Largest Ever Collective Pet Wedding Takes Place in Beijing, Signifying Growth of the Pet Industry in China

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Apr 13, 2015, 10:29 ET

BEIJING, April 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 12 in the Beijing Purple Jade Valley, 21 couples gathered together to take part in a collective wedding with a difference. For those tying the knot were not handsome men joining in matrimony with their beautiful brides, but adorable pets uniting in what is the world's largest ever collective pet wedding.

The world's largest collective pet wedding takes place in Beijing

With a fresh spring breeze blowing and the sound of the wedding march all around, the 21 special couples entered the wedding site together, exchanging tokens and receiving a marriage certificate announcing the commencement of their life partnership. The event attracted all kinds of pet-loving people, with Olympic champion Teng Haibing and his wife and film star Ma Qiuzi acting as witness and issuing the certificates.

Pet owner Ms. Li, who attended the wedding said: "I have attended many weddings before, but this is the first time I've ever been to such a large scale collective pet wedding. Looking at these lovely pets getting married and listening to their stories, I was really moved."

In recent years, pets have become an increasingly important part of people's daily lives, and so we have started paying more attention to their feelings and views on marriage. Many large-scale collective pet weddings have already been held abroad, suggesting the trend is gradually gaining in popularity across the world.

At the wedding venue, Shi Kangning, Director General of the national wedding industry committee, proudly announced the establishment of China Pet Wedding Business Alliance, at the same time presenting a flag to Zhang Zhongshan, CEO of Smack Talk, the organizer of the activity, which marked a new step in our nation's pet industry.

'Pet economy' provides great market prospects

Entering into the 21^st century, rapid economic development has helped promote the evolution of the 'pet economy' and for many Chinese families, cats and dogs have become indispensable family members, fueling popularity of the industry.

According to official figures, about 200 million families in China own a pet and these numbers are increasing at a rate of no less than 10% a year. In 2014, the total number of pet dogs and cats (birds and fish are not included) exceeded 400 million, and this figure is predicted to reach 500 million at the end of this year. Correspondingly, the market scale of pets in our nation has reached 55 billion.

From the view of the development of the pet economy, our pet market has initially formed in 18 large and medium-scale cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The growing boom in pet ownership is creating a future market prospect aimed at meeting the needs of pet owners. In order to meet these demands, Beijing Love Pets Alliance Technology Co. Ltd has released a social networking application for pets called "Smack Talk", a world first in sound and visual social contact software for pets.

One industry expert says: "For many families, keeping pets is a way to combat loneliness and communicate emotions. This kind of feeling has now expanded to weddings for pets and this demand is already evident in many foreign countries. In comparison China is still in the early stages."

Meeting various demands: Let pets speak and socialize

With the help of the development of mobile internet technology, the pet industry in 2015 has seen the ushering in of a new community of entrepreneurs creating a variety of industry-focused products, of wish Smack Talk is one. As an app geared towards pets speaking, Smack Talk attracted millions of users in just three months, making it the largest domestic social network platform for pets.

Smack Talk CEO Zhang Zhongshan said: "By combining pet's pictures, owner dubbing and dynamic displays, Smack Talk achieves "pets speaking" and further completes interactive behaviors like pets seeking marriage, seeking help, venting emotions, showing pictures and so on. At the same time, sharing on platforms such as We-Chat and Weibo is possible any time."

Talking about the collective wedding, Zhang Zhongshan said: "The idea of a collective wedding came about from our previous communication and research with users. This is our first try and we want to take the opportunity to continually promote the development of the pet industry, improve the social lives of our pets and allow them to enjoy egalitarian treatment to that of mankind."

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150413/198027

SOURCE Pets Talking APP