Licensing China 2026

Licensing China 2026 (Shenzhen International Licensing & Licensed Product Fair, 7th edition) will be held on 9–11 April 2026 (Thu–Sat) at Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center in Shenzhen, China. Admission is stated as free-of-charge and for trade visitors only, with a restriction that persons under 16 will not be admitted; the factsheet also notes that the fair is open to the public on the last day from 12pm. On the official event homepage, the organiser publishes a “2025 Fair Review” set of headline figures that are explicitly marked as including Toy & Hobby China and Baby & Stroller China: 130,000 sqm gross exhibition space, 1,453 exhibitors from 8 countries & regions, 72,330 visitors from 79 countries & regions, and 600+ licensed images, brands and characters. These numbers are useful as a realistic capacity reference for the concurrent platform, while the 2026 dates and venue details define the operational planning baseline for meetings and sourcing routes.

The official positioning emphasises “licensing opportunities in the Greater Bay Area” and explains that Licensing China originated as the “Animation and Character Licensing Zone” within Toy & Hobby China before expanding and upgrading into an individual fair in 2020 as the licensing sector grew. The Facts & Figures page frames the event as part of three concurrent trade fairs that together cover different types of licensing IP plus a broad range of toys and baby products, which matters for buyers because it signals cross-category deal flow around IP, product development and retail-ready licensed goods. The 2026 fact sheet reinforces this orientation by listing dedicated licensing-related fringe programme items such as the Greater Bay Area Brand Licensing Industry Development Forum, alongside business matching services and networking events, indicating that the organiser is structuring both content and meetings around licensing commercialization rather than only booth display.

The organiser defines visitor roles on the official Facts & Figures page as licensee, retailer, online shop owner, brand owner, licensing agent, IP service institution and media, which is a procurement-relevant profile because it concentrates decision-makers for licensing deals and retail rollout. The fact sheet describes buyer groups in similar terms (licensee, licensing agency, retailer, e-commerce owner, industry association, media), aligning the event with negotiation and partnership workflows. The same official source also publishes “visitors’ interests by product groups”, covering toys, apparel, fashion accessories, stationery & publication, 3C product, housewares & home textile, cultural tourism (hotel & theme park), game development, animation and movie, and maternal and baby products. For exhibitors, these interest clusters are the practical filter for lead qualification; for buyers, they help map which licensed categories will be most actionable onsite for sourcing and deal-making.

Licensing China’s official product groups are clearly enumerated: Animation & character licensing, Brand licensing, Celebrity licensing, Licensed products, Culture & art licensing, and Sports licensing. This scope statement is important because it defines the fair as an IP licensing marketplace, not a generic consumer goods show, and it also clarifies that “licensed products” are presented alongside rights/IP categories, enabling buyers to connect IP owners, agents and product licensees within the same visit. The official 2026 fact sheet also references an International Zone and explicitly ties the show scale benchmarks (exhibition space and exhibitor count) to the three concurrent fairs in 2025, which helps interpret the breadth of supply and partner availability across licensing plus adjacent toy and baby product ecosystems. For procurement teams, the published categories make pre-show planning straightforward: identify the licensing type needed (character, brand, celebrity, culture/art, sports), then match it to target product verticals (e.g., toys, apparel, 3C, housewares) that the organiser lists as visitor interest areas.

The official Facts & Figures page provides the venue name and full address: Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center, No. 1 Zhancheng Road, Fuhai Street, Bao’an District, Shenzhen, China; the 2026 fact sheet repeats the same location and specifies Bao’an District, Shenzhen, Guangdong. For operational planning, this is the reference point for logistics, supplier meeting schedules and travel time buffers, especially because Licensing China is positioned as a concurrent fair platform with Toy & Hobby China and Baby & Stroller China, meaning many visitors will plan cross-hall routes across the three shows. The organiser’s venue statement is consistent across the homepage and the Facts & Figures page, making it reliable for travel booking and on-ground coordination.

The official 2026 fact sheet lists the organisers as Guangdong Toy Association, Guangzhou Li Tong Messe Frankfurt Co Ltd and Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, and the 2026 press release for the concurrent fairs repeats the same organiser set. This matters because it identifies the responsible bodies for exhibitor contracting, visitor operations and programme delivery, and it matches the unified positioning of the three co-located fairs returning to Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center on 9–11 April 2026. Using the organiser’s published contact structure, exhibitors can align booth application, sponsorship marketing and business matching services with a single operational framework for the concurrent platform, rather than treating each fair as an unrelated event.