Going by the presence of 22,000 visitors from around 100 countries and regions, this year’s Hong Kong International Licensing Show has been hailed a success across its three day run. The show took place from January 8 to10.
In addition, the seventh Asian Licensing Conference held on January 8 and 9 featured around 30 speakers and drew more than 1,500 attendees.
Charles Riotto, president of LIMA, said, “The Chinese mainland licensing market is booming. I anticipate that it will surpass Japan to become Asia’s largest licensing market by 2020.”
HKTDC’s deputy executive director, Raymond Yip added that the flourishing global licensing industry provides endless opportunities for all industries. “Asia is the world’s third largest licensing market as well as the region with the fastest growth, having increased 8.8% over last year, an amount twice that of the global average growth rate,” he concluded.
The Chinese mainland is the second largest licensing market in Asia. With an only 5.5 USD per-capita sales of licensed merchandise in 2016, the Chinese mainland is set to have huge potential for growth of the licensing market.
China’s Ministry of Culture led the largest-ever exhibitor group to the show. It also organised the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Cultural Industry Cooperation Forum which aims to strengthen cooperation among mainland, Hong Kong and Macau’s licensing enterprises.
