Gifts / Sports & Toys

After the popularity of fashion toys such as blind boxes and handmade toys, the building blocks from imitation to original also ushered in a strong growth potential, gradually moving from the minority to the public. At the same time, brands such as Coincident Building Blocks, Sembao Building Blocks, Pinqi, and Bruco have also attracted the attention of the capital market. But in the face of changing consumer groups, can domestic building blocks support the next wind? Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report:

Domestic building blocks dig into the 10 billion market

In the world of building block players, it is widely spread in the industry: building blocks are divided into two categories, Lego and others.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, Lego's market share in the Chinese market in 2020 was 42.3%. However, the market share of many domestic brands, including Bangbao Yizhi, Star Diamond, Senbao and Bruco, has not reached 5%.

Although in terms of market share, Lego has become a dominant company. However, this does not affect the domestic building blocks to follow the new trend of "China-Chic consumption" and explore new growth space. Especially under the influence of the epidemic, building blocks at home have boosted the development of the industry. On the e-commerce platform, building blocks have piled up a market of 10 billion.

According to the White Paper of Tmall Trend Toy Industry, the trend of adult toy market is obvious, and building blocks have become the category with the highest re-purchase attribute among the categories of toy industry. Since the 618 pre-sale last year, the accumulated amount has increased by more than 100% year on year. Among them, more than 50% of the building blocks produced by the toy supply chain in Chenghai, Guangdong Province, including Enlightening, Senbao Building Blocks, Keepley, Loz, Goody and other brands, were born and grown here and came into the eyes of consumers.

In Chenghai, Guangdong, the "toy capital of China", almost every household is making toys. In order to break the recognition of "low-cost building blocks", in 2019, based on the enlightenment of the building block brand founded by their father, the two Jankada brothers re founded the Chaoplay building block brand Keepley, which not only co branded with well-known IP brands such as Doraemon and Smart Baokemeng, but also restored the phenomenal China-Chic products such as China Aerospace Series and Guoman IP Series, and was loved by consumers.

Lin Zezhe, founder of Senbao Building Block, is not only the third generation player of Chenghai Building Block, but also has 20 years of experience in making toys. In 2013, we entered the building block market, successfully captured the mentality of this generation of young consumers to pursue the trend, achieved brand breaking, and constantly developed original products to open our own development path. In terms of products, Senbao building blocks have formed three product lines: building block co branded film and television IP, China-Chic IP, and original products. It is understood that in terms of revenue, the sales of Senbao building block co-branded series account for 40%, and the sales of original product lines account for 60%.

We see that under the catalysis of new consumption, domestic building blocks have constantly broken through themselves and explored new opportunities. On the one hand, in terms of cross-border IP cooperation, Keepley and the Forbidden City jointly launched the China-Chic series, and Senbao building blocks cooperated with China-Chic IP Wandering Earth, Shandong Ship and Sanxingdui series. While developing their own IP, they are also strengthening the construction of Guofeng IP, closer to Chinese traditional culture, and Huacheng's import and export data observation report.

On the other hand, to avoid IP homogenization, many manufacturers have developed a new splicing method, "mortise and tenon", hoping to reflect the traditional Chinese technology through the assembly method originated from Chinese architecture, thus attracting the attention of players. In addition, in terms of cost performance, compared with Lego, which often costs hundreds to thousands of yuan, the price of domestic building blocks is more dominant.

The building block track has attracted the attention of the capital

After the popularity of blind box and hand-run games, building blocks, as another emerging track, have attracted the attention of the capital. According to the statistics of Leibao, there are currently 7 domestic building block brands such as Senbao Building Block, Coincidence Building Block, Bruco, Pinqi and so on that have received investment, including 3 investment events at the level of 100 million yuan.

In February last year, Senbao Block completed a round A financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, with investors including Alibaba, Toutoushidao Fund and Honghui Capital. At the same time, Senbao building blocks are exploring new sales channels. According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation report, the sales generated by live streaming in 2020 will account for about 20% of the sales of the entire e-commerce section of Senbao building blocks.

In the middle of January 2022, based on the research and development and innovation of traditional mortise and tenon technology, the founder of Chinese-style building blocks coincided with mortise and tenon, and obtained tens of millions of yuan angel round financing from Meihua Venture Capital and Xiaohongshu. In terms of user positioning, it is coincidence that the consumer groups of children aged 3-16 and adults aged 16 and above meet the needs of consumers in terms of entertainment, fun, good-looking, education and other aspects. Although the mortise and tenon building block was founded in 2020 by coincidence, we still want to open up a unique "Chinese" building block toy road through a new entry point.

In addition, Brucan has obtained three rounds of investment, including the angel round investment of Xibosi Investment in 2018, the A round investment of Gaorong Capital, Source Capital and Junlian Capital of RMB 330 million in 2020, and the B round investment of Yunfeng Fund, Junlian Capital, Gaorong Capital and Source Capital of RMB 600 million in 2021. It is reported that Brucan will use the financing to upgrade and improve the "research, production, operation and marketing" links of the "building block+" industrial chain, so as to further consolidate the brand moat and enhance the competitive advantage of the industry.

With the help of capital, toy enterprises have increased their horsepower to seize the market, or jointly named China-Chic IP/R&D original IP, or found a new splicing method "tenon and mortise", and began to confront Lego head-on.

Can domestic building blocks support the next vent? What are the differences between the two? Industry insiders said that compared with fashion products, building block products are more difficult, longer design cycle and more obvious challenges. In terms of product design, we should not only consider the storytelling, compatibility and authenticity of the consumer building block scenario, but also test the process mold, design, materials, supply chain, and so on. There is still a long way to go in the future. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.