With the number of urban pets exceeding 126 million and the market size surpassing 310 billion yuan, China’s pet industry ushered in a critical transformation from "scale expansion" to "value deepening" in 2026. Consumption upgrading driven by young pet owners, full implementation of policy standards, and innovative integration of technology and scenarios jointly outline a new blueprint for high-quality industrial development, enhancing the quality and safety of pet parenting.
1. Policy Standardization Lays a Solid Foundation for Industry Development
1.1 Pet Medical Standards
Four standards, including *Ultrasonic Diagnostic Technology for Canine Acute Pancreatitis* and *Technical Specifications for Inhalation Anesthesia in Dogs and Cats*, have clearly defined clinical operation procedures, evaluation criteria, and risk control requirements for the first time. They fill the standardization gap in key technologies such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and echocardiography for dogs and cats, effectively reducing misdiagnosis, missed diagnosis, and anesthesia risks, and improving the professionalism of pet medical care.
1.2 Pet Food Standards
Two new standards in the food sector are equally significant: - *General Requirements for Complete Pet Food - Prescription Diets* refines nutritional indicators for 19 types of prescription diets, clarifying moisture content classification and raw material usage norms. - *General Requirements for Freeze-Dried Pet Food* strictly limits key safety indicators such as moisture, volatile basic nitrogen, and histamine, while regulating product appearance and rehydration performance. These standards provide clear guidelines for enterprise production and offer "hard indicators" for pet owners, ensuring pet food safety and quality from the source.
2. In-depth Technological Empowerment Reconstructs Pet Health Management Ecology
2.1 AI + Smart Hardware Integration
In early 2026, pet smart tech enterprise Xinglian Future launched a health management solution integrating satellite positioning, multi-modal sensing, and AI technology with tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing, building a "digital life entity" model for pets. Its new-generation smart collar, SATELLAI Collar Go, real-time monitors over 30 indicators, covering movement trajectory, heart rate changes, and ambient temperature. Paired with the Petsense AI software platform, it converts raw data into accurate health advice, early warning potential risks such as joint diseases and emotional abnormalities. Notably, the platform has connected with insurance and veterinary service links, enabling pet owners to obtain customized insurance plans via health reports and veterinarians to provide remote diagnosis through authorized data.
2.2 Innovations in Pet Medical Equipment
The pet medical field has entered an era of non-invasive innovation: - The first high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) tumor treatment robot for animals in Northeast China achieves physical ablation of tumor tissue in vitro through sub-millimeter precision positioning, solving the problem that elderly and weak pets cannot tolerate traditional surgery. - The world’s first AI "Lingzhua" pet microsurgery robot developed by a Chengdu enterprise breaks traditional technical limitations, completing complex laparoscopic microsurgeries. It will integrate more AI elements in the future to make pet surgeries smarter and safer. These innovations enhance diagnostic and treatment levels and highlight the international competitiveness of domestic medical equipment in niche sectors.
3. Consumption Structure Upgrade: From "Feeding" to "Refined Parenting"
3.1 Pet Food Consumption
Young pet owners (42.7% post-90s, 26.3% post-00s) drive consumption upgrading, shifting demand from "meeting basic needs" to "pursuing quality experience." - Core trend: "Freshness" becomes a key keyword. Fresh food, baked food, and freeze-dried food are increasingly popular, with fresh food growing as one of the fastest categories due to fresh ingredients and easy digestion. - Consumer focus: 78.6% pay attention to meat sources, 58.3% value functional ingredients. High-protein, grain-free, and fruit-vegetable blended products are preferred. - Functional snacks: Digestive health snacks are sought-after; dog owners favor joint, bone, and immune-support snacks, while cat owners prioritize hairball control and oral care products.
3.2 Pet Supplies Consumption
Segmentation deepens in supplies consumption: - Cat litter: Mixed cat litter becomes the first choice with a 45.8% market share, showing a clear upgrading path (tofu litter in first-tier cities, mixed litter in second-tier, bentonite litter in third-tier and below). - Grooming products: Functional and mild-scented shampoos dominate; 71.5% focus on cleaning power, 63.4% on gentleness, and dog/cat-specific shampoos gain more market share. - Outdoor products: "Taking cats out" becomes a new trend (52.9% of cat owners do so), making professional functional leashes a hot item, with 55.1% prioritizing functionality.
4. Scene Ecological Innovation: Pets from "Carried Objects" to "Consumption Core"
Pet consumption scenarios undergo disruptive restructuring in 2026, with "pet-friendly" shifting from passive tolerance to active design, and pets evolving from "carried objects" to "served customers."
4.1 Cultural Tourism & Retail Scenarios
- Cultural tourism: Pet-themed resorts replace traditional homestays, offering personalized services such as pet swimming pools, exclusive hiking trails, and birthday party planning, becoming a new choice for family trips. - Retail: Pet comprehensive experience halls in shopping malls rise, integrating boutique retail, healthy light meals, beauty SPA, and behavior training, enabling two-way empowerment of pet socialization and owner consumption.
4.2 Community & Office Scenarios
- Community: Pet daycares, temporary shelters, and emergency stations for office workers are increasingly popular, solving the problem of pet care when owners are away. - Office: Some tech companies and creative parks set up pet-friendly work areas with rest zones, water points, and emergency medical contacts, turning pet care into a soft benefit to attract talents. The essence of these innovations is the normalization and centralization of "pets being present," integrating pets into all aspects of family life and spurring cross-border consumption demand.
5. Industrial Chain Restructuring: Ecological Collaboration as the Core of Competition
5.1 Industrial Chain Transformation
The traditional linear industrial chain is accelerating its transformation into a flat, interlaced network structure, with data and services as the core of value distribution: - Upstream: Food and supplies manufacturers expand into brand operation through investment or self-built channels to reach end users directly. - Downstream: Pet hospitals and chain stores extend upstream to customize private-label drugs and nutritional products, using clinical data to guide product R&D. Cross-border expansion blurs industry boundaries, making core capabilities the key to enterprise competition.
5.2 Ecological Collaboration Effect
The highlighting of ecological synergy marks the industry’s entry into a "systematic operation" stage: - Large groups integrate the entire industrial chain (food, supplies, medical care, insurance) through mergers and acquisitions to build internal service closed loops. - Leading enterprises in different fields form strategic alliances for joint R&D and service package co-creation. - The pet industry deeply links with real estate, cultural tourism, and finance, such as pet parks in new communities and pet-specific financial products. This ecological competition provides consumers with one-stop, seamless services and drives the industry from fragmented competition to a new stage of high-quality development.
In 2026, China’s pet industry achieved comprehensive upgrades in technology, consumption, and scenarios based on standardization. Every change, from health monitoring via a smart collar to standardized diagnosis procedures, from food ingredient traceability to pet-friendly travel scenarios, reflects the deepening of the "pets as family" concept. With the continuous improvement of the industrial ecology, the future pet economy will be more standardized, intelligent, and diversified, bringing more high-quality and warm lives to pets in millions of families.
