in Shenzhen, was even more impressed with the increase in sales of factory dolls.
"Our factory used to ship all the dolls the same day, and lately there are often delays in getting some of the goods out until the next morning." Li Jia revealed that his factory is considered a large factory with 10 years of precipitation in the industry, has a lot of dealer resources, so there has been no shortage of orders, user demand rose during the epidemic, the factory also directly burst the single.
Li Jia introduced, he is responsible for the customer service number, the past daily news release are regular, usually every 2 hours to release a finished adult doll or shipping video. But now because there are a lot of users sent to consult the news, he has been too busy to send video, can only be changed to release 3 or 4 messages per day.
Because there has been a large number of orders in transit, the warehouse is full of products in random nooks and crannies, Li Jia said somewhat helplessly, "every day to shoot video to sit on the box to shoot."
For the industry's hot, adult retail brand "Sakura's Burn" founder Liu Xiang is not surprised. Liu Xiang said that the sales of adult products are indeed the best when the epidemic is most serious. In February and March, sales at his offline retail shops rose by 60-100%.
"One, there were fewer people on the streets, so people didn't have to worry about being embarrassed when they went into the offline shops; and two, maybe people really didn't have anything to do during the quarantine at home." He analysed.
Spending 80,000 on a "girlfriend"
In fact, adult dolls have been "out of the loop" for a long time.
"If it's realistic, I'd rather have a toy, real women are too hard to handle."
"I am a girl, I will also buy a doll as their emotional support, I bought this silicone doll is beautiful, and can accompany me, and not as some people think."
In the merchant reviews of Taobao shops, numerous consumers express the need for adult dolls, regardless of gender.
This is indeed the case, as Liu Xiang, an entrepreneur of the aforementioned adult retail brand, introduced the "doll circle", where users who buy adult dolls are also divided into two categories. One category is the "baby shooting party", mainly to solve the psychological needs, and the other is the "baby snapping party", in order to solve the physical needs. More users have both needs.
"The reason for this situation still comes from the IP and operation of adult doll brands playing well." Liu Xiang revealed that adult doll brands are more of an emotional business, with brands often creating a persona for each doll based on the doll's looks, each with a different identity background and a different story. For example, wm doll, jy doll, 6ye doll and so on all have their own stories
The company known as "China's oldest company of physical dolls" and "the first stock of inflatable dolls", "Teias", has focused a lot of fans by creating doll personas.
The company has gone to great lengths to create the personas of its adult dolls. It would create VR games for them based on their personas. This has gradually transformed these dolls from a shameful toy to the perfect lover with a fan base. And instead of avoiding the need for the dolls, fans are spontaneously creating stories to enrich the doll IPs themselves.
Some fans also upload their own stories about their adult dolls, increasing the viscosity of the 'doll community' and attracting new fans.
Earlier in the year, a freelancer who was diagnosed with a severe 'intracranial arachnoid cyst', Onodera Hanae, bought Tiace's doll 'Die' as his own daughter because he wanted to have a family but was afraid of delaying others. He posted his story with Butterfly on his blog, and it has touched countless people.
"Under the operation of the adult doll brand, branded dolls have become a real luxury." Liu Xiang revealed that in the early days, when there were no adult dolls in the country, some people bought a doll that cost several thousand dollars in Japan through proxy shopping, which cost 20,000 yuan.
So many years have passed, the domestic adult doll industry has also developed, and the products are exported overseas. However, Liu Xiang introduced, the price of products in this industry is also very confusing, the price gap can range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of yuan.
The reason for the price difference is often related to the size of the doll, material, brand, function and other factors. The height of the dolls is generally between 1 to 1.7 meters, while the material is either silicone or TPE material.
"I previously bought a glass display case and spent another 1,800 on a 1.5m adult doll for my offline unmanned retail shop. As a result, less than a week later, I saw the doll being stolen by a grandfather through surveillance." Liu Xiang revealed that through this experiment, he found that some middle-aged and elderly people may be an important audience for adult dolls in terms of physical needs alone.
He explained that the earliest audience for adult dolls, in fact, are some geeks who are in a position to make cross-border purchases or buy on behalf of others, but their emotional needs are generally greater than their physiological needs, instead, the actual needs of middle-aged and elderly people will be greater. "Those who are widowed and elderly, also have their own sexual needs, but actually adult dolls are an option for them as well."
To this end, he reveals that he is also working through a number of ways to reach out to users. In the future, he may ask for some real-life photos from manufacturers and make them into real-life posters of adult dolls for display in unmanned retail shops offline first. Users can submit their own customization needs through the software, and he will then go and place orders with the manufacturers based on their needs.
Of course, although the epidemic has made the adult doll industry suddenly out of the loop and has allowed the industry to see new opportunities in the industry, in the long run, it is still a question mark whether the momentum can be maintained or even recognized by more users.