There is massive growth potential for startups in China’s baby market

In 2011, China’s baby market – a generic term I’m using to describe the market of parents buying stuff for their kids – was worth more than RMB 1 trillion (US$163 billion), according to Analysis International analyst Liu Menglei. Next year, it might well break RMB 2 trillion (US$327 billion). But as this fascinating TechWeb report points out, there’s still plenty of room for development on the tech side of this growing market.

At present, there are two kinds of tech products targeted at the baby market: ecommerce shops and social media platforms. B2C ecommerce shops like Beibei.com and Miyabaobei offer parents a place to buy clothing and other children’s goods online, and social sites like Babytree and apps like Oumen give parents a way to connect and share with each other.

Ecommerce site Beibei.com

Both approaches have met with some success, but there’s plenty of ground left to cover. No baby-market-focused Chinese tech startup has yet made it to an IPO. Although at least ten such startups have secured funding so far this year (according to the TechWeb report), in general the social apps have had trouble finding the right method of monetization, and the ecommerce baby market is still dominated by the “big name” platforms that aren’t focused specifically on children: Tmall and JD alone account for more than 70 percent of all the children’s goods transactions online.

See: 2 kids estores in China get funding ahead of new baby boom

But the massive move to mobile may offer an entryway to new startups looking to take a piece of the baby market. Increasingly China’s middle-class parents and their children have access to powerful smartphones and broadband-speed wireless connections, and this shift could open all kinds of new opportunities. It could also push the tech side of the baby market beyond the “ecommerce or social” approaches and into new areas of business like parental control apps.

Long story short: if you’re looking for a new market for your next China-focused startup, consider the “baby market” seriously. But if you want to get in, I suspect you’d better act fast. The tech side of the market isn’t quite mature yet, but with its massive size and significant growth potential, it’s only a matter of time.

See: Cure your children’s smartphone addiction with this app that will drive them crazy

(Source: Techweb)