Air purifier sales slump as blue skies dampen demand

It has been a tough year for Jia Wei as he saw his air-purifier business go up in smoke literally, as revenues plunged 70 percent to roughly 1.4 million yuan ($203,037) from 4 million yuan a few years ago, while new orders are fast drying up.

Contrast this with three years ago when Jia and his five-member team at YT-Wanon Technology Co Ltd, the firm he set up in 2013, were seeing a boom and were unable to cope with the growing demand for air purifiers in China.

"We are not the only ones to suffer and many of the smaller firms in the industry have already closed," said Jia.