Let's talk about growth. China sure has a lot of it. One of Shanghai's two airports, Pudong, was surrounded by farmland 20 years ago. Today, although the airport is about 30 miles from downtown Shanghai, it's located in a bustling suburb.
Eighteen million people call Shanghai home, more than double the population of New York City, and the number is expected to rise dramatically for the next several scores.
That's all impressive, but perhaps what's most important-and certainly more pertinent to our industry is the growth of China's market, as well as jobs created by the 2008 Beijing Olympics, people have more money to spend. That includes cash going toward musical instruments.
Music China and Pro Light + Sound Shanghai, which took place at the Shanghai New International Centre from Oct. 17 to 20, saw the number of its exhibitors advanced 5 percent to 1,019 and visitors jumped 14 percent to 37,842 in its sixth year. The greatest exhibitor growth was seen at Prolight + Sound, which jumped from 200 last year to 300 this year. For comparison's sake, there were only a total of 100 exhibitors at both 2003 shows.
Music China took up five rooms of exhibiting space, with Prolight + Sound chipping in two more. Ironically, the remaining space, about 25 percent of the huge convention complex, was utilized by the Shanghai Toy Expo. With the lead paint concerns, some, including MSR's Dan Vedda, have argued MI can take market share from the once all-powerful toy industry.
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