Pet Market, Worth $63 Billion, Sees Tech Boom

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According to the American Pet Products Association (APPA), consumers will spend $62.7 billion on pets in 2016. With this expansion, more and more companies are taking note, and even investing in the pet wearables market.

As reported by Daniel Roberts at Yahoo Finance, Mars Inc. spent $117 million in April to acquire Whistle, maker of a dog collar attachable fitness tracker. According to Grand View Research, the pet wearable market, which includes products like Whistle, is expected to reach well over $2 billion.

“When you think about the next five years, I think there really should be a single view of your pet,” said Ben Jacobs, founder and CEO of Whistle. “Right now it’s a very manual process: if you move to a new city, or you go to a new vet, or if you get a new dog walker, you’re building up that level of trust and frankly, giving your child away to this other caretaker. We think a company like Whistle can bring all these disparate parts of the industry together. There will be one platform to power them all.”

Mobile apps like DogVacay and Rover, both of which help users find temporary board for dogs while owners are away, fitness trackers like Nuzzle and GPS monitors like Gibi, PetPace, Pod, Tractive, Voyce and Wüf are just a few of the new products and services mentioned by Roberts as emerging in the pet tech/pet wearables category.