Three day fair attracts over 22,000 visitors from around 100 countries and regions.
This year’s Hong Kong International Licensing Show has been hailed a success – attracting a record number of visitors across its three day run.
The show – which took place from January 8-10 – attracted over 22,000 visitors from around 100 countries and regions.
In addition, the seventh Asian Licensing Conference – held on January 8-9 – 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: “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.”
Raymond continued: “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.
“Many of the world’s top licensing agents and brands leverage Hong Kong to enter the mainland market. As an important gateway to the Chinese mainland with a comprehensive set of intellectual property rights protection laws and global talent, Hong Kong is Asia’s licensing hub.”
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.
This will help the licensing and IP trading industries to flourish in the three jurisdictions, as well as help open overseas licensing markets to Greater Bay Area enterprises.
Want to read more news like this? Simply sign up to our daily digest by clicking here. You can also follow @LicensingSource on Twitter.
