Gifts / Sports & Toys

With the listing of "Blind Box First Share" Bubble Mart on the Hong Kong stock market, more and more entrepreneurs and capital began to pay attention to the Chaowan track. In September alone, there were three financing incidents, many of which were "big Factory" figure. According to reports, the global share of China's fashion play industry has increased significantly, and it is expected that the size of China's fashion play market will increase to 38.43 billion yuan in 2021.

This year's DREAMFAIR exhibition attracts a large number of consumers

Chaowan track financing continues

Chaowan is an abbreviation for trend toys. It originated in Hong Kong and Japan at the end of the 20th century. It was created by independent designers and artists. It is also called art toys or designer toys. As an industry with "Gen Z" as the main consumer, with the gradual release of the potential of this part of the consumer group, the scale of the domestic trendy play market has also begun to gradually rise.

IiMedia Consulting’s "China’s Trendy Play Industry Development Status and Market Research Analysis Report for the First Quarter of 2021" shows that China’s trendy play industry’s global share has increased from 11.18% in 2017 to 19.17% in 2020, and China is expected to gradually develop into One of the core markets for global fashion consumption. In this context, more start-ups have entered Chaowan. In 2020, the number of registered companies will reach 250. In addition, such as Chaowan storage is also exploding. In 2020, Tmall's consumption of fashionable storage has increased by 100 compared to 2019. Times.

In September alone, there were many financing incidents in the trendy play industry. At the beginning of September, the virtual hand-run company "Dimensional Chaowan" has completed an angel round of financing of millions of yuan, and the investor is Nanjing Yuan Universe Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership).

In mid-September, Bubble Mart completed its investment in Wuhan Liangdianshi Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., with a 10.2259% shareholding ratio, making it the third largest shareholder of the latter. Immediately afterwards, it invested 100 million to establish Ningbo Play Heart Return Investment Co., Ltd. The business scope includes investment activities, toy animation and amusement products sales with its own funds.

The most striking thing is that on September 10th, 52TOYS announced the completion of 400 million yuan in Series C financing. The main investors include the Sea Fund of Funds and the China National Capital Union. This is also the largest financing in the fashion industry this year. It is not difficult to find that the capital's enthusiasm for Chaowan has also expanded its investment direction from a single blind box product to multiple areas of Chaowan.

52TOYS offline stores

Dachang grabbing the tide to play the market

The hot blind box economy has also attracted the entry of major manufacturers. In early September, the first QQfamily flagship store jointly created by Dreamland and Tencent QQ opened in Shenzhen Happy Coast Shopping Center. It is worth noting that the offline layout of Chuangmeng Tiandi is nothing new, but during the trial operation period, Chaowan's sales revenue accounted for as high as 50%.

As early as early March this year, Dreamland reached a cooperation with Tencent QQ, obtained QQfamily IP authorization, and realized the dual-brand operation of "Tencent Video Good Time" and "QQfamily". It is understood that the trendy play business has become the biggest highlight of the QQfamily flagship store, including "QQ[email protected]", limited edition QQ x Michael Lau, and a variety of exotic and popular trendy play products. In the long run, QQfamily flagship store is superimposed with many IP-themed trendy retail businesses.

In addition, NetEase also recently launched a "NetEase Big Player" trendy blind box app on the App Store. This app also uses the slogan of the benchmark bubble. It mainly sells NetEase's own game IP peripherals and One Piece , Naruto, Demon Slayer, Dragon Ball, Marvel and other classic popular IP peripherals.

It is understood that "NetEase Big Player" is a mall + community app. Users can not only buy blind box trendy products on it, but also publish unboxing content under the corresponding IP. However, the transaction of second-hand trendy products is not supported for the time being. .

What is the future development of the Chaowan market?

According to iiMedia Consulting's data, China's trendy play market is still at an early stage and has achieved rapid development in the past few years. According to data, the size of China's trendy play market in 2020 is close to 30 billion yuan, and the growth rate affected by the epidemic has slowed down to 44.0%. It is expected that the size of China's trendy play market will increase to 38.43 billion yuan in 2021, and the growth rate will continue to decline. Affected by the surprise economy and social and emotional demand, the popularity of China's trendy games has continued to rise, and it is expected that the scale of China's trendy games market will continue to expand.

Many people in the industry have also publicly stated that the rapid increase in the scale of the trendy play market is bound to push back product content upgrades.

According to Chen Xiao, vice president of Yongsheng Animation, there may be a reverse development idea in the future trendy play and animation IP market. For example, Yongsheng Animation is currently thinking about whether it can first produce the image IP and then give it the story content, such as creating animation and movie works for it, so that the entire IP has more affinity and vitality, and the image is more vivid.

Sun Yuanwen, the founder of TOP TOY, holds the same view, "How Chinese IP creates better value depends on whether the story can be spread to many consumers. The reason why Marvel is powerful is that there are stories, and Iron Man is not just a piece of equipment. "

Fang Nanhai, the person in charge of the brand of Youqi Culture, believes that the trendy play is a new direction for companies to build IP and a good way to help brands rejuvenate and increase exposure. It is easier to achieve landing than film and animation. However, it is worth noting that if you only regard the trendy play as a marketing tool, when the craze fades, it will be hit by the market. But the classic IP will not. It will continue to be passed on with the brand's innovation and iteration. How to truly cultivate IP with lasting vitality is a common question that every trendy brand needs to answer.