Durex is a British condoms brand, originally developed and produced in the United Kingdom by SSL International. SSL International was sold to the company Reckitt Benckiser in 2010. It is one of the best-selling condom brands across the world, with 30% of the global market. In 2006, Durex condoms were the second best-selling brand of condoms in the United States, with Trojan condoms being the first. It is supplied by, among others, the company Karex. Durex's history dates back to 1915, when the London Rubber Company was formed. The brand name was launched in 1929, standing for "Durability, reliability, and excellence." In 2007 the last factory making Durex condoms in the UK stopped manufacturing and production has since moved to China, India and Thailand. The modern range includes a wide variety of latex condom, including the Sheik and Ramses brands in North America, and the Avanti condom. Durex also provides a range of lubricants and sex toys. Although Durex was not an official sponsor of the Olympic Games, Durex provided 150,000 free condoms to more than 10,000 athletes that competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Durex in China
The official microblogging of Durex started on the Chinese Sina Weibo in January 2011. The number of its followers is 2.65 million and the number of its microblogs is more than 20,000. Durex's homepage also includes promoting Weibo microblogs. Durex's marketing in China is discreet, as the Chinese usually like larger families, compared with the more western approach to families, with campaigns of their products run subtly to comply with the requirements of social ethics. In Chinese traditional cultural conception, sex is a topic that is best not to be explicitly put forward. Durex targets Chinese users on Sina Weibo aged from 20 to 40, and primarily men under 35 years old. In 2011, Durex began cross-industry advertising tie-ins with the antivirus software companyTrend Micro, utilising the common themes of "antivirus" and "security."
