Lego's first Asian factory opened in China Friday, the company said, a year after the Danish firm found itself embroiled in controversy over refusing to sell toy bricks to provocative Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Only the fifth Lego factory in the world, the plant in eastern Zhejiang province will pump out up to 80 percent of the company's products sold in the booming Asia market, the company said.
China's fast-growing consumer market is a prize for foreign companies, even as expansion slows in the world's second-largest economy. But knockoff sets of colourful building blocks are widely available in the country, and online gaming is massively popular among young people, posing challenges to Lego's expansion.