(Photo/Chinanews.com)

China's pet economy is booming nowadays, as dogs and cats can help relieve the loneliness of their single owners living in large cities.

In urban China, almost half of pets such as cat and dog owners were born in the 1990s or thereafter, and about half are single.

Chinese people are expected to spend 202 billion yuan (about 28.7 billion U.S. dollars) on pets in 2019, up 19 percent year on year, according to an institute survey.

China now has the largest number of pet cats and dogs in the world, and the number is expected to reach 248 million by 2024. 59.1 percent of pet owners regard their pets as their children, as is shown on 2019 White Paper on China's Pet Industry. This is part of a greater worldwide phenomenon in which pet owners regard their pets as equals.

Although pet owners may not be wealthy, they are willing to spend money on the pet products. Data from an e-commerce platform showed that during Double Eleventh Day, an online shopping day in China, the turnover of pet products increased by nearly 130 percent year on year.

Pet owners spend the most money on the food and medical supplies for their pets, which can be viewed as a kind of love investment.